I do not want to go through the stealership... but my mom has a key for her X5 that is dead now. I need to get her a new one but where is the best place? Flea bay? And I have an 88 e30 so I might need some help programming it as well.

To get a key that starts the car, the dealer is your only option. They'll program it for you for free.

sometimes they will prog it for FREE, my dealer will not.

i'll tell you for free how to program it. It already comes programmed to start the car, it's a 15 second procedure to program it to work with the remote locking.

Dumb question, maybe but have you tried using/charging the key? Otherwise, yes the dealer is your only option. If you want to spend less, you can get a key without the remote functions and open the car the old fashioned way.

i will even tell you how to prog the key.

i prog them for free if the cust catches me and ask, but if it goes thru service they charge 1/2 hour which is roughly 60 bucks.

It will be great to know how to prog the key, but I also want to get a replacement for the key we already have. It might just need a charging but how do you do that? (Hopefully not a dumb question but...) Do those $50 keys in ebay work towards the car once programmed?

Two things..


NO e-bay key will start your car

ANY (diamond-shaped-headed) e-bay key can be "programmed" to work the keyless entry.

When I say "Programmed", I say it in parenthesis because it's not really programming, it's more like "synching" the key and the car. You don't have to hook it up to a computer to get the key to work the keyless entry. It's just a series of actions and pressing buttons on the key.

Critter, I think I'm in the same situation- key that works manually but remote doesn't work. Can it just be initialized similar to older keys? i.e. hold lock button and press unlock 3 times...

Id very much appreciate your input
Thanks

5373sgwb@gmail.com

Here are the instructions *for free* to initialize your key. Sometimes they will lose the sync and act like is dead, don't be fooled by that. Try this first.

If you have more than 1 key, use the key that still works first, then try to synch the other key(s). I seem to have trouble trying to re-synch a key that stopped working when I try to synch the dead key before synch-ing the working key.