Bought a new to me FFE, but only got one key fob

[merkurmaniac]

I bought the car, but only got one key fob thing. Looks like I can buy one online but have to have the Ford Dealer program it for me ? How much does this cost ? I'll be sharing the car with my daughter, so i'tll be good to have a second, plus, I hate to think of loosing the one key I have.

Richard

 

[WattsUp]

I bought the car, but only got one key fob thing. Looks like I can buy one online but have to have the Ford Dealer program it for me ? How much does this cost ? I'll be sharing the car with my daughter, so i'tll be good to have a second, plus, I hate to think of loosing the one key I have.

Before you lay out any money, did you try asking the dealer where your other fob is?

I got two fobs with my FFE. I think all of us did.

The dealer owes you another fob -- at their cost.

 

[kalel14]

Ditto that. My dealer made me a second fob for free, though oddly through a locksmith who came to the dealership.

 

[StoBro2]

When I got my 2012 back in August, it came with two fobs. They aren't identical, though. One fob has buttons for starting, locking, unlocking, trunk release and horn. The other lacks the trunk release button. Could this be a replacement? The reduced content fob is also coded as a "MyKey" with the car and when I use it, the car informs my I have an 80MPH speed limit. Isn't the car's natural speed limit only 85 or so?.

Another odd thing, when I use the full content fob and check the "MyKey" status, it tells me there are no restricted "MyKeys" assigned to the car. Curious.

 

[jmueller065]

Probably a replacement: My 2013 (and my 2016 C-Max) came with two identical keyfobs.

 

[EVA]

Oh the second fob. Yes the car came with two fobs. From the factory they should have been exactly the same.

I did a little searching for you. FocusFanatics is a great website for the Focus ICE. There are a ton of people over there that really know the car.

Here's the conclusion - go buy a new fob from your dealer. DO NOT buy one on line or from eBay. With only one fob, you can't program the second one. Oddly, Ford requires that you have TWO fobs inside the car to program another one. That's by what normal humans without special programming tools can do.

Here is a quote from that forum:

Secondly, to program a new key you need *TWO* already-programmed keys. You can't get one programmed by the dealership and use it to program a second...you need *TWO* keys programmed at the dealership in order to manually program any more than that. The process requires 2 keys already programmed for your car to be inside the car when programming a third.

Further down they talk about how the dealer has to use their scan tool to program the fob. I would say, if you buy the fob from them, they will program it for free. If you come in with a fob, they will charge you money. Unless, you happen to be a special customer that has bought a lot of cars from them.

http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/mk3-focus/274558-how-program-ia-key.html

 

[EVA]

For me it is an even worse story for the fobs. We had a 2012 FFE that was totaled. I had the second fob in my hand and like a dope turned it in with the totaled car. Nobody wanted that second fob, but I turned it in anyway.

Leased a 2013. And within about 6 months lost one of the fobs. Stupid. Totally stupid. I wasn't going to spend the billions of dollars to replace the fob.

When we turned in the 2013 in December at end of lease, they marked down only one fob returned, and didn't charge me for it. Who knows, maybe you bought my car. I kind of doubt it, but maybe.

And when we bought the used 2013, that car had two identical fobs.

Oddly, there are two generation of fobs. They switched them in 2013. The original only had a little bit of chrome on it, and no start button. The later one has a chrome edge all around and has a start button.

And AutoNation shows the fob for 2012-2014 FFE and ICE as discontinued, and they don't list a replacement.

 

[merkurmaniac]

I bought mine from a place called Texas Direct Auto in Stafford, TX. Its near me, so I saved any delivery fee. They are not a Ford dealer, and although they are a used car dealer, they said that they promise only one key to the car.

I have a couple recalls due on this, so I will see about having the dealer do they key fob. Looks like I can buy one online for around $80 instead of a list of $180 or so. ?? I usually fix cars myself, and am not in the habit of going to dealers. Anyone know if any Ford Dealers in Houston have ever seen/worked on a FFE ??

Thanks,
Richard

 

[EVA]

I bought mine from a place called Texas Direct Auto in Stafford, TX. Its near me, so I saved any delivery fee. They are not a Ford dealer, and although they are a used car dealer, they said that they promise only one key to the car.

I have a couple recalls due on this, so I will see about having the dealer do they key fob. Looks like I can buy one online for around $80 instead of a list of $180 or so. ?? I usually fix cars myself, and am not in the habit of going to dealers. Anyone know if any Ford Dealers in Houston have ever seen/worked on a FFE ??

Thanks,
Richard

Yeah, I agree with you, prefer to do work myself also. Key fobs can be horribly expensive. I've bought fobs for other cars from eBay and programmed them myself. The problem with the FFE key is the intelligent key. According to the instructions I'm seeing, you need two key fobs to program it yourself. So you are really stuck with the dealer doing the programming.

Here's the rub - you might get a fob for $80 or less. But the dealer might decide to charge you $100 to program it, or $50 - or they won't do it at all. And you're stuck with an $80 thing you can't use. You could potentially talk a dealer into programming it by claiming it doesn't work any more. But you still run the risk of them not doing the work.

This just seems like the kind of thing that isn't worth messing with if you really need a second fob - just pay the dealer to do the job. I couldn't find a price for the fob from Ford Parts. All I see is discontinued part.

 

[campfamily]

I had to get a new intelligent key for my wife's Nissan when she lost one of the fobs. Our local locksmith was able to do it for us, at about half the price that the dealer wanted to charge us. The locksmith was a service offered by a local towing company. They did have to have the remaining working key fob to program both of them together. A few weeks later we found the key we had lost. We stopped by the locksmith with all three keys and he updated the programming so that all of them worked. He didn't want to charge us to do that, since it was only about two minutes worth of work. We gave the guy $20 anyway for helping us out.

 

[merkurmaniac]

To throw some numbers around...

New Key fob on ebay or online, about $85. Says must be programmed by a dealer or locksmith.

Call dealer who will be doing my recalls .... $140 to program a key for me.

Call random locksmith who want to drive to my workplace and charge $25 to give me an estimate ???

Call another, $390 total for key fob and programming,

Call another $360.

Call the used car megastore that sold me my used car, and my salesman gave me a guys's name. Its who they use. $165, total.

One last one that I had called that morning, calls back. He is near my house, and I can drive to him tomorrow. $140 total. I ask him about making me two, he needs to check stock. Haven't got this final price for two, but his reviews are also great. Going to get 2 fobs made by him.

Richard