United States / 2005 Jaguar X-Type 3.0

Howdy. At the moment I only have a "regular" key to my car, i.e., I need to stick it in my driver's side door and turn it to lock or unlock the vehicle. There is also only one "key hole" and that is for the driver's door.

Recently I haven't been able to unlock the car with the key. I will stick it in and rotate it, but the door won't unlock. The range of movement for the key is just as large as it used to be--I can physically turn the key. However, it feels like it's not 'catching' on the unlock mechanism. After like 30+ times of kind of wiggling it in there and turning I'll get the car unlocked, but I've stopped locking the car because of the fear that even that won't work.

I see two options:

1) Pay somebody to look into the door and see what's wrong;
2) Buy a remote key fob with unlock buttons on it.

Here are my questions

a) Is it possible that buying a remote key fob won't even help the issue? i.e., might it be the case that the issue has nothing to do with the physical locking mechanism and instead is related to some electronic piece that will be equally unlikely to work with a remote key fob?
b) If I go with buying a remote key fob, can I buy one off ebay and then have the dealer reprogram it? I could buy one straight from the dealer but I think it costs hundreds to do that, versus about $45 on eBay plus reprogramming fee.

Thanks for your time.

 

My post title was a typo... Should be, should I buy a fob, or have them inspect the door?

 

aubrey1987, I've moved your post from the General Tech section to the X-Type section for greater visibility and where members with the same model will best be able to assist.

thread title correct for you as well

Also as this is your first post, please take a moment to stop by the new member section and post an intro.

New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum

regards,
steve

 

You can buy a new key fob and program it yourself.

 

X2 what Jac said, pick one or two up dirt cheap on E-bay (I got two for less than $20) and program them yourself, only takes a minute to do and it's a very simple procedure.

Good luck!