Car keys · Woolwich
Spare Car Key Duplication
The proximity fob has ridden in a pocket for years, the range feels shorter than it used to, and a dashboard warning mentioned a battery a while back.
In plain words
Households with more than one driver and one car key end up trading it back and forth, which works until two people need the vehicle at once. Making a second key from the original lets each driver carry their own, cut from the same blade profile and carrying the same chip or code the immobilizer recognizes, so neither key behaves differently from the other. The locksmith tests both apart from each other in the doors and the ignition before handing them back, and a family running two vehicles on the same lock family can sometimes be brought onto one key altogether.
How the visit goesThe paperwork for the used car changed hands last week, and the previous owner mentioned, almost as an afterthought, that a second key never turned up. One worn blade on a single ring is now the entire access system for the vehicle.
Spare Car Key Duplication
How the visit goes
Confirming what the spare needs to do
Not every household wants an identical twin of the original. Some ask for a plain mechanical spare with no remote buttons at all, useful for a valet or a young driver who does not need trunk release or remote start. Others want every function the first key has, cut and coded to behave exactly the same in anyone's hand. Settling this before work begins decides which shell is ordered and how much programming the visit involves, and it is worth revisiting if the household's answer turns out to differ from what the person calling first assumed on the phone.
Testing every key before the visit ends
Once cutting and programming are finished, each key is tested independently: every door lock, the trunk or hatch, the ignition or the start button, and any remote functions, with the other key set aside so neither test is quietly helped along by a second signal nearby. The vehicle is started and shut off more than once to rule out an intermittent fault, and remote buttons are pressed from a normal distance rather than pressed against the car. Only once both keys pass on their own is the appointment considered complete, rather than treating a single successful start as proof enough.
A record worth keeping
A short note of how many keys exist for the vehicle, what each one can do, and who holds it is a small thing to write down and a genuinely useful one to have later, whether that later is a private sale, an insurance question, or simply working out which key someone borrowed and forgot to return. This record also makes any future visit faster to start, since a returning locksmith or a different one entirely can begin from a known baseline instead of counting keys from scratch.
Spare Car Key Duplication
In the van
Code-cutting machine
Deburring file
Diagnostic port programming interface
Chip cloning tool
Transponder chip
Spare Car Key Duplication
What affects the quote
Authorization documentation
A vehicle registered to a business, financed through a lender, or owned by a family member sometimes needs an extra document confirming who may hold a key, which is sorted out before work begins.
How many keys are needed
Making one spare is a smaller job than producing several matching keys for a whole household or a small fleet in the same appointment, and the quote reflects how many are wanted.
Scheduling more than one vehicle together
Two vehicles booked into the same visit, such as a household's pair of cars, are generally more efficient to handle together than arranging two separate appointments on different days.
What to have ready
- Do you know the VIN, or can you access the door jamb?
- Is the vehicle registered to you, or to someone else?
- What year, make and model is the vehicle?
Spare Car Key Duplication: questions
QuestionsIs cloning the same as programming a new key?
They solve the same problem differently. Cloning copies the working key's existing code onto a new chip, which some vehicles' systems permit directly. Programming instead has the vehicle itself learn a brand-new code and accept it as an additional valid key, which is how most recent vehicles with rolling codes or added cryptography are handled, since their systems are built specifically to resist straightforward copying.
What happens if I only have one key and it is for a car I just bought?
This is a common and straightforward call. The locksmith works from the single existing key and the vehicle itself, identifying the blade profile and reading or matching the chip, then testing the result on its own before the visit ends. It is also a good moment to confirm how many keys the car's history suggests should exist, since a private sale sometimes changes hands with an unknown key already out of circulation.
How is a proximity or smart key different to duplicate compared to a regular key?
A proximity key usually has no blade to trace, so the process is almost entirely electronic: pairing a new fob to the vehicle's receiver and enrolling it through the diagnostic connection so the car recognizes it as an additional key. Many still hide a small mechanical blade inside the shell for emergencies, and that blade is cut separately to match the door lock, even though it is rarely used day to day.
Related services
- Car Key ReplacementYou bought the car privately and it came with a single key on a shoelace.
- Key Fob ProgrammingA fob went missing weeks ago somewhere between a coat pocket and a parking lot, and a spare has covered the gap since.
- Transponder Key ProgrammingThe blade snapped off flush with the door lock last winter, and the shop that cut a replacement only matched the metal shape.