Hi all, one of my neighbors who are from Hungary have bought a Vauxhall Astra today and it comes with a Key that does the RCL & Alarm etc. She needs a spare key and none of us has any idea were to get one apart from Vauxhall. Does anyone know aplace where it will be cheaper. Oh the reg plate in a 51 I think.

The blank key and remote unit can be had for just over £20...

Linky

Obviously any key cutter should be able to cut the physical key - not sure if you can program them yourself though - have a search on the net, there may be some DIY programming instructions

spare key will have to have a chip inside programmmed to the imobilizer.

get a new unprogrammed key from ebay and take it to vauxhalls they'll programme it for £20 *i think*

Is there no way you can do it off an existing fob Chris?

Ive reprogrammed them for Nissans, Hondas and BMWs in the past, though Im not sure Vauxhall would have the forsight to incorporate that in to their systems....

I may stand to be corrected but I think that John Richard locksmiths in Pensby Cut the keys and code them, check thier website?

Timpsons do them for most cars. As for your slating of Vaux Stuy, the units for the 75/ZT and MINI use BMW systems and you can't programme them yourself, its a stealer only affair (at a cost of £150+ excluding the price of a fob, they claim they send them to Germany, quite how much truth there is in that is another matter). Thus, buying a 75/ZT or MINI without spare keys is a risky affair - they may have changed it on the newer MINI's however.

Even MGR C&C don't offer the key coding for 75/ZT/MINI's and they bought up all the MGR coding technologies when they went under.

Autodata say the must be programmed for the imobiliser using special diagnostic software

I bought and programmed a key for the old 330d (E46) following programming instrustions on the Net

None of this is helping sort this Vauxhall key out though - if the net searchs done turn anything up, try searching more dedicated vauxhall sites - im sure there will be a definitive answer to if you can DIY or not....

Maybe so, I don't doubt it, but its impossible to do for the BMW systems used in MGR developed cars, so its a bit petty to slate Vauxhall, when your beloved BMW systems are not always that impressive either.

If there was a way, I think the thousands of people who seem to ask this question on the MGR forums would have an "easy way out" instead of having to visit an MINI dealer with their credit cards at the ready!!

Thanks for all advice, will pass it on best I can.

What can I say, Rovers where built to a very tight budget BMW, BMWs have the technology

...it also wasnt just BMW, Ive reprogrammed a fob for the S2000 and on a few 200SXs...

Actually, the MINI and 75 were pretty much built on an open (BMW) chequebook, one of the reasons that BMW were losing £1m a day and came out with "future of Longbridge" shite on the day of the 75 launch, so yet again, your hatred of other marque's has left you with a flawwed argument. It's not my fault that BMW technology isnt always as good as you like to make out (half of it was robbed, sorry "acquired", from Rover/Land Rover anyway).

Im not entirely sure what a Nissan has to do with BMW either lol. FACT - 75's and ZT's use BMW (yes, BMW im afraid) electronics, namely in this case, BMW developed immbilisers/key fobs etc... FACT - 75 and ZT key fobs can only be obtained and/or programmed at MINI or BMW dealerships. FACT - You made a stupid statement about Vauxhall's supposed lack of forsight, whilst conveniently neglecting the fact that not all BMW technology is as good as you like to make out and they themselves had a lack of forsight...

Make smalltalk and falsify info to suit your argument all you want and try and wiggle your way around the facts, but at the end of the day, the facts speak for themselves.

Nissan has nothing to do with BMW, it has everything to do with programming keys which is what this thread is about, and as usual you have been drawn in to a fruitless off topic discussion

Ive programmed an E46 key, so obviously your facts are wrong, or they are different, and unlike you, Ive had hands on experience of performing the reprogramming, and not just typed a few searches on a keyboard from the comfort of my home

AFAIK BMW initally bought Land Rover for their down hill descent system - apparently that was worth all the bad things they also inherited.

If you want to continue the BMW / Rover discussion in a thread about key programming I shall be taking the stance of where are BMW now, and where are Rover.....

FFS all I said was a tongue and cheek comment about Vauxhall, and you have turned it in to BMW V Rover - do you know if you can reprogram a Vauxhall Key DIY - c'mon get searching

new keys cant be programmed into the system DIY it requires software,

if the battery dies they can be coded back in only if there for that car

Where are Rover? At present, the brand (and only the brand) is owned by Tata, another element BMW raped MGR over, they had to use the brand under license) Where would they have been had BMW not leeched everything good from them (aka the massively popular and profitable MINI, R30 (1-series) and a whole host of technologies they had been developing since the 70's, some of which are only now coming into play in the industry). Hmmmm, im pretty sure that NAC-MG are very very much still alive, all their current cars were either developed by Rover Group/MG Rover or have their underpinnings in MG-Rover developed cars and technologies. NAC-MG are still producing tens of thousands of cars each year a their Chinese plants (the sales figures are unknown, but the MG7 aka 75/ZT for example, is on sale in loads of countries, even Belarus and Chile lol and supposedly beating all sales expectations in China) and still producing hundreds of cars each year at Longbridge, which they are currently upgrading to get it ready to produce tens of thousands of cars each year when the fleet of new MG's arrives later this year. Just another thing BMW robbed, Cowley.

And my experience is not based on searches, I have experience, and you plod on over to MG-Rover.org which is run by EX-MG-ROVER engineers and other staff, and some current NAC-MG engineers, and see if your argument stands up there. Have you worked at any point in your life, for Nissan, Honda or BMW? Or even Vauxhall? It's funny isnt it, Vauxhall, according to the unintelligent amongst us, have no forsight, and yet they are still going (and from what I understand, Vauxhall is still a profitable entity even if Opel and/or GM are struggling), how is it possible, surely with no forsight, they should be dead and buried right??

Ive already said, Timpsons are the most likely place, otherwise its a dealer affair usually, something which has been backed up by other posters. Stop having digs at every brand which isnt Honda/BMW/Nissan, as though they are all crap. Im pretty sure Bugatti beats the lot of them put together!! Btw, Honda and Rover, whats the difference anyway, they were a happily married couple until 1995 and the HHR (well 1994 to be exact, when sly BMW didnt have the decency to allow Rover Group to inform Honda what was going on within the company, yet expected Honda to be so happy as to continue co-developing the next Accord/600 etc - which actually end up a good thing because Honda told them to fook off, and it ultimately led to the 75), some food for thought.

Love you Matt

I have heard that just re-synchronising will program another fob into the car.

Switch on the ignition, press the fob's open or close button (within 30 seconds) - the car's doors should lock and unlock and the key is programmed in.

I bought a blank key fob off ebay for my ford fiesta, and I would say use Timpsons I took mine to the one in liscard and I didn't have the code for the cut, the old guy in there did it off eye and it worked a treat, problem for me is I need the 2 keys they came with the car to program new ones, found out that to activate the programing you needed to use a programed key in the ignition and turn it a number of times to program a new one, I rang ford but the wanted £70 to do it.

for anyone with a ford you may find this helpful http://www.mirez.co.uk/KeyProg.htm

tht will make the key work to open just the doors but not start it DD

I don't need a fob to start my car, the spare key doesn't have a fob.

inside the key there a pip programmed to the ECU picked up by a reader round the ignition barrel, this must be present and have the same code as stored in the ECU to start it.

Quite right Chris, just opened up two Vauxhall keys, a fob and a spare, both have a ceramic "thing" in them.

i have a spare ECU and matching key pip for an old c16nz engine in ours if anyone wants it