February 23, 2024

How to Replace Your Car Key

Losing your car key can drive you crazy. This set of wheels may be the most sophisticated machine you’ve ever owned, but when something simple happens – one of those occasional events that are such a nuisance in anyone’s life – you can wish you were living in simpler times. Suddenly you don’t have your car key. Where is it? If you knew that, it wouldn’t be lost. Where did you last see it? People will hit you with these “helpful” questions, but none of them does the trick. The key has vanished and without it you’re stuck.

Still Got the Key but it Doesn’t Work

Or maybe you haven’t lost it. It’s right there, but it suddenly doesn’t work. You can’t move the car. Can’t get in the car. Can’t drive somewhere to get a new one.

And Here’s the Answer

We can supply you with a replacement car key. We will bring it to you. A brand new, slick-operating piece of technological brilliance that will accomplish this simple task: getting you moving again. All we need are a few details.

How You Can Help Us to Help You

There are a lot of electronic keys in the world now, and many of them look similar but have different internal electronics. So we need to know which one you need, and we have to program it. Do you know the registration (licence plate) number or VIN number? That would help immensely. We can use your rego number in QLD to find your VIN. You can find your VIN easily too on the QLD Rego Check website run by the QLD department of transport. It is publicly available information for vehicles registered in QLD. You can look up your own VIN from your Registration number here.

The VIN number is a unique code that identifies your vehicle. It tells us the make, model, and date of manufacture and most importantly these 17 characters tell us what information to program into the key to make it work for your car and no one else’s. If your car is unregistered, or registered outside QLD, we will need the VIN number directly from you. So, where is the documentation that came with the car? It would allow us to identify your car and make sure we get the right replacement. The VIN can be found printed somewhere on your car or on your vehicle documentation. Unfortunately there’s no ‘usual spot’ where the VIN is printed on the car, but on documentation it can be found on:

• Registration renewal certificate
• Purchase agreement, contract or receipt
• Insurance documents

On the car, depending on your Make and model, the VIN can be printed on:-

• Sticker/plaque on the inside rim of the door
• On the front of the dashboard, visible from the outside of the front windscreen
• Under the bonnet (in older vehicles)
• Under the spare tyre in some European makes

Did you put the VIN number in your phone or make a note of it somewhere? If it’s at home and so are you, find it and have a good look. Or if you’re out somewhere, can you get someone at home to find it?

If the ignition and door locks are on different keys, we need to know that as well. Give us as much information as you have, and we can do this quicker. We know this only happens once in a blue moon, but in these days of passwords and pin numbers, it is just one more thing to cover.

The car salesperson should have advised you about this when purchasing the vehicle. Mechanics should bring up the subject if replacing locksets to help you in advance because if you call them after this has happened, they won’t be able to help. In the old days, maybe, but not now. They’re great at what they do, but this is now a specialist area, and we are your only lifeline.

We Will Soon Have You Mobile Again

Losing the use of your existing car key is not the end of the world. Contact our automotive locksmiths in Brisbane and we’ll get on the case immediately. The more information you can give us, the better. It’s a more complex business than it once was, but then the whole idea is security, so the manufacturers can’t make it so simple that just anyone can do it. You need a specialist like us to help.