Ok so after my last thread was ruined some idiotic and frankly rude posts, I thought I would just take a punt on eBay and see what happened. As there were no helpful threads on this one I thought I would write one.
How to fix your key...Short story if the blade and transponder are working its a cheap fix to sort your broken flip key. Here's how...
So I bought this off eBay...
Holden Commodore VE Remote Flip KEY Shell Holden Flipkey Chev | eBay
$30 all up for just the flip part of your key. It came with a Pontiac badge, delivered pretty quick. Comprises of two half plastic shells, spring, button and new key blade and chrome shoulder.
Quality wise looks pretty good, same plastic, flip feels robust so all good. Initially I just wanted the shell and the spring really as I wanted to use the original key assembly...tuns out this is not possible as the parts are not direct fit, the button is a different size, the internals don't line up with the old key etc etc... so you have two choices....go get this key cut or do what I did.
Using a watch repair kit I knocked out the pin holding the key blade into the corner piece and tried to fit the old blade into the new corner piece. Of course it didn't fit so I used my dremmel to grind the male insert part of the blade down to the right width and so that it sat deeper in the corner piece by griding the blade shoulders a bit. The stone grinders on a dremmel do this fine, its soft metal. After this I inserted the old blade, knocked in the pin leaving me with new corner piece and old key blade. Bit fiddly, bit of extra grinding here and there until it went in.
Next the transponder. It is actually a bit of a B*tch to get out. I ground it out with a dremmel. It was glued in tight, it took time to carefully grind the plastic away from it until I was left with just the chip. You have to be careful to not grind or damage the chip, this took the longest. You cannot just pull it out. Dremmel with grind stone and a lot of plastic flying everywhere!
Eventually I got the chip all cleaned up and it just popped into the new key shell. Assemble the new button, new key corner and spring and twist to preferred tension so you get a nice strong spring motion. Remember the assembly parts are not interchangeable and didn't fit each other so you must use all the new bits. Pop case together watching for the little catch, add screw hidden behind badge and stick in badge of choice. Click new flip key to old buttons. Done.
Cost: $30
Time: 1-2 hours depending on method of grinding plastic off transponder.
You do not need to re-programme anything this way or pay to grind a key. I kept the new key blade just in case I break one later.
Pics:
Pretty messed up inside.....Holden Quality! Transponder holder in old key ground out and popped into new shell
New blade and corner piece with tools used to remove, had to dremmel old key blade a bit to fit.
Screw hidden behind badge (there is a little catch on the key that a tiny flatblade pops apart to release the two shell halves)
Et Voila...
TAS
How to fix your key...Short story if the blade and transponder are working its a cheap fix to sort your broken flip key. Here's how...
So I bought this off eBay...
Holden Commodore VE Remote Flip KEY Shell Holden Flipkey Chev | eBay
$30 all up for just the flip part of your key. It came with a Pontiac badge, delivered pretty quick. Comprises of two half plastic shells, spring, button and new key blade and chrome shoulder.
Quality wise looks pretty good, same plastic, flip feels robust so all good. Initially I just wanted the shell and the spring really as I wanted to use the original key assembly...tuns out this is not possible as the parts are not direct fit, the button is a different size, the internals don't line up with the old key etc etc... so you have two choices....go get this key cut or do what I did.
Using a watch repair kit I knocked out the pin holding the key blade into the corner piece and tried to fit the old blade into the new corner piece. Of course it didn't fit so I used my dremmel to grind the male insert part of the blade down to the right width and so that it sat deeper in the corner piece by griding the blade shoulders a bit. The stone grinders on a dremmel do this fine, its soft metal. After this I inserted the old blade, knocked in the pin leaving me with new corner piece and old key blade. Bit fiddly, bit of extra grinding here and there until it went in.
Next the transponder. It is actually a bit of a B*tch to get out. I ground it out with a dremmel. It was glued in tight, it took time to carefully grind the plastic away from it until I was left with just the chip. You have to be careful to not grind or damage the chip, this took the longest. You cannot just pull it out. Dremmel with grind stone and a lot of plastic flying everywhere!
Eventually I got the chip all cleaned up and it just popped into the new key shell. Assemble the new button, new key corner and spring and twist to preferred tension so you get a nice strong spring motion. Remember the assembly parts are not interchangeable and didn't fit each other so you must use all the new bits. Pop case together watching for the little catch, add screw hidden behind badge and stick in badge of choice. Click new flip key to old buttons. Done.
Cost: $30
Time: 1-2 hours depending on method of grinding plastic off transponder.
You do not need to re-programme anything this way or pay to grind a key. I kept the new key blade just in case I break one later.
Pics:
Pretty messed up inside.....Holden Quality! Transponder holder in old key ground out and popped into new shell
New blade and corner piece with tools used to remove, had to dremmel old key blade a bit to fit.
Screw hidden behind badge (there is a little catch on the key that a tiny flatblade pops apart to release the two shell halves)
Et Voila...
TAS
