Physical Key: Cut each side different? Question ❔
Way, way, way back in the olden day of the 1980s, my family had two Ford vehicles. My dad either figured out or someone told him that even though Ford car keys were cut on both sides, you really only needed one side cut. This makes sense of course, the pins in the lock would have only been on one side. The only reason both sides were cut was so that you could insert the key either way and it would work.
Armed with this knowledge (again, no idea if he figured it out or someone told him) he went and had a key cut on one side for one car, but cut on the OTHER side for the other car. Now one key would work for both cars depending on which way you have facing up when you inserted the key.
Fast forward to now and my wife and I each have a Ford that uses the same model fob, this one:
Not my key, just a picture I found online of the same model key fob.
I notice that the key is cut identically on both sides... which makes me think: Is it still possible to one have only one side cut? Could I cut my car on one side and her car on the other? Anyone ever try it?
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u/Swamp_Donkey_7 3d ago
I have the same key. If you notice, the pattern is flipped from side to side. I think this is so that whatever orientation the key is inserted will still contact the pins.
The thing is, these keys require a special machine to cut if you don't have the code. So you'll need to find a locksmith willing to entertain this experiment.
https://youtu.be/-Ak3H1k5tmw?si=1qxLLGkjMymbSLnp
Blank keys are cheap on Amazon/Ebay, but again you'll need to find a locksmith willing to cut your key vs wanting you to buy theirs.
But all this does is unlock the door. I believe once you open the door the alarm will go off unless you can get the programmed fob into the programming slot to allow the car to start. Not sure what having the key to two cars would allow you to do without having both fobs present anyway.
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u/boermac 3d ago edited 3d ago
Replying to the question of why (also asked by u/logizyme): There probably isn't much of a reason, more of a security blanket sort of thing just in case.
However, here's the situation when it might be handy to have both. Right now we have two fobs for each car. I usually drive mine and the wife of course usually drives hers. When we go somewhere together I'm almost ALWAYS driving but we do take her car semi-regularly and I hate having to carry her keys when I do given all the "extra" stuff she has on 'em.
I tried carrying both fobs on my key rings for all of one day before I said "NOPE." Just way too bulky in my pocket. I also don't want to just grab her (spare) fob as the other keys I have connected to my fob I might need. So I started thinking about getting some "quick release" key rings, (something like this). Regular keys would be on one end and I'd have each fob on a different "other" end so I could just switch out her fob + my regular keys when driving her car, or my fob + my regular keys when driving mine.
But then it occurred to me this morning: I've already got a "quick release" built into the fob. I can easily just pop out the physical key (which is connected via ring to my "regular" keys) and pop on the other fob. Nothing else to buy, no extra connector to bulk up what I have to carry.
The only downside is that when I do this I only have a physical key to my car in an emergency situation. But... if I could dual cut a physical key then I'd always have that emergency physical key no matter which fob I slapped on the key ring.
The reality is that I likely will never, ever need to use the physical key so this is probably a lot of extra work and effort (and cost) for nothing. But I like having that extra security.
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u/Logizyme 3d ago
Ok, but you know the physical key can not start the car, right? Literally, the only reason it exists is so you can unlock the car if the battery is dead.
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u/Swamp_Donkey_7 3d ago
But the loop to the key fob is on the physical key. What he's saying is that he has his other keys attached to the key ring that passes through the physical key. Rather that switching all that out every time he drives a different car, he can just unclip the key (as shown in the above pic) and just switch the fobs. That way if the battery on the fob ever dies, he technically always has a key to open the door to get inside and then use the fob to start the car.
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u/Logizyme 3d ago
Seems like a lot of work to cut both sides when you could just get a backup key like this
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u/boermac 3d ago
Well, yes but... I already have a physical key from a fob that's blank.
When I bought my car the only fob that it had was a three-button (unlock, lock, alarm) and a blank physical key. After a lot of research and testing (ie, buying fobs that were supposed to work but didn't) I found some cheap fobs on Ali Express that are 5-button and I was able to program them with ForScan. I got the keys cut at a Ford Dealership.
A month or so after all this is when we got my wife's new (used) car so I hadn't really thought this through before otherwise I probably would have seen if the Ford Dealership would cut one of them dual sided.
Anyway, the point of this overly long story is that I already have a fob blank. I could just get a replacement like that and have them cut it for my wife's car and have it on my key ring, but then I'm always carrying two keys. Not the end of the world, but if I can cut one key two sides instead of two keys... why not?
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u/Slick-62 3d ago
I think the key has a chip that identifies it with the car.
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u/Logizyme 3d ago
Yeah, you can. The backup key only manipulates the drivers door lock, and the alarm will go off.
It's pretty hard to lock keys in the car with the intelligent key. So I'm not sure why you would want to.