I need Advice!

My Ignition went out on my 2004 Jaguar Xtype. I had to remove my ignition completely, had to hold my key fob right next to the hole where the cylinder would be and used a flat head screw driver, to start my car. Not cute by any means but in a pinch it was proving to be effective.

I finally found a resonably price lock set on ebay which included the ignition cylinder, matching key with fob and chip, transponder ring, front door lock, glove box lock for $150. All parts match my current lock set by part numbers. The key has very little wear, I tested the battery inside the fob, it was almost dead so I switched it out for a new one.

I installed the new ignition cylinder. Because the car wasnt programed to my new key, I had a feeling there was going to be a conflicting issue with the old chip and the new chip and heard that taking the chip out of my old key fob and mounting it somewhere on my steering colunm would be a quick fix to allow me to drive my car still until I could afford to have the car either programed or new keys cut with a cloned chip made. Becasue my new key has a chip that doesnt match my car, I couldnt gaurentee that It would start everytime. To fix this, I took my transponder ring off of its orginal spot with the ring around the ignition and put my working chip inside a little plastic container to give it a little protection, and put the little guy into the transponder ring and secured it premantly with duct tape, then found a spot where I could attact the transpoder ring to the steering column with zip ties. I had to repostion it once, I thought there was enough clearance so the plastic shourds would snap together correctly, so I did have to move it down a little bit. but the 2nd try worked geat. There was a couple codes being thrown when a code reader was plugged in to the car, the transonder was still picking up on the new keys chip, but since it was next to the ignition and my old chip was literally insider the transponder ring, the code were just warnings, no lights were on coming on my dash and the car started everytime. I even was successful at programing my new fob correctly which I was super stoked about. My old key had been ran over so it was technically only a half key. the alarm portion had been squished and thrown away. So having the option to just press a button to unlock/lock my car made me super happy!

But.....being a women and if its not broke dont fix concept I guess didnt seem important. I loved the idea that if I should happen to lose my one and only key to my car, just having to have a key cut was a great idea, since the tibbe keys are super hard to find a locksmithe who even does them let alone the cost. But thanks to this forum, I got in contact with a member who can cut these keys and code them, they are super reasonably priced and lives in the surrounding area. So by mounting the chip to the steering column was really only saving me a whopping total of $10 when having new keys made. I guess having the chip always on, made me feel vulnerable and if someone did find out about it, Could most likely pound a screw driver into my ignition and steel my car. So here is what I did.

A friend of a friend is a diesel mechanic and has a bad *** OBD2 reader. It has a option to program new keys to cars. He has helped a couple other people sucesfully so I thought why not? I know that if you have 2 working keys you are able to program a 3rd key, up to 8 others yourself. I only had one working key so I couldnt try this.

We deleted all my codes that were popping up. I took my orginal chip out its new home and put it inside the house so there wouldnt be any problems with the two chips sending mixed signals. I put the transpoder ring in its orginal positiion which is with the ring around the ignition and plugged it back in and we started the process.

Nothing was working as far as the key goes. it was seeing that there was 2 keys already programmed into the car. I assume it was my old key fob, with the key not working because of my new ignition, the chipped removed from the fob completely now lol, and then another key that I didnt have ever but am sure the car orginally came from the factory with 2, and the the reader was saying something about a 3rd key, I cant remeber exactly. But obvioisbly this wasnt working becasue the car wouldnt start because security was failing. We kept retrying the process, honestly did it alot with no change. I mentioned to my friend that the transponder ring wasnt the one that I had purchased with my new lock set. It was the orginal one that went with my old key. We thought that maybe this was a problem. That maybe everything needed to match. so we took a break and I found the new one and installed it and we tried again. With no sucess. At some point my friend went back a screen and said maybe I am doing this wrong and went back a screen and tried again, Something changed and I dont remeber what exactly because I didnt have the reader in my hand but basically we were able to clear all the keys from my car.....and now that where I am at now. I have no working keys what so ever.

Any advice? I cant see why we were able to delete them but werent not able to add them. I am completly frustrated. I dont think it had anything to do with not having 2 working keys to begin with, but could this of been it? Would it help me now?

The 2 keys you get with your car orginally, are both those chip codes the same or are they diffrent numbers? I know that you can clone your chips and have as many of those as you want.

They new key fob that I have if an orginal Jaguar key, I dont think those chips inside the key can be rewritten can they? I have heard that only the aftermarket key fobs can accept new codes.

Do I have to use the transponder ring that came with the key or does that matter

Any ideas or input would be greatly apperciated. I cant be without a car like this. I live to far out of town to even take a bus!

Thank You! I love this forum and depend on the advice I get from everybody to keep my Jag going. Thank you!

I have included pictures just for fun.

 

I'm pretty sure TWO keys minimum are required for configuration.(up to five)

 

Answering your questions:

ALL of the original keys and fobs have their own, separate codes. These are programmed into the transponder when they are made, and they can't be changed. They CAN be copied, which is how I am able to clone working keys. CLONED keys ALL have the code of the chip that they were cloned from. If I do 1 or 1000 clones of a particular key, the car thinks that each one is the original. This is useful for fleets.

The transponder in an original and unmodified Jag factory key fob is permanently coded. SOME aftermarket transponders can be reprogrammed.

The transponder ring is simply a wire coil, connected to your car computer. The computer sends a signal that the transponder responds to. The ring can be swapped out without issue. Likewise, the lock itself is a simple mecnahical device which can be changed. There are a lot of cars out there with a replacement lock in either the ignition, doors, trunks, etc. What counts are the computer and the transponder.

If you intend to hang your factory transponder where the ring will activate it, you MUST remove the transponder from the new key. The computer is not able to read the one without also reading the other, and this will usually result in a "CODE CORRECT = NO" flag being set in the computer. Think of it as having two people yelling numbers at you at the same time. This means that you MAY be able to get a win by removing the new transponder and holding the old one close to the ring.

Are you SURE that the old codes were actually deleted? I'm not sure that the computer will permit that. If so, then I don't have any ideas for you. I don't have the equipment and software for diving into the computer. There SHOULD be a way to put in new codes, necessary when a bad ECU is replaced with a brand new one.

Try disconnecting the battery for a couple of days, then taking out the new chip and trying with the old chip.

 

This is true, but usually only if you are doing an "all keys lost" situation. They all have two keys from the factory. So if you lose one, even if you don't physically have it, it's still associated and as such you can add a third, fourth, 5th, etc because it already has the two.

It can and will indeed let you delete all keys. In fact, it's the only way it can work in an "All Keys Lost" procedure. Most decent devices that can perform this will certainly let you know two or three times that once you do this, you are dead in the water unless, and until, you get two new keys associated. That being said, I've only ever added an additional key to my x- – type, though I have completed an all keys lost procedure on One of my XJ's. I buy a lot of cars from the auction, so I splurged and bought a device called T-Ninja Pro from TopDon and it's has worked really really well for me. Honestly, this is a pretty easy job for an auto locksmith. Though it isn't necessarily cheap because they know you're in a pretty dead spot. This is sort of why I bought the device that I did because it was basically the same as 2 locksmith calls if I ever needed any so I figured hey why not.

This is where I have gotten all of myJag keys. They are great to work with. I tried to follow this story but may have gotten lost. Do you have the original transponder? Does it fit in its normal location? Because if it were me moving forward, I would replace the original transponder and then work on figuring out the best way to do the all keys lost procedure. Maybe the only way at this point. Does whatever tool your friend have tell you how many keys are currently registered? Does it say zero? That's a pretty basic function I think.

 

Does the T-Ninja Pro work for every car?

 

Supposedly, until you get to some of the brand newest models. Now, they being said, it has worked for all the ones I've used it on which all happen to be Jaguar's! But in researching, I did see a lot of evidence and claims that it is a pretty decent device. It was a low enough price that I was willing to take that risk because I kind of like cool technology like that. But when it worked I was pretty stoked.

 

OK, so to be clear, it would solve the problem that she's got, and get her original chip and the new chip put into the ECU?

 

Well, to be completely honest, I am not sure of the exact state she is in at the moment. Was a lot of narrative thrown in the mix there. However, notwithstanding the details here, let's give a general scenario. If she has a transponder that is communicating with the ECU and working proper (and obviously able to read keys), then the T-Ninja pro can take a no keys situation - all keys lost, and program 2 new ones to work. And yeah, it is a bit worrisome as it sounds that this can be done. However, in this day and age anything can be done really, just a matter of morality, I guess. I did have to provide quite a bit of documentation to UHS before they sold it to me, though, interestingly enough, nothing requiring proof of being a locksmith or anything. I believe this has to do with the laws in Florida, where they are located. I my case, my brother owns a tow company and this was "sort of" purchased for his use in that regard as well, if needed.

 

Here's my notes from my X-Type repair log ~2021

Programmed Key Transponders
This was a saga taking a few days
Because I had only one working key, I had to use the laptop SW to program the transponders
Key programming this way clears all codes prior to linking the keys.
After successfully clearing the codes the SW showed an error message meaning the car had no functioning keys to start the car!!
("Security Failure" message in instrument cluster)
After researching over several days, the following worked:
Hard reset - disconnect battery and connect +ve and -ve cables together (I kept them together for 20 minutes)
Reconnect battery
Hook up battery charger - set to 10 Amps
Hook up laptop to external power
Start VM - set date to 1-June-2012
Connect JLR Mongoose
Start Diagnostic SW (Takes 40 minutes or so for data collection)
Program Transponders x3 (Worked well)
Kept getting error messages when programming remote transmitters
Disconnect laptop
Programmed remotes without laptop using this method:
ign switch I to II to I four times until hear a peep.
Remove key
Press one button on each of the remotes
Insert key - set ign switch to II to exit program mode
Takes only a few seconds!
Success!! Three keys cut, transponders programed and key fob transmitters paired

IMPORTANT NOTE: USE CAUTION WHEN PROGRAMMING TRANSPONDERS - IT MIGHT NEED A TOW !!
NEVER PROGRAM WHILE VEHICLE IS BLOCKING ANYTHING, OR INACCESSABLE LOCATION, OR AWAY FROM POWER
THINK: "WHAT IF IT DOESN'T WORK"

HTH, Dave

 

ADDING keys still requires TWO original working keys that are used in succession before the ADDED key(s) can be recognized.

 

Good add. I don't know if I was as clear as I needed to be about this. One thing to note though is that I don't think both have to be present, only 1, to add a key. Meaning, 2 needs to be registered. 1 needs to be present to add more. I could be wrong on that, but I did this for my X-Type (added a third while only 1 was present) with my T-Ninja Pro and it worked.

 

The procedure to ADD key(s) (up to 5) is to have two original keys.
Insert Key #1 and turn to ON, (position2) then OFF.
Remove key and quickly insert key #2 and turn ON, (position 2) then OFF.

Insert key to be configured, Turn to ON (position 2) and then OFF.

DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Repeat for additional keys.

If two original keys are NOT available, then the key configuration procedure with WDS/IDS (or similar) is required with a minimum of two keys.
All keys will be deleted including all not present during configuration, then the present keys can be programmed.

As SONE stated, it is possible to CLONE a single key, but that is the only way to get around a single key configuration without trying to 'trick' the KTM system with a single non lock-matching key and a 'foil-wrapped' matching one.
I have watched someone configure a single key using this method but it took several tries.

See TSB XT501-23 for configuring keyfob transmitters without WDS/IDS.

 

I want to Thank every member of this forum who replied to my SOS!

The problem is fixed....
So what I think the problem ended up being the new ignition key fob. I had taken the chip out of my old key, but the new key fob still had its chip in it and even though my orgnial chip was in the transpoder ring and fixed to my steering column, I think it was still somehow causeing a fault for the programing not to work. I took the chip out of my new key fob so just the metal key was in the ignition. I had the transponder ring just dangling from the wires with one chip in the ring and the other one sitting in my ashtray. When the programmer asked for the key to be turned off and removed, I swapped the chips in the ring and reinserted the key and it worked!! What a relief that is! So now I have to working chips and two cut opened key fobs lol.

My friend who did this is a diesel mechanic and was using a AUTEL MaxiCheck MX808
And we did have my driver door open and actually the passenger door as well.

Thanks again for all the advice! I do plan on having a 2nd key fob made as well as a 3rd key just in case....The 3rd key will be cloned just so this key saga doesnt get repeated!

Thank You! I love happy endings!
Monica

 

Glad you got it sorted out. I figured that the problem was two chips being read at the same time.

Now let's get you some keys cut and chips cloned!