New member and a few questions
 

Greetings folks,
I am new to the LR3 club and picked up my silver 05 yesterday. After tons of research and patience, I found a very well sorted example with an excellent maintenance history. So far I am loving this truck as it's much more than my 07 Wrangler ever was.

Two quick questions. Are the keys for the roof rack cross bars universal? Vehicle did not come with any.

Second and key related, is the key for the tow hitch universal? I tried installing the hitch today but apparently I need the key to recess the pin completely?

hitch key - buy a new one or locksmith
 

Re the hitch, LR sells a replacement key and lock setup but since the good news by the sound of it is that your hitch is not on your 3, I suspect if you take the hitch to a locksmith, they can solve the problem probably cheaper than your Land Rover dealer will.

Same with the ski rack - locksmith.

Welcome to the club so to speak, and rarely is anything Land Rover related Universal. It is at best state of the art, and more often, an idea that did not gain universal acceptance due to it being too complicated.

It would not surprise me that Yale makes the locks for all of LR; and while you are at it, spend $500 and get a second ignition key or do not loose the one you have. After the fact, it will be a thousand dollar bill.

If you know any car thieves, they will tell you that they do not yet know how to hack LR keys - Mercedes, Audi yes, and BMW is a joke, near as easy as Honda, but LR, not so.

Land Rover - making mechanics out of drivers since 1948.

This may not help with the missing key problem (I may have broke my lock trying to get it off the first time), but I also did not have a key to start with. Mine was on the bumper and I wanted it off. I got it off after some persuasion with a few hammers. Then it wouldn't go back on and stay latched. I took it apart and adjusted it but I still have no ability to lock it. In my opinion I just don't see anyone stealing it as it is only going to fit land rovers, so I'm not getting the lock repaired or re-keyed.

Just sharing this as a heads up, but be prepared to be paying attention if you take it apart; it seemed over-engineered to me.

Thanks for the replies guys. I will definitely be hitting up my local locksmith. I was lucky and got both keys for the vehicle. If Land Rover is anything like my Porsche, getting a spare key is a major nut roll and costs about 400 bucks.

I believe a new lock for the hitch is about $30 from a number of online vendors. The handbook says you should lock the hitch before using it - I don't know if that is more an anti theft issue or about not seeing 7000lbs of trailer drifting disconnected into the traffic behind you....not sure I would want to take that chance....


Keys for the roof bars if you can see the lock code are about $5 from Thule I'm told.

Yes, a spare key runs to about $260 + $120 - the first is the key that comes from the UK programmed with your VIN and pre cut, the second is the labour the dealership wants to charge to "pair" it with your vehicle. That latter part is about five minutes work and some third party tools can do that too.

BTW, Welcome :-)

for want of a key, no liability insurance
 

I guess a couple of things concern me.

The missing key concern is fairly common, normally owners drill out the lock to remove the receiver; to beable to instead remove the receiver with a bit of well placed banging suggests a towed trailer could do the same - at least that would be the view an insurance adjuster would most likely take in a future discussion.

I would be at least tieing the trailer safety chains to the towing loop beside the power receptacle.

The position of the insurance people would be that the owners manual requires the receiver to be locked; not locked, no insurance.

While I would probably have to agree with you as to someone not stealing the receiver, they might be doing you a favor. In my experience however, thieves are generally not rocket scientists. On a more positive note I suppose, the receiver makes a good window breaking tool.

Below is a link to the new improved style receiver lock with the Orange colour key that sells for about forty dollars - cheap insurance to my way of thinking.

KNB500080 | LR019990 | RECEIVER HOOK ASSY RR G-CAT / DIS111 | Land Rover | | Britcar (UK) Ltd


Factory Land Range Rover Sport LR3 LR4 Tow Trailer Hitch Receiver Lock Key | eBay

I can confirm the Thule keys for the roof rack cross bars, that is how I got replacements for mine.

hitch key part number
 

There have been a whole series of part numbers for the replacement lock and orange coloured key combo. As best I can tell, the latest number is KNW500010 which appears to supersede KNW500020, and it goes on.

Usually the new number is totally different, LR0xxxxx or some digits bigger; this time, the digits seem to recede - go figure.

The image below is the backside of the assembly; the other image is of the orange red plastic filler insert that is supposed to keep foreign material from going into the hole when the hitch is removed. The part number for the insert is KNG500013.

I have the hitch with the black key - anybody know if there is any benefit to "upgrading" to the orange key lock or is it just the current fashion ?