$50 for a key?

Ok dudes.. $50. Count yourself lucky. I just lost my electronic key fob for my MB and it cost me $260.00 CND to have a new one made. Seems these gizmos are programmed in Germany and then shipped around the world.

Get this. I had a second key fob, but I had never used it till I lost the other. I tried it out after it sitting in a box for a year. It didn't work. (Wouldn't unlock the doors) So I changed the batteries. Still didn't work. There is a metal key that is integrated into the fob that will open the drivers door, but you can't start the car with the metal key, you need to use the fob. So I thought I was frucked. But the fob does start the car.

I brought the fob to the dealer and the first thing they asked me was if I changed the batteries. I said yes. They said did you use MB batteries? OMFG. Custom made electrons from Germany. Anyways I politly said NO, I just used some batteries from the local drug store. They took the fob and said it was defective.

So any ways... $50.. Count yourself lucky.

I still have an additional $100.00 I have to pay to deactivate the lost fob. So all totaled $360.00 for a lost key and 10 days to replace it. Not impressive at all, unless your goal in life is to prove yourself better by the size of bills you can pay.

Do you still have your old "broken" key? That battery bullshit?!

Per my anecdote, I was asked for identification when I ordered the duplicate key, not when I picked it up. If I were a car thief and already had one key, why would I need to make another?

Geoff

Yep i still have the broken key... Its more like a crippled key than a broken key. Ya no kidding... a MB Battery...

Did the dealer tell you how to resync your key? I am sure that is all you need to do and make sure the batteries is in the right position.

By the way... MB put Panasonic batteries in there... go figure.. MB battery... my ass. Make a bet next time... if the battery has MB stamp on it... you will buy it... if it is not MB branded battery... he will shove it up his ass.

Guess what.. I got the new key. Put it in the ignition and it took about 5 hours to do what ever magic it does. So my new key works. However the old sorta cripple key is 100% disabled now.

I wish the dealer would get their story straight. When I went to get the new key I asked if they would disable the old lost key. They said sure but it would cost $100.00.

So okay help me figure this one out... I called the dealer to tell them that my spare key no longer worked. They said that is because when the new key came it disabled to old key. Key? You mean KeyS right? So if you have two keys and loose one then you have to order two because both originals will no longer work? Man I smell rip off. And I'm not impressed.

I looked in my owners manual on Synchronizing remote control...

1) Lithium, type CR2025 or equivalent... (So more BS from the dealer) 2) To synchronize insert electronic key in starter switch. The remote control should once again be operational.

I tried the sync operation and it did nothing.

When I put the new key in it said Please wait computing data for hours...

LOL... they are full of crap as you now know. I remembered you can have up to 4 keys per car so there is nothing to disable.

Here is what I want you to do... take the 'dead' key battery holder out... and compare it to the 'good' key battery holder... is the batteries facing the same direction?

Once you solved above, then I want you to take the batteries out of the 'dead' battery holder... I want you to polish the metal contacts where the batteries touches... steel wool, SOS pad or simply small screwdriver and scrape it clean a bit...

Then I want you to bend the metal holder inward a bit... from both side to make it hold the battery tighter... I found out that on both my mom's key... they don't hold tight and the key sometime don't work... so by making it tighter... it work 100%.

Then put the key back together... and try it... I am pretty sure that you have some kind of corrosion on the battery contacts so the remote won't work... since you never used it... there is no way it went broken by itself.

The car computer knows your key so you don't have to resync it... but let's try another thing to make it lose the memory... with battery out as before... press and hold any of the keys or all of it one at a time to drain whatever residual charge.... my guess is that the code is in non-volatile memory... so it will hold the code no matter what. Do this only if the battery didn't fix it...

There is also another trick to try if none of the above work... take the battery holder out of the good key and put is in the 'dead' key... and see if it work.

Co-incidentely I did in fact swap the battery holders from the good and defective key to prove to the MB Empolyee that the batteries were good. ie. I took the battery holder (and batteries) and put them into the defective one. Of course the new one still worked and the old one still didn't work.

MB said that they accidently disabled the wrong key and will probably replace the dead key as it was sort of working before. (Makes me wonder how they disabled it when they didn't put the car on the computer as they said they would have to. Something they said they would have to charge me $100.00 to do.)

I will try your suggestion on removing the batteries and holding down the keys. I'll be back tomorrow with the results.

They will give me a new key for free! :) Ya now that is more like it.

They will give me a new key for free! :) Ya now that is more like it.

Ha ha! That's definitely more like it.. Maybe you can work a deal with them to refund you the new key you got instead of getting you that "third" key...

Ya.. I wish man.. Don't think thats gonna work.. Unless there's an angle I'm not seein here.. Like they refund me the key and I don't order the third? naaaa.....

The angle is they don't make money either way... well they still do... just not as great as when they sold you the first one.

Car without keys can't be driven. Cars that can't be driven need no service.

Aiy! I am blind... blind from literal obvious statements! It is like telling a blind man that he can't see...

Humor I think? :) I got the second key for free... Still $260.00 for 1 key is exuberant, and too much BS.

Take heart all. I have been told the Porche keys are $400 and must be programmed by the dealer to "introduce" the key to the driver. My friend said they forgot to program the electric seat part of the introduction and when he got home and got in the car, the driver's seat started moving forward and crammed him up against the steering wheel to the point where it was hard to reach the manual seat switch to release himself from this beast with a mind of it's own.