bruce_hyman

the plastic shell of one of my keys broke. the dealer cut a new replacement key (but they apparently didnt reuse the chip half of the original key). the new key works perfectly, as expected.

i didnt think i needed to bring the other (undamaged) original key with me, but they told me (after the fact) that this key would not run the car! they are right - it shuts off after 2 seconds.

i thought that the "new" key was the one that would be educated to match the car, and the undamaged original key would be fine.

can anybody explain this to me?
tia

Shaun

Sounds like they reprogram the car to the new key, not the other way around.

woofpup

Yeah - in order to adapt any keys to the immobilizer, you have to have all of them-even working ones

Shaun

Makes sense, if a key was lost. Once the replacement is coded, the lost key would be useless.

MattK

Shaun's right, I'll add that it's because of the immobilizer