Reprogramming a used key fob?

[Darel]

Car only came with one key. Looking for the absolute cheapest way to get a spare fob. Don't need the emergency key to be correct. Can a used fob from eBay be reprogrammed for my car or do you need to start with a new fob? Is there anyone other than a dealer who can do this? This is an '09 S5 with the advanced key BTW.

[etphonehome]

from what i have read. Only a new key FOB can be used, and only the dealership can program them to your car. i only have 1 also, but have never bothered to get new ones made. interested if there is a cheap way.

[jaypilot75]

Keymatching can only be done with a new fob. From what I have gathered, when a key is programmed, the rfid signal becomes permanently married to that vehicle.

[Darel]

So all the used fobs on EBay right now are bricks?

[Kenny147]

I went through this a year ago. Bought a key on eBay thinking I’d avoid spending the $400 the local dealership wanted. Seller was insistent that the key could be linked to the car, so I figured I’d be ok. Off I go to the dealership only to be told they couldn’t guarantee it would work. It didn’t and I ended up having to get a new key from Audi and have it programmed.

When I contacted the seller, he explained that in order to pair a used key to a new car, you essentially have to reprogram the car to the key, not as you’d think, the key to the car.

To be honest, even though it’s not cheap, I’d just bite the bullet and get one from Audi. It’s generally easier in the long run.

[HazeMyth]

The dealership told me the same thing, only new FOBs can be programmed. New, as in never married to a vehicle before. So that doesn't necessarily mean all of the Ebay ones are bricks. If they've been married to a vehicle before they are bricks.

My parents had their Q5 totaled when a guy died at the wheel and hit them head on. The new Q5 they bought only had one FOB and no emergency FOB (hollow one stored in glove box, comes with an insertable plastic key). They wanted to just use their FOB from their totaled Q5, but the dealership said it's 100% impossible to program a key that has been paired/married. They ended up getting both of them at the dealership for $160 or $180, which is actually a lot cheaper than you'd expect to pay.

[Darel]

That is cheap. I'm expecting $250-300 for the fob and another $160 or so to program, in which case I'll probably say screw it. Or at least try and get one of the cheaper "new" fobs on eBay.

[HazeMyth]

It seemed cheap to me, too. I know the service adviser gave them a slight discount on it, but it wasn't much lower than the quote I received over the phone from a different adviser.

[Quattttttttttro]

I went through this too and everything I read told me i can't pair used/old fobs to my car.

I ended up getting new keys beginning of April and it costed $90 for the metal part of the key, $274 for the fob itself and with tax it ended up being $405 or something like that.
then i came back a week later and they programmed it to my car for $125 i want to say.

All in all, it's such a fucking scam for a new pair of KEYS. pretty absurd.

[Darel]

Yeah stopped in the dealer and the total would be $504. Screw that. I asked if I can buy a NEW key off eBay (there are new ones there too) and they refused to program one brought in from outside. So, last time I visit that dealer.

I wish I could just call up Hazemyth's guy but evidently all the keys plus the car need to be present. As much as I want to see Colorado the cost/benefit analysis isn't there.

As I read up on this is does seem there are some automotive locksmiths that can do this. Anyone know how to go about finding one of them?

D

[Kenny147]

Just a thought...but something that might work. I know the dealer you went to wouldn’t program a key they hadn’t provided but you can get a spare, non-flip key, with transponder from ECS for about $70. Go to another dealer and tell them you bought it from Audi a while ago but never got around to getting it programmed and see if they’ll do it.

The dealerships around me charge $150-175 to programs a new key, so you’d only be out $230 odd. Having only one key is probably going to bite you in the ar$e at some point.

[Darel]

I thought about that. I may go that route. I sent emails to several automotive locksmiths that advertise Audi transponder keys to see what they can come up with first. Fingers crossed.

[HazeMyth]

I don't understand why the dealerships near you guys are charging that just for the reprogramming. The dealerships here won't charge you a reprogramming fee if you order the keys through them. It only takes them about 10 to 15 minutes to program the keys.

[Darel]

I don't get it either. I really can't imagine ANYONE being willing to pay that price, so you'd think they'd content themselves with making the occasional $200-$300 instead of never making the $500-$800 they're asking.

I have an inquiry out to another dealer about an hour from me as well as the locksmiths. I'll update if anything positive comes of it.

[Kenny147]

Haze, I know from my own experience that unless you can find a locksmith that guarantees they can program an Audi key, most will tell tell you they “think” they can do it but will want the full price, if it fails.

So, I didn’t really have a choice. I didn’t want to run the risk of losing my one and only key, so I bit the bullet and went the stealership route. They charged an hours labor but it ended up taking 2 hours. The Tech actually came in and apologized for the delay.

Sounds like you’ve got some extremely good dealerships in CO.

[HazeMyth]

^ I'd never take a car to a locksmith in the first place. I had a master cylinder that I needed to remove from a wrecked door and put into my salvaged door. The dealership wouldn't help me because I refused to pay $2200 for a brand new door and instead got one at a salvage yard for $140. I called a locksmit, he took my money, and he wasn't even able to move the cylinder to the door. This happened way back nearly 20 years ago, and I've never bothered to reach out to a locksmith about car locks since.

We have some pretty shitty dealerships in general, but the Audi stores here that I've been to are pretty good. One of them is actually owned by a company I absolutely HATE. I used to work for them, and I hated being an employee, but hated being a customer more. Well, the people who own that dealership tend to stay out of the dealerhip's business and let them do their own thing. That's why I will still actually take my car there when necessary. It helps that I've known my service adviser for 13 years or so from when I used to work there, and I was always super helpful to him when I worked there.

[Ejr]

The dealership told me the same thing, only new FOBs can be programmed. New, as in never married to a vehicle before. So that doesn't necessarily mean all of the Ebay ones are bricks. If they've been married to a vehicle before they are bricks.

My parents had their Q5 totaled when a guy died at the wheel and hit them head on. The new Q5 they bought only had one FOB and no emergency FOB (hollow one stored in glove box, comes with an insertable plastic key). They wanted to just use their FOB from their totaled Q5, but the dealership said it's 100% impossible to program a key that has been paired/married. They ended up getting both of them at the dealership for $160 or $180, which is actually a lot cheaper than you'd expect to pay.

!!!wow what dealer charged $160 or $180? My dealer sells the fob for $612 and another $150 in labor for programming.

[Ejr]

I went through this too and everything I read told me i can't pair used/old fobs to my car.

I ended up getting new keys beginning of April and it costed $90 for the metal part of the key, $274 for the fob itself and with tax it ended up being $405 or something like that.
then i came back a week later and they programmed it to my car for $125 i want to say.

All in all, it's such a fucking scam for a new pair of KEYS. pretty absurd.

And it’s not even a pair of keys, that’s just for one.

[Ejr]

I don't get it either. I really can't imagine ANYONE being willing to pay that price, so you'd think they'd content themselves with making the occasional $200-$300 instead of never making the $500-$800 they're asking.

I have an inquiry out to another dealer about an hour from me as well as the locksmiths. I'll update if anything positive comes of it.

Hey bud any updates on how this turned out?

[tagimet]

I need an extra Key for my 2nd gen R8. You guys think $500 is bad!?? Try $900 for my car. I heard there is a way to reprogram a used key but I can't find the info anywhere.

[1999A4]

There are a couple of places local to me here in NYC that say they can program and cut a new ebay key for me for 175. Its called Cobra locksmiths and they come to you. heres a link if anyone is interested. https://www.cobralocksmiths.com/

[kinellV8]

I just joined the Audi hoi polloi with a 2018 SQ5 and frowned when the seller said they only had one key.....but I outright vomited bricks of penguin turd in my head when the dealer quoted $870 without taxes!
I looked the service guy dead pan in the eye and gave him a solid period of silence. He didn't flinch!
I asked for it to be broken down and the key wasn't the pricey bit. He claimed it took considerable tech time.
I asked if it was tech time waiting for things to load on a computer or whether their expertise was being required throughout.
I detected a visible blush and he claimed it was the Audi book time because things can go wrong.
He didn't budge when I asked if there was value returned to the customer if things don't go wrong.

So here's my question, if this is a dealer only service and I understand why that's the case, it seems like price fixing if all dealers charge the same the country over. So this begs the question, which dealers charge a fair price for work done and not the 'Audi say's to charge this much'.

I can also say that I spoke to a guy who was convinced 'his guy' could do it. I could hear 'his guy' explain all the stuff he'd need to do to get it to work and even then, he wouldn't know for how long due to updates.

What's the best price a dealer has done this for?
Any Audi techs know more about what is actually involved?

----> and I probably ought to cross post to Q forum...so apologies if this Audizine noob is botching threads.

[Ganta]

Need solutions for this as well for my 2014 A5. Prices for a new key are absolutely ridiculous its just a damn key. I was going to go the aftermarket route but heard the same stuff about only the dealer being able to program the keys. If anyone has found a solution please update this thread!

[Neil F]

Locksmith companies can program fobs (Note it you have one, don't forget to have the plastic emergency key programmed)

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...dealer-for-fob

[Ganta]

Heard success and failure stories but after reading your thread and a previous comment on this thread might as well give it a shot. Thank you Neil!

[jasontaylor7]

!!!wow what dealer charged $160 or $180? My dealer sells the fob for $612 and another $150 in labor for programming.

Well, you were quoting a comment from 2018. There's this thing called inflation. Makes prices go up. Pretty cool stuff.

[jasontaylor7]

[QUOTE=Neil F;14928794]Locksmith companies can program fobs (Note it you have one, don't forget to have the plastic emergency key programmed)

Thanks for your post, but as I wrote elsewhere, I question if the keyfob was programmed at all. More likely IMO is that locksmiths can add the key's unique key number to the list of keys for the car. For my BMW I purchased a kit called the AK90+ Key Programmer to add a bmw key. https://www.amazon.com/Qiilu-Program...9803714&sr=8-5 One can also use software to add a key, but the software method is a little more difficult or expensive IMO. But it wasn't how I did it so I don't know much about that method.

My Qs are,

Q1: Is there a similar key programmer for AUDIs?
Q2: Is there a similar software program?
Q3: What's the name of the physical module dealing with security in the 4F=C6 platform? For my BMW it is called the EWS module. They go for $15 used. You can program them by ODBII or removing the circuit board and using the kit on the chip that holds the key list. The German cars are typically very similar, so I'm guessing Audis do the same thing.

[Neil F]

[QUOTE=jasontaylor7;14964947]

Locksmith companies can program fobs (Note it you have one, don't forget to have the plastic emergency key programmed)

Thanks for your post, but as I wrote elsewhere, I question if the keyfob was programmed at all. More likely IMO is that locksmiths can add the key's unique key number to the list of keys for the car. For my BMW I purchased a kit called the AK90+ Key Programmer to add a bmw key. https://www.amazon.com/Qiilu-Program...9803714&sr=8-5 One can also use software to add a key, but the software method is a little more difficult or expensive IMO. But it wasn't how I did it so I don't know much about that method.

My Qs are,

Q1: Is there a similar key programmer for AUDIs?
Q2: Is there a similar software program?
Q3: What's the name of the physical module dealing with security in the 4F=C6 platform? For my BMW it is called the EWS module. They go for $15 used. You can program them by ODBII or removing the circuit board and using the kit on the chip that holds the key list. The German cars are typically very similar, so I'm guessing Audis do the same thing.

Well I can tell you it was not just adding the new fob to the list. It was programming.

I possessed an emergency plastic key which was functional. The MMI listed 3 keys. I did not think of bringing it when they made the new fob.

They created the new key and reprogrammed my existing fob. They said the emergency key need to be programmed also else it will not work. True it now does not work and is not on the MMI list

[jasontaylor7]

[QUOTE=Neil F;14964958]

They created the new key and reprogrammed my existing fob. They said the emergency key need to be programmed also else it will not work. True it now does not work and is not on the MMI list

The possible options are that the keyfob was altered, the car's list of keys was altered, and/or the dealer's database was altered. Did you see him connect to the keyfob itself? I thought you had written that the locksmith connected via the ODBII port, thus reprogramming the car not the keyfob.