Hi guys,

I've had my 63 plate 500 1.2 Lounge for around 6 months now and its been absolutely fantastic. However, the dealership I bought it from only had the remote key with the car and, being a bit of a newbie, I didn't push for them to have me a spare manual cut. I recently got broken into and had my bag stolen with the key inside but luckily the car wasn't at the house at the time. Without a spare key I've already had to cough up a fair bit to get back into the car and have another key cut but with the original key stolen I'm looking to replace all the locks as well for peace of mind.

I've had a quote through from my local dealership and, as you can imagine, it's not a small number. I've done a bit of shopping online and can see people out there selling the parts for a full lock replacement of the car and I thought it best to ask here if anybody has done this themselves and, if so, was it a difficult piece of work, is it worth the time and would you recommend going down this route?

I want the car to be completely secure so I know that best practice would be taking it to the dealership and letting them do the job but the bill is astronomical. Any thoughts/suggestions on what I should do next are greatly appreciated.

MrSpecies said:

I want the car to be completely secure so I know that best practice would be taking it to the dealership and letting them do the job but the bill is astronomical.

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There are various third party ways to generate a working replacement key, but AFAIK only a main dealer will have the software to permanently exclude any existing key from disarming the immobiliser. This would be my preferred solution if absolute security is your priority.

For peace of mind, you also need to be sure the stolen remote key won't unlock the car; this involves more than just changing the lockset.

How astronomical is astronomical?

Check also that you don't have any kind of insurance that will cover the cost of a new lockset in this situation.

MES can delete keys and re-code them You have the advantage that you can reset service indicators & look into errors as well as more detailed intervention in the cars ECU. Have a look at Gendan.co.uk. Someone near you on here could re-code the key(s) you now have with MES. If the old key is not re-coded at the same time it will not work any longer to start the car as it would not be stored in the ECU as a live key. It would open the door as a mechanical key though If you have a spare key this needs to be recoded at the same time or the same would apply. You can re-code the keys any time and it takes less than 5 mins to do them all.

Yes as others have said you can have the keys reprogrammed and delete any other keys from the body computer. A mobile auto locksmith can do this. You don’t need to go to a dealer.

Only problem with this is the key will still fit the door lock so the thief could still get into your car but not steal it.

There are plenty of lock sets on eBay. It’s not a big job but the only tricky bit is getting the body computer out. You have to take the front parcel tray out to get to it and undo the shear bolts. I’ve had trouble doing that with the dash out but there’s probably an easier way than cutting a groove with an angle grinder like I do.

jrkitching said:

There are various third party ways to generate a working replacement key, but AFAIK only a main dealer will have the software to permanently exclude any existing key from disarming the immobiliser. This would be my preferred solution if absolute security is your priority.

For peace of mind, you also need to be sure the stolen remote key won't unlock the car; this involves more than just changing the lockset.

How astronomical is astronomical?

Check also that you don't have any kind of insurance that will cover the cost of a new lockset in this situation.

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I've had an auto locksmith see my car and try to generate a new remote key but he couldn't actually do it despite having worked on multiple 500s in the past. He was able to cut and programme another manual key but couldn't get the remote side working. I can't remember for sure what he said he was struggling with but he worked on the car for 2+ hours and was consulting other smiths in a whatsapp group and couldn't work it out. He did tell me that he removed my stolen key from its system though so it shouldn't be able to start my car.

When I went to the Fiat dealership near me with the situation they told me it would need a lockset replacement. The guy asked parts for cost and labour and came back with a quote of around £800 which, if I'm honest, I expected - didn't make it any easier to stomach though. This is why when I saw other locksets online for around an eighth of that price I thought that might be a less painful route to go down.

Have checked my insurance and unfortunately don't have any cover for this kind of situation. And in all honesty, having only be driving around a year and a half, the thought of how badly an £800 claim would have on my premiums if I did have the cover scares me.

MrSpecies said:

I've had an auto locksmith see my car and try to generate a new remote key but he couldn't actually do it despite having worked on multiple 500s in the past. He was able to cut and programme another manual key but couldn't get the remote side working. I can't remember for sure what he said he was struggling with but he worked on the car for 2+ hours and was consulting other smiths in a whatsapp group and couldn't work it out. He did tell me that he removed my stolen key from its system though so it shouldn't be able to start my car.

When I went to the Fiat dealership near me with the situation they told me it would need a lockset replacement. The guy asked parts for cost and labour and came back with a quote of around £800 which, if I'm honest, I expected - didn't make it any easier to stomach though. This is why when I saw other locksets online for around an eighth of that price I thought that might be a less painful route to go down.

Have checked my insurance and unfortunately don't have any cover for this kind of situation. And in all honesty, having only be driving around a year and a half, the thought of how badly an £800 claim would have on my premiums if I did have the cover scares me.

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Fiat are full of poo. I don’t really understand why the locksmith wasn’t able to do it. I had exactly the same done by one a year or so ago. He used a bit of kit that interrogated the body computer and used a “token based system” which costs him £20 to code a new remote key. Cost me £120 all in.

If you do decide to go down the new lock set get it on eBay. I can talk you through most of it on here or on the phone. As I mentioned before, the only tricky bit is getting the body computer out. You don’t need a new speedo. Some people sell the kits with them but you don’t need it.

MrSpecies said:

Have checked my insurance and unfortunately don't have any cover for this kind of situation. And in all honesty, having only be driving around a year and a half, the thought of how badly an £800 claim would have on my premiums if I did have the cover scares me.

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As this was the result of a house break-in, you should be looking at the house insurance, not the car insurance.

portland_bill said:

As this was the result of a house break-in, you should be looking at the house insurance, not the car insurance.

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Very good point. Yes this would be covered on your contents insurance.