Interior 1st Gen Most liked posts in thread: 1st Gen Key Refurbish

Ernesto beat me to the post! I promised him I was going to start a thread but then had a busy weekend. So here goes. The following set of pictures has little continuity because after I did the repair I went back and took some pictures thinking this would be a good post on our local (Seattle) MINI club discussion boards. Like his key, my rubber buttons started to break. When that happened, I went the extra mile and took all the button material off:



I pushed the buttons through the holes for a while, until I knocked the "unlock" microswitch apart (above picture shows it after I pieced it back together). I then took out my board to avoid further damage:



I then searched the internet and eBay for some help. Here's is what I found- seller "artiway" with key shells:





It took a couple of weeks, came from China and I had to go down to the Post Office and pick it up. Yes, instructions were included!
If you are doing this yourself, here's where to pry to pop your key open:



Carefully remove the circuit board. Hopefully you are proactive enough to fix your key before knocking one of the microswitches off of the board. More on that later. This might be a good time to change the battery. It's a CR2032, easily found at drugstores and the like. Here's where a small green screwdriver comes in very handy. I've heard you have about 30 seconds to swap batteries before the key loses it's programming. I've never tested that; suffice it to say do it as quickly as you can:




Now is also a good time to carefully remove and set aside your immobilizer chip. Put it in a safe place; without this in the key your car will not start!




The blade is held in with a pin. I tried drilling it out but that didn't work so well so then I got a carpet knife and cut the plastic away from the pin. There's really no way to remove the blade without destroying the old shell. I got really lucky once and drilled the roll pin out but most of the shells I have seen are really trashed so there's no point in being careful:






After you get the blade out (save the pin!) it's a simple matter of reassembly. Here I am trying a vise to push my pin in the new shell. The angle of the shell makes that difficult. I recommend a small screwdriver (philips works best here) or a tiny punch to push it in. You really shouldn't need a hammer for this part; if you do use one make the taps light and easy:



Remember to put the immobilizer chip back in (I usually use a bit of double sided tape to properly hold them in the little space) and carefully put your circuit board back in. Snap the back on (making sure you don't pinch the board and you're done:



If you are at all handy, you can probably do this yourself. If you don't feel up to it, I'd be happy to take care of it for you. And I'm affordable- my rates are way below what a new key costs. Ask "ernesto"! Plus, you'll get quick turnaround- I have plenty of shells and microswitches in stock, and fresh batteries are just a few steps away.

However, not all key repairs are DIY projects. My next post will have some real basket cases that I have refurbished. You won't believe how bad a key can get!

Val

 

Nice work, enjoy and happy motoring.

 

As I stated above, some keys are real basket cases. Take the case of NAM member Leon-cooper's key. Here's a before:



And after:


As you can see, his needed a new case and one of the microswitches on the board. Unless you have experience soldering at surface-mount board level, I can't recommend doing this yourself.

And here's hands down the worst key I have seen, belonging to NAM member Ms. Taken:



Note how the blade is crooked. What looks like Mucilage glue is holding the whole thing together. I didn't even have to cut around the blade pin- the key fell apart after I took the cover off:

\

Here's the board with a new switch soldered in place:



And here it is, done and ready to go. It really is the key from three pictures up:



PM me if you need help with your key!

Val

 

Nice!

 

....from the first pic it looked like the key was worn thru also!

 

No, I meant the actual key (metal) portion......:biggrin5:

 

Huh, that's funny the background of the picture does make it look like it is completely worn through...

 

Here's a good link with much technical information about how this generation of keys works and how to re-program yours if it loses it's mind and how to program a key from another car:

https://sites.google.com/site/miniandlandroverremotekeys/

Val