Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Keys!?!
It's a while since keys have come up, here goes...
With the car you get a red (brown) key and two blue ones. The blue ones have a chip in them each with a unique ID. The immobiliser will only start the engine if you use a key with an ID it recognises - one that's on it's list.
The red key is the master key for the immobiliser, the chip in it is matched to the chip in the immobiliser which is part of the ECU. The red key is used to reset and re-program the list of blue keys the immobiliser will recognise.
There are two ways to get a new blue key...
1) Get an existing blue key copied at a normal key-cutters. They will duplicate the key you give them, including it's ID so effectively the immobiliser will think they are the same key.
2) Get a new blue key from Fiat, this is a lot more expensive but the new key will have it's own unique ID. Because of this the red key is needed to add the new key to the immobiliser's list of accepted keys.
The advantage of getting an official (Fiat) key is if you ever lose one. As all the keys have different ID's the ECU (immobiliser) can be re-programed to accept only the keys you still have. Therefore the key you lost will still open the doors but won't start the engine any more.
Depend's on your views about security as to which you get. It's a good design by Fiat, but they didn't stress enough to people how important the red key is and they didn't keep a list (good security move in some ways).
Hope this helps
