I have a 2022 Defender with less than 13,000 miles that I brought to the dealership for an oil change today. While the suv was in service, I had an activity key that I asked if they could program. Well, long story short, I was told suddenly that I may not get my suv back today because it wouldn’t start. This was shocking to me because I was there for an oil change and there was no problems that I noticed. Anyway, it seems when they attempted to program the activity key, it unprogrammed my (1) key fob. The dealership said this was not covered under my warranty and I would need to rent a car to travel home (about 120 miles) or pay $606 to see if a new key fob would solve the problem. It seems a new key fob resolved the issue and I left the dealership paying over $1000. I don’t understand why this was not covered under warranty and why I now have my old key fob functioning and the new key fob (just the top part) that works too. I feel like I’ve been scammed for a mistake the dealership may have made. It’s my understanding when my Defender was delivered just (1) key fob was provided because of a supply issue. Had the dealership said the activity key could cause issue, I would have said forget about it. Just doesn’t seem right and would like some advice.

 

So you went for an oil change and asked the dealer to program an activity key. They screwed up with your functioning regular key while attempting to program the activity key and YOU had to pay over $1k for a new key to resolve an issue THEY created?? I will take a wild guess here, but in my book you were ROYALLY F....I would go back to this place and demand a refund asap.

 

Give corporate customer service a call.

https://media.jaguarlandrover.com/en...0%2DFIND%204WD

Two things come to mind.

1. The dealership should have told you the risk of programming the activity key. It's a known issue that adding one can throw other keys out of the loop.
2. It is my understanding that some people that only received one key due to chip shortages would receive a second key at some point. I would clarify that with corporate.

I would state the problem to customer service and see what they can do to help. Simply not telling you the risk, along with putting you in a financial bind by pressuring you to solve the problem with the solutions they provided was garbage. What were you supposed to do by renting a car and driving home? How was that ever going to fix the problem?

 

It might hinge on the "service" of programming the act. key, and the paperwork authorizing the work. Warranty wouldn't have much to do with it unless it was replacing a defective one. It might also matter where the activity key came from.

It's a service. There's no risk programming an activity key. It's called competence. I had it done. I bought the key from the dealer the day I bought the vehicle, and took it in 3 months later when it came in. They used the VIN number to verify hardware compatibility and said if it could be ordered, the module was already installed in the vehicle and if it didn't work, it was on them with a full refund coming. If you have two fobs, they need both key fobs to do it.

If it went sideways, it's on them.

 

This definitely would 'grind my gears' but it's the exact type of thing that has happened to me more than a few times at dealerships over the years. Disappointing more than anything, isn't it. I'd just suck up the 1k and move on. From your account, it seems somewhat obvious that they won't take accountability and eat the costs themselves.

Sounds like a bad dealer and bad svc advisor. What dealer?

Instead - make them get you the key shank (the metal part) coded to your VIN that should be coming with your car anyways -- The key is incomplete without it and feels odd in your hand as well without the weight. And get the 2nd key, which will now be your 3rd key. (Am I right that you've never gotten your second key?)

 

Oh wow......Im taking my 110 SE in for its 15000 mile service this Friday and they have an extra key fob to program because my car only came with one. Its a 2.5 hour drive one way to the dealership

 

I was in Austin last week and didn't have my key fob (long story) so I couldn't drive back to Dallas. I called the local dealership to see if there was a way to get a new fob and have it programmed and was told that they would have to tow my vehicle to the shop, break into it, replace some modules and try to program a new key...at a cost of $6-$7k. I caught a flight. For those with only one fob, don't lose it.

 

We had a fair wait for our 2nd key fob with our Sep 2022 110x.... second key came in Feb 2023. While I can't speak to how long it should take to get it (it felt forever), I can say getting the second key programmed was easy. Once the dealership had the keys we were added to the queue for a service appointment. It was no additional service fee (as expected) and it took about an hour or so at the dealership. All in all very uneventful and seamless. We're fortunate being only about 20 minutes aware from a dealership so travel time was a non-issue.

Getting the second key as part of a service appointment should be a walk in the park.

 

That's a great point on the coded shank. We were provided 2 'shanks' (aka physical keys) and one digital key at time of pickup in Sep 2022. As others have mentioned here - I sure guarded that single key closely and added an AirTag to it just in case. Costs for a rekey are CRAZY as noted in this thread :-O

 

I agree, there is no risk involved programing an activity key or standard FOB. Definitely sounds like incompetence by the dealer. It seems some dealers are not as knowledgeable as they should be with certain features/procedures. I had an activity key programed for my 23.5 and initially, my dealer told me a new keyless module had to be added in order to add the activity key. I don't remember what the additional module cost but it would have also required more labor so the grand total would have been over 1k. Apparently, this is what they had been doing with previous customers cars!

I basically told them they were wrong and they reluctantly agreed to "try" without the extra module. I suspect they didn't understand you need to set the Defender to "service mode" for security reasons, which I did when my appointment date came up. Sure enough, my activity key programed fine and my two original FOBs work as usual. No extra module and took about 15-20 min.