Spare Key and Fob...from Landrover ..oops !

HI folks, well you know whats coming, lol...! Well I was in Charles hurst ,Landrover dealer A40 west London , getting a part, when this guy next to me was replacing his lost keys when I decided better be safe than sorry, well i have read on the forums that ebay do sell replacemt fobs but thay dont work unless you get them coded, then joe blogs electrician has the code of your car recorded hmm....? well decided while I was in the dealership I;ll return with the Vehicle docs, drivers licence, passport and utility bill so as to order my spare 2002 freelander key and fob, well this cost £38.60 for the key , £42.12 for the fob, £92.83 inc vat. well thought ok had to be done ......wait for it...! then the chap advises I now have to make an appointment to have my new spare key and fob that I just paid £92.83 coded to my freelander..! I said to the guy hang on so landrover after requesting me to bring all the relevant paperwork in to show that I actually own the vehicle has made me a unique key plus fob to use with my unique landrover and it does not even work so landrover has sold me a landrover part For £92.83 that is absolutely worthless unless I pay landrover for the privelage to use this part..... what a load of B*^%$£Ks ... Today I had to have it coded for the sum of £52.63 and thats with the discount and smile......! I told them that if you purchase the said items from landrover it should be a courtesy that they actually code it for you. This practice seems like a a trading standards issue.....!

I had 2 fobs done free when I got mine serviced at a main dealer.

The keys don't come coded. They have to be programmed to your car. Details logged on a central computer which land rover keep. Dealer have access. Just be thankful you hadn't run out of "lives" on your remotes. Would have cost you a lot more then. New security set!

How do you mean run out of lives........?

Doing this from memory, but it’s covered in the rave disk.

There’s a certain maximum key allocations (lives) in the computer of your car. When you want another key made, Land Rover provide it through the parts network supply chain, fully programmed. If their computer has used up it’s known allocation of keys for your car, then they can’t issue you another key. You have to buy another immobiliser/security pack, with new programmed keys etc.

Now 3 years ish ago when I had my fobs programmed at a main dealer while it was being serviced, I seem to remember being asked how many fobs I had. I pointed out we didn’t know originally how many it had (imported from Japan) but any currently in it needed deleting. My 2 replacement fobs off ebay (same as rover car fobs) were then programmed to my hippo. I was told they would look to see if I had availability to link the fobs. This surprises me now, as I don’t think the fob has anything to do with the immobiliser. But you never know with these things.

On a different visit to the same main dealer they were telling another owner of a disco that he couldn’t have replacement fobs on his disco. He’d maxed out?

Oh ok .... Thats something to bear in mind,,, I bet lots of guys on this site are unaware of this syndrome... thanks for the info... !