Terranical
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2010
- Messages
- 1,395
There was a post recently regarding the use of a "flip key" for a Terrano or Patrol, and I thought this might be of interest to anyone considering going down that road.
The car I decided to do this with is my Honda Jazz, but there are hundreds of blank flips available for most cars.
In the case of the Honda the blank flip is precut to accept the button module and the transponder from the old key, which are separate in this instance.
I looked on eBay and found several blanks available from UK sites at £11.99 to £15.99, but I went for one from China at £6.50 including p&p.
It took about 2 weeks to arrive and swapping the button module and transponder was simplicity itself - one tiny screw to separate the parts of the flip and the same with the original Honda key. The button module drops out and drops straight in to the new key. The transponder in this case is a tiny (about twice the size of a grain of rice) glass unit, held in place by a white Bluetack-type substance. It popped out easily with the help of a small screwdriver. The flip key had a ready-made recess for it to push straight in to, no need for Bluetack.
I didn't reassemble it at this point as my local locksmith told me he needed the key blank separate from the rest of the key.
He cut the blank, using the old key as a pattern while I waited at a cost of £20 - he advised me on reassembly to rotate one half of the plastic cover a complete turn to tension the flip-out spring - easily done.
I aligned the two halves, refitted the tiny screw - job done. All I had to do then was to fit the supplied Honda logo in the recess, thus hiding the screw.
Included also was a couple of tiny screws to secure the part of the cover that retains the button module - this means that if the battery it contains needs replacing you don't have to go through the spring-tensioning process again.
All in all a nicely made piece of kit and very easily put together, all for a total cost of £26.50.
The car I decided to do this with is my Honda Jazz, but there are hundreds of blank flips available for most cars.
In the case of the Honda the blank flip is precut to accept the button module and the transponder from the old key, which are separate in this instance.
I looked on eBay and found several blanks available from UK sites at £11.99 to £15.99, but I went for one from China at £6.50 including p&p.
It took about 2 weeks to arrive and swapping the button module and transponder was simplicity itself - one tiny screw to separate the parts of the flip and the same with the original Honda key. The button module drops out and drops straight in to the new key. The transponder in this case is a tiny (about twice the size of a grain of rice) glass unit, held in place by a white Bluetack-type substance. It popped out easily with the help of a small screwdriver. The flip key had a ready-made recess for it to push straight in to, no need for Bluetack.
I didn't reassemble it at this point as my local locksmith told me he needed the key blank separate from the rest of the key.
He cut the blank, using the old key as a pattern while I waited at a cost of £20 - he advised me on reassembly to rotate one half of the plastic cover a complete turn to tension the flip-out spring - easily done.
I aligned the two halves, refitted the tiny screw - job done. All I had to do then was to fit the supplied Honda logo in the recess, thus hiding the screw.
Included also was a couple of tiny screws to secure the part of the cover that retains the button module - this means that if the battery it contains needs replacing you don't have to go through the spring-tensioning process again.
All in all a nicely made piece of kit and very easily put together, all for a total cost of £26.50.
