Car Fix DIY Videos

This will show you how to open up a faulty old key and put the elecronics into a new case. It will show you how to fix a Ford Focus and Ford Mondeo key.

Transcript

We’re finally fixing the flip key today we’ve been sent by Colin Wilson. It’s for a Ford Focus 2012 or 13, and you press the button, and that’s as far as it goes. You have to pull it all the way out to get it out. A bit sad looking, and not very good, really.
So we’re going to show you how to swap it into this repair case. This is one that we’ve been sent by Colin as well, and this one springs out nice. We’re going to swap the electronics over. The first thing you’ll need to do is get the blade out, and then we need to open the case, which is really straightforward.
Again, as always, these are our best friends. You squeeze the handle and the jaws open, and this is what we use to open most broken keys. So you want to pop the end of the pliers into here. Give it a squeeze. And that’s opened the key nice and easy. Okay, so we need this part here and that’s no good. We’re going to get rid of that. We don’t need these anymore, and the ring we’ll keep to put into the new key. This is what we’ve got left. This is the important bit.
We’re going to take this board out here. So rather than trying to get a screwdriver in there and maybe damage something, if you just turn it over and tap it, that will just come out nice and easy. Just to show you this part here, is really important. It gets damaged and it stops the car from starting, okay? So the new case has obviously got to come open. Once again, Circlip pliers should open it nice and easy. Open it up, and the little spring mechanism is going to come out. That’s no problem. We’ll just keep it all safe.
Next thing is to pop the circuit board into here. That should just sit in there nicely. Next, we’ve got the blade mechanism. Now, you firstly, this part here is different to this. It’s been made differently, so you can’t just put this bit into a new case. It won’t work, okay? So forget about that. The next thing is: Can you take this blade out and put it into this key? You might be able to, but the trouble is the little tail that’s in there, is different to the little tail on the end of this one. So if you want to put this key into this hinge mechanism, you’re going to need to file it down slightly and mess about. We’re just going to cut this key, it’s just going to be no bother. But you can have a go at doing that if you want.
Okay, so the next thing is to build up this mechanism, it’s just a little bit fiddly. Excuse the state of my hands, I’ve been stripping locks today, and they’re a bit sore. Okay, next thing is to pop the spring into here. So it’s the end without the tail. That goes into there. Next thing we’re going to take the blade mechanism, and it needs to go onto this half of the repair key. This little spigot here lines up with that hole. So you’ve just got to bear with me while we line it up. Okay, and then you have to remember that it’s going to flick that way, so you have to wind it this way. So wind it around. Okay. So that’s all caught.
That’s all good, the next thing is we need to marry up this part of the key with this part of the key. It’s not really simple. It’s just a case of … It might be easier if you let the blade slightly out. That’s it, flick the blade out. Then give it a bit of a squeeze. Okay, now we’ve got that all together. The blade folds over and flicks just fine, so that’s good. The only thing we’ve forgotten is this end here has a ring, and that should be through there. So I’m just going to open it up quickly and put that on there.
So all I did there was I just opened it up slightly, and pushed the ring into there. So the ring’s in there now. The next thing is to put a battery in. I’ve got a Maxell 2032. We’re going to slide it in, a bit fiddly. That end has to go in first, and then it disappears inside. Then don’t forget, we’ve got a little screw that needs to go into there, that’s going to keep the key together. So let’s just screw that. I should have had a decent screwdriver, but anyway.
Okay, so that’s all good. The last thing is these clips need to go into the key. Just pop that one in first. Okay, so that’s that cover on. Just by pushing each tab, eventually it clicks into place. The last thing now we need to do is cut this key blade. If you can, get your key cut by someone that’s got a machine that can cut it to code, because you have a better finish and it means that it was as the original key was. Okay, so there we go. The blade has been cut, so that’s all good to go, same as the customer’s blade, and it flips out nice.
So with a three button Ford Focus key, you are good to go.