Car ignition key warning-read if you drive a new one!

[Dogmama]

My husband misplaced the key to our 2008 Pilot in Sedona. This is one of those fancy keys that opens/locks doors, etc. WARNING - you MUST have those made at a dealership. They have a computer chip that must be calibrated. Home Depot can't do it.

My tale of woe - we had the car towed to Flagstaff (nearest dealership) and they ended up replacing the entire ignition system because they didn't know how to handle this. It's a small dealership - but still. They kept it overnight & didn't start to work on it until we got there at 11:00 AM the next day (after telling us we'd be on our way first thing in the morning...grrrr). And they still haven't sent us the $200 they promised to pay for the tow bill.

A couple weeks later - the car won't start. Somehow, the calibrated key got "uncalibrated" and I had to take it to a dealership here. I had several extra keys made and will keep them in the car, my purse - heck - maybe I'll make a pendant out of one.

So the moral of the story - make sure you have spare keys when you go out. Stupidly, I didn't bring the extra keys because "it's impossible to lock the keys in the car." Plus, I had to spend an extra day in Sedona on vacation. Hard to get sympathy from that one.

[DDH]

My Honda was like this. You can lock it if you hold the drivers side door handle up from the outside and then hit the automatic lock, but it takes effort and would still keep you form lockign the keys in your car.
At least my Honda was that way, not sure if yours will work that way.

Anyway, point is, I was always worried about losing that key, and they told me when I bought the car that if I dropped it repeatedly or knocked it around a lot, that could mess it up to make it not work too.

Another thing that I found out later, was that when my battery started going bad in the car, my key would not always work to start it. We figured this one out on our own. We kept getting that little key light in the dash and the car wouldn't start, but if you took it out and tried again it would work.
We finally replaced the battery just because it was getting sluggish about starting and that fixed all problems with the key.

[Brandi]

Every sence I locked the key's in our car once while working out of town I have always had a spare in my hotel room and when we get a rental dh always gives me the spare key to keep.

[Fredwina]

Another note:
My Focus will automatically lock itself after 30 minutes.
The other thing I was told after buying a battery was that jumps starting certain cars ( like mine ) will ruin the electronics.
Makes me wish for the Duster I had in HS.

[jobob]

Oh wow, I had a Duster in High School !

Actually, it was a Scamp. Same diff.

Actually it was my parents' car. Not quite the same diff.

[Fredwina]

ahh yes. half vinyl roof (which cost less than a full one ), 8 -tracks, and vinyl seats . maybe I'll keep my 2003 ride instead of the 1973 one

[withm]

LOL I had one too! 1st car I ever bought. Turned out to be a real piece of..... well I had a lot of repair bills on that sucker. IT was a great color - blue though.

[Tuckervill]

My Honda was like this. You can lock it if you hold the drivers side door handle up from the outside and then hit the automatic lock, but it takes effort and would still keep you form lockign the keys in your car.
At least my Honda was that way, not sure if yours will work that way.

Anyway, point is, I was always worried about losing that key, and they told me when I bought the car that if I dropped it repeatedly or knocked it around a lot, that could mess it up to make it not work too.

Another thing that I found out later, was that when my battery started going bad in the car, my key would not always work to start it. We figured this one out on our own. We kept getting that little key light in the dash and the car wouldn't start, but if you took it out and tried again it would work.
We finally replaced the battery just because it was getting sluggish about starting and that fixed all problems with the key.

Our 96 Honda Civic cannot be locked from the outside without the key. The driver's door lock will not go down unless the door is shut. You have to use the key.

Our 07 Honda Element CAN be locked with the manual lock, and the door shut without pulling on the handle! I found out the almost hard way (I was at home, so had a spare key.) I owned it for a year before I found this out--all that time I was thinking that the boy could never lock the keys in accidentally. Wrongo!

It also locks itself 30 seconds after you hit the button on the key fob, if you don't open a door before then.

The key fob does not work while the key is in the ignition. I don't remember now why I tried it.

Karen

[tc1]

Ah, chip keys, the bane of my existence. 4 of our work vehicles use them. You can only make 9 copies before the whole system has to be reprogrammed. And of course, a couple of the drivers are feuding and the keys always disappear. I would knock their heads together if I could get away with it. I am so not looking forward to our new vehicles, which will use a remote.

One practical fix is to carry a "mechanical" (unprogrammed) key on your ring or stashed somewhere. That way, if you lock the keys in the car, you can still get in.

Check your owners' manual. With the work cars, it takes two working chip keys to program another.