I am need of a 2nd key is that a dealer only item? I have found this one onEbay. Can I get the key cut and programmed without going to the dealer?
Land Range Rover Flip Key Remote Virgin Ready to Program Uncut Blade New Shell | eBay

 

Forget it. Unless you can find a locksmith who can cut the key (actually easy) and clone your existing immobiliser chip in your key to the new one (next to the unicorn store) you are probably going to just have to pay the dealer. Genuine keys are cut and initialized in the UK against your VIN number and when it arrives at your dealer they will relieve you of about $100 to introduce it to your LR as a friend. If you have access to the dealer tool or Faultmate MSV you will be able to save the $100 by doing it yourself but if you look around the threads, nobody has successfully bypassed paying the dealer for the key.

The only real use for the eBay shells is to refurbished a worn out existing key fob.

 

Exactly. Key needs to be ordered from the dealership, but can be programmed by anyone with the correct equipment, may be able to save some money finding a local Rover specialist, now and in the future.

 

Yeah... I need a second key, so without doing my homework, I purchased a used fob from eBay ($15) only for my local dealer to inform me that he can program it for $125 but he can not get just the key blade only the entire remote from England. $295 plus the $125 to program the fob. Other than pumping gas and changing oil nothing is ever easy with these things. Guess that's one of it's many charms huh... LOL...

 

Well your dealer needs more coffee. They're sort of right.

Once the transponder chip is "blown" to a VIN # then it's locked unless you're handy with surface mount resoldering AND can then program the seed again for your VIN.

So the net is that a "used" or "found in my drawer after I sold the car" or "I'll make some extra cash by selling my spare key to someone" is only good for parts donation of case shell buttons etc. Even if you could get a new blank cut (actually not that hard - the metal isn't anything special) it's going to set off the alarm and the central locking won't work. Oh and it won't start the car.

So called "virgin" remotes which can be found on eBay are also a waste of time as the dealer will be unable to pair them to your car, because they lack the ViN seed which the dealer cannot do. All keys come in from the UK and that's why they need your VIN # (to CNC the blank and initialize/set the transponder to your car) and take a week or two.

In my case, I didn't want to be exposed to losing my only key so I paid $265 to the dealer for the key and declined the $100 pairing fee to do it myself with my Faultmate. I understand a business is a business but having paid $265 for the key I was not inclined to agree that five minutes with a laptop was worth $100. IMHO that should be done for free.

 

I verified this. "Vigin" eBay remotes will NOT pair to a different car using latest factory software. Save your money towards a factory key.

 

Well maybe this has changed; or maybe the "virgin" keys on EBAY are different than the FOB-only units sold at BP Utah a few years back because I bought a FOB, put my old key blade on it, then took both FOBs to the dealer for re-programming.

It worked. I may've only saved $200 with that approach though, and had to poach one of the shanks from my existing FOB to do it, so not sure it was worth it.

 

Hiya Guys,
Having the Dealers SDD equipment and in developing the software for the Faultmate, I can hopefully help clarify the situation here.

A new / Virgin Key fob, and by Virgin, i mean one that has never been learned to any vehicle can actually be learned to any vehicle regardless of if it was purchased from a dealer under the vehicles VIN number or otherwise. The only reason the dealer require a VIN is for the Physical key cut.

On Ebay, many sell keys declaring them NEW, but only in respect of their having not actually having been used on the vehicle they were learned to.

Ie the unused spare found in a drawer after sale of the vehicle scenario.

They believe this NEW key they are selling can be learned to another vehicle and so sell it as such, but this is definately not the case.

Of course if they have a key purchased for a vehicle by VIN or otherwise that was never learned to a vehicle, then this is fine and i have purchased several like this for testing our software developments.

Of course another interesting aspect is the rechargable Battery in the Keys. The Battery in an unused spare key will go flat and when you come to need it, will not be of much use, and of course used or left flat such batteries do fail. For those who have a spare that has not been used for some time i understand that taping it to the one you use all the time for a few days will allow both to get charged.

However, if you have a key that won't take a charge, the cases can be opened, although a bit tricky to do without making too much of a mess, and the battery replaced as it is a standard panasonic cell. The case can then either be glued back together or replaced with one of the many replacement cases now on offer.

Once upon a time, if you lost all keys you could not learn a new one and so were pretty stuffed. Obviously this was a riduclous situation and although not easily found and promoted, it is now possible with later versions of the SDD software to learn a new key without an existing learned key being present.

This obviously has security implications, but at least on a D3 you still have have the physical key cut aspect that has been sufficient enough security for vehicles for a very long time.

Of course on a D4 with its keyless start, this physical aspect has been removed and since you can get new fobs for these and also learn them to a Vehicle without an existing Key being present this leaves them vunerable to easy theft just as much was the recent case with BMW's.

 

And the LR4 fob has been reported as a phantom drain on battery if hung on a storage hook too close to the vehicle, which "senses" the approach of the key and "gets ready". One guy reported battery be killed even thouigh truck was in garage - key was hung next to kitchen door on other side of the wall.

 

Hiya Colin

I tried a variety of experiments in the hopes of not paying my dealer $265 for the key. I was able to get a remote from eBay which may have been a chinese clone (maybe there's the rub) but was definitely not a "found in my kitchen drawer after I sold my D3/LR3" and neither I nor my dealer could bond it to my vehicle, even though I was able to get the physical key blank copied. Is it therefore true that a key which has "learnt" a VIN # can not be re-used on any other vehicle but a key which has never been exposed to a VIN or is matched to your VIN can be "paired" ?

I tried this both with Faultmate and my dealer did use SDD in my failed attempts by the way....

-- Stuart