On Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:02:56 -0600, Jim Yanik wrote:

" wrote in
:

On Wed, 09 Feb 2011 07:07:56 -0500, mm
wrote:

On Tue, 08 Feb 2011 19:45:10 -0600, "
wrote:

On Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:29:16 -0500, aemeijers
wrote:

On 2/8/2011 12:40 PM, Neill Massello wrote:
wrote:

Fancy. Just un-screw the ball.

Which gradually occurs by itself over time until, one day, the
keys fly all over the place when you pull the ring out of your
pocket. Not fun in a dark parking lot.

I'll repeat the advice that others have given the OP: get another
copy of your car key; put it on a small, plain ring by itself with
a tag listing the make, model, and color of your car; and use that
whenever you need to hand over your car for service, cleaning, or
parking.


Good solution for an older car, but anything recent, those damn
smart keys are expensive.

At least Ford smart keys aren't all that expensive as long as you buy
the spare while you still have at least two others. I think the last
one I bought was $12. With only one it they can get $75, or so.

Weird. Is this in person? Can you borrow a neighbor's second key so
it looks like you have two?

No. If you have two, you can reprogram the third yourself using the
car's computer (it's somewhat of a pain, but the instructions are in
the owner's manual). They just cut the keys (blanks aren't
expensive). If you only have one, they have to do it and they'll
likely ding you for an hour labor.


I don't believe that is true for all makes of autos.

I said, Ford. I'm sure some screw you over worse.

Some locksmiths can now program chipped key blanks,again for certain makes
only.

With a Ford, anyway, it's not the key that gets programmed. The car's
computer has to be told that the key is valid. Two keys or a third party (the
dealership) is how it determines "programming rights". Maybe Ford allows
locksmiths to have the secret handshake that allows single key (or no key)
programming, don't know.