Vanden Plas Key Blank
 

Anyone know if a 1996 Vanden Plas Valet key blank will work with a 2004 XK Valet system if it is cut and programmed?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F273814695797

I don't know for sure, but I would think probably not. 1997 US X100's didn't have a chip (mine doesn't). It would be weird for a '96 XJ to have a chip.

Ok Thanks for the info

It looks like a key like that would work for the mechanical locks (a new one that is, uncut, and then cut to your car as this one is already cut). The technical name is tibbe 8-cut (as opposed to the tibbe 6-cut).

For starting the car with this key, you would have to get a Megamos 48 crypto chip (the size of a big grain of rice), and then drill the plastic handle of this key to fit the chip in it, then somehow cap it. These chips are cheap and available (check eBay). As you pointed out, the car would then have to be made to accept this new chip (at the same time as all the other ones you already have) by programming through the diagnostics connector.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

Looking for a cheapish way to get a useable green Valet key. I have found an uncut blank but it is over $115 just for the
blank plus cutting/programming. Sometimes a green key comes up on ebay but they are already cut so that is a no-go right?

If it is already cut, the easy answer is that it is a no-go, but if you want to navigate the fine line, you can examine the angled cuts from your key and the key that comes up for sale. If matching to your existing your key only requires further cuts, I suppose you could make this work. Basically, you need to "read" the existing tibbe cuts on your own key (do not share this!), then read the tibbe cuts of the existing key and compare the numbers, position by position. 0 is no cut, 1 is a shallow cut, 2 is the most cut. A 0 can be cut to a 1 or 2. 1 can be cut to a 2. You cannot "uncut" a 2 to a 1 or 0, or a 1 back to 0. Find an online tibbe decoder if this is not clear.

The alternative (not sure you can do this for the ignition), is to re-key all the locks to match a set of pre-existing keys,. It is the mirror image of what you are trying to do. A while back, someone showed a trunk key lock kit. It came with a number of small shaped washer/rings that had to be sequenced by hand to match an existing key. It looked basically mechanical in nature, but pretty tricky nonetheless.

Great info fmertz. Based on that I can say this
key will not work for me either

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Jaguar-Mast...-/323301823880

Still looking.

The reason the keys have a chip is there is shockingly few different keys and even fewer when you eliminate the "all 0's" "all 1's" and "all 2's" keys.

Finding a needle in a hay stack is way easier with Tibbe keys than any normal key would be.