Well, I encountered a problem today...

I took the plunge and got a spare (none remote) key as my 1 seventeen year old original key is looking worse for wear and didn't really want to use it much longer for anything other than starting the car. Tried it in all the external locks, it locked and unlocked them perfectly, smooth as you like.

Then as an experiment (not expecting it to work, it doesn't have the immobilizer chip in it) put it in the ignition turned the key, and she starts. Ok, wasn't expecting that. Now, having driven for a bit, decided to park up, switch off and go get some food. Problems have arisen however...

To cut a long story short, my brand new spare key is now stuck in the ignition and refusing to come out...

No amount of WD 40 or wiggling is making any difference...

 

Help!

And after all that whining and a plea for help I must have wiggled it in such a way that, well it came out.

 

Panic over, nothing to see here...

Lol glad the panic is over. Sometimes a freshly cut tibbs key can snag in the cylinder. Basically the edges of the tibb cuts are still a bit angular and with a bit of wearing in (or a couple of mins on a steel brush on a bench grinder) it'll get easier. 

Interesting that the immobiliser didn't throw a wobbly... No flash code at all??

No wobbly, no nothing, on the initial start I had both the keys together., On the second attempt the main key was still in the car but nowhere near the ignition. 

 

On the third the main key was in my house!

maybe the immobilizer thing in the car has been disabled in the past.

A friend had a renault clio. 1 key had the ability to un-immobilize the car , her 2nd key did not. she lost the good key.  she could get in the car with the 2nd and turn the key in the ignition but could not start it due to the immobilizer.  Renault wanted loads of money to sort it out plus she would have to tow it to the renault dealer or pay more for recovery. we found a company where you could send the ecu to and they modify it to disable the immobiliser aspect.  I think she paid about £100 including postage but it was a lot cheaper than renault reprogramming it and it meant no more possible immobiliser problems in future. 

Of course the car would then be easier to steal but it was not worth much and a would be thief would not know that the immobiliser was ineffective. 

I don't know if this can be done on Fords also and was done on yours by a previous owner

3 hours ago, isetta said:

maybe the immobilizer thing in the car has been disabled in the past.

Yeah, that would be my guess. At least I know that if the good key is ever lost or breaks I can still drive the old girl...

Edited December 29, 20178 yr by MickyG1982