Brand New key wont work?!?!?!

SOOOOOO long story short i stuffed my old key trying to replace the battery for the 3rd time. Anyway i ordered a new key from stealership and $670 later i get it, they try to program it and say that my car isnt recognising it. Now they want me to book it in again at $220 per hour to find out why its not working.

Before i do that i thought i would check to see if anyone knows 1. why this is happening????? and 2. how i can fix it?????

At $670, you've already paid three times for them to find out why it's not working. One thing about the dealer is when you pay for a job to be done, they have to do it! You should not be charged for their inability. Good luck with this.

Originally Posted by macca

SOOOOOO long story short i stuffed my old key trying to replace the battery for the 3rd time. Anyway i ordered a new key from stealership and $670 later i get it, they try to program it and say that my car isnt recognising it. Now they want me to book it in again at $220 per hour to find out why its not working.

Before i do that i thought i would check to see if anyone knows 1. why this is happening????? and 2. how i can fix it?????

$670, ouch...

Does the key start the engine...?
If it doesn't..!, you may have a bigger issue...

If THEY could not reprogram the brand new key when you went to pick it up, the answer is clear...
The previous owner may have changed the ignition key tumbler, not getting it from the dealership of course, as it would've been very pricy.

If it DOES start the engine, when you turn the key..., it maybe the remote transmitter in the car or the key (it could be defective) aren't working properly.

What happend to the old key electronics...? Did you actually crapped it out, that it won't work any more..?
I would try to salvage that...

key does unlock doors and starts engine. The old key did work but the battery was dying and in an attempt to change the battery (cutting it open) i clipped a diode or something and flicked it off which ****ed the whole key. So i dont think its the transmitter as it worked fine with the key when the battery was replaced. i have tried every re-programming method i can find so far. killing meeeeeeeeee

Originally Posted by macca

key does unlock doors and starts engine. The old key did work but the battery was dying and in an attempt to change the battery (cutting it open) i clipped a diode or something and flicked it off which ****ed the whole key. So i dont think its the transmitter as it worked fine with the key when the battery was replaced. i have tried every re-programming method i can find so far. killing meeeeeeeeee

macca, you say the key starts the car and unlocks the doors, so whats the problem?
The only 'programming' a new key needs is to remotely lock\unlock the doors
you need to be clearer about what you're asking.
I'm in Adelaide also and just recently bought a new key

The key only unlocks/locks the car manually. The buttons don't work at all in locking/unlocking which also means my alarm doesn't get armed. Sorry yeah it can be a bit tricky to explain. In adelaide? What did you pay for your key?

Thanks for all the replies fellas. Right i'll give you some more details which may help you to help me figure this thing out.

So originally what happened was the battery was dying in my key so i tried replacing it (again) but when opening the key i slipped and cut a diode or something off the chip which rendered the key useless. After this i unlocked the car manually (setting off the alarm) and then tried to start the car to no avail and the alarm just kept going for about 15 minutes even after i disconnected the battery.

Terrified of setting the alarm off again by trying to reconnect the battery and turn over the car i decided to get it towed to an autoelectrician. The autoelectrician could not fix the key but managed to get the car starting with the key but the buttons on the key still didnt work. This was a good enough temporary solution before i bought my new key.

I asked him what he did in order to make this work and he said he just unplugged and re-plugged random **** and then gave it a shot and it worked. (i noticed that the electronics box in the engine bay was still open when i got it back so he must have been in there).

So ever since i have been able to lock/unlock my car manually and start it bu the remote functions dont work.

Im not sure whether he fiddled with the EWS 3 module or not, i had a sneak peak at it the other day and it was connected but i didnt want to touch it without further clarifying how to approach the situation.

hope this gives you a bit more of an idea of how ive come to this situation.

SOLVED!!!! so i decided to disconnect the battery and have a play around with some fuses and the electronics box in the engine bay. I just disconnected and reconnected fuses and cables in an attempt to 'reset' the system. re-connected the battery and tried programming the key and voila!!

now its not all gravy, key is locking and unlocking remotely but the locking function isnt working some of the time (takes a few tries).

Does this mean i have to drive with it a bit to charge her up or is it something to do with the receiver do you think??? any suggestions are welcome???

Sometimes that happens to my key after I've tried remote unlocking the car from too far of a distance...
It works great after I reprogram the key...
Also, although you just installed a new battery, it would be a great idea to drive a few miles to charge it up...

Good luck...

Originally Posted by macca

The key only unlocks/locks the car manually. The buttons don't work at all in locking/unlocking which also means my alarm doesn't get armed. Sorry yeah it can be a bit tricky to explain. In adelaide? What did you pay for your key?

I paid the same as you, $670 (ouch)
When I got the new key all I had to do was program the central locking to my car by following this procedure.....

-Open the central locking system using the old car key.

1-Close all doors and have all keys available.

2-Using key number 1 (your key that doesn't need to be initialized), turn the ignition to switch to position 2, then switch off within 5 seconds and remove the first key.

3-Within 30 seconds of turning the ignition switch to "off" Press and hold the arrow button.

4-While holding the arrow button, press and release ("tap") the roundel button three times within 10 seconds.

5-Release both buttons simultaneously. The doors will immediately lock and unlock signaling initialization.

-If additional keys need to be initialized, repeat steps 3-5 within 30 seconds.

-Then stick the key that has just been initialized into the ignition and turn to position 2. Programming is now complete!

this a warning to everybody if your looking for a new key do not buy it from remoteoverstock.com

this is why

I just bought a new key to have as a spare. I programmed it to lock and unlock the doors with the buttons however it will only start the start if insert my other key turn the ignition on and remove, then quickly insert the new key and start the car. once i remove the new one if its longer than 30 seconds, it will not start the car unless i insert the other one and do the whole thing over again. any ideas?

anyone?

oh god mousa. drop it already. I wrote the only existing DIY on programming transponders for BMW keys (actually there's a vague one out there, mines more descriptive). if the key isn't from the dealership, of course its a fake! not fake in the sense that it doesn't work but its a chinese counterfeit that works just fine. I will answer all your questions. give me a sec.

chris, your car only starts that way because the EWS will allow another key to start the car if you use another key within 30 seconds of turning it on and off. so you could technically start a car right after you shut it off with just the key blade itself. you wouldn't need anything else. it has something to do with the car not wanting to change the rolling codes again after it just did so. the real reason why your key doesn't start it is first off, where did you buy it? did you get the transponder coded to your car? read my DIY to find out more. I also rent out my transponder key programmer thing.

tomorrow, i have a guy that I'm programming a key to his car for him. He had a similar issue. his remote wouldn't lock his car but he could unlock it but it would only unlock the passenger side. he asked me if I thought it was perhaps the gm5 module going out due to a bad relay, which I have heard of. I went through a series of tests, like testing the function on the center lock console, only after reprogramming it with ncs expert, checked fuses, the whole 9. eventually, we thought for sure it'd be the battery to his remote that needed replacement but why would it only lock passenger door? I happen to have a spare project key (which I just unsoldered the transponder to it and will be writing a diy on how to get a used remote key that you can buy online for less than $20 and get it to start your car) that I bought online for experimenting, a used one that belonged to somewhen else. Anyways, I went through the initialization process and voila, what do you know, my remote locked and unlocked his car, sort of. his driver side lock looked like maybe the motor was failing or perhaps whatever controls it wasn't allowing it to engage. well, the mechanism did make the noise like it was responding but that little plastic lock thing up by the window just wiggled up a bit and down. it looked stuck. so i told him the button itself on his remote was faulty and he could buy a cheap one online, yes, a fake cheap one, for right around $20-$30, plus a transponder for around $8.

So I get a text from him and he told me he had bought a complete key, took it to a locksmith and it now it won't start his car. I smacked myself and said, "I told you before, you need to have the transponder programmed to the car. I can do that. so tomorrow morning, another job well done for me"

one more thing, although I've only spoken to the guy that owns remoteoverstock.com a couple of times, the product he sells works perfectly fine. I only reason I bought it from him is because he sold it at the lowest price I could fine, he offered a money back guarantee if it didn't work, and he was the closes one to me geographically speaking (in case I needed to go regulate someone). Mousa, you should stop going around lying and smack talking. I was told you got your money back. I also told you that you needed to have a transponder writer in order to get the key to work. you told me you took it to a "friend" at bmw and somehow, he was authorized to "program" the key to your car. dealerships do that and if they did have access to that machine, they wouldn't do it because of that fact that they only sell their own keys. if your key didn't come from bmw, its not a real key. bmw doesn't sell blank keys!

and if you read the OPs post, he was butt raped by BMW. let me guess, the dealership he took it to or the key they hooked him up with is fake too? lol. if you guys want to see Mousa getting caught with his lies, feel free to visit my link regarding the AK90 review, not the DIY.

PS, i'm quite sure that since I have much experience with the ews and transponder that as of this second, if I bought the parts to the key in pieces that I can have one put together for right around $40, which would not include the locksmith cutting the key, or someone programming the transponder, which I can do myself but I'm speaking for the rest of you. also, this would be for a remote key. for an extra $20 on top of that, you can do what I did. convert the diamond shaped key or ours to the newer style squarish key with the keyblade that swings out like a switch blade. yeah boy.