Portland Auto Locksmith Recommendations

So we're in a bit of a pickle. My lady had only had 1 key for her 2010 VW golf since she bought it. I've been nagging her to get an extra key for the last 6 years but she never did.

Fast forward to now the key portion broke off of her fob and she lost it. Now we only have the fob with the transponder chip in it but no key for the ignition.

Can anybody recommend a good locksmith that might be able to make a new key? VW wants $200 to order the key and then another $200 to program it after we get it towed to the dealer.

They claim they have to have the car at the dealer to program the key (which sounds like BS to me) since we already have a programmed fob.

 

I don’t know any locksmiths. But I owned a 2010 Jetta. My key never broke but I do remember reading that the key reprogramming is a headache. IIRC, it can be done with a functioning original fob. No car needed.
You might poke around here. Very helpful message board during my ownership. https://forums.tdiclub.com/index.php

 

Yeah we had a feeling the guy was wrong about programming. It was the parts guy who didn't seem to know much.

I'll do some digging on tdiclub. Was already reading on the vortex and you are spot on about the key programming being a pain.

Worst case we might order a key and hold off on getting it programmed. Will try putting her old fob on the keychain for the chip and then hopefully at least be able to drive it the dealer since they were very adamant on the phone about not programming it without the car. We were able to use the broken off piece of key as long as the fob was in the car to get home before she lost it so I don't see why that wouldn't work.

 

Check with Harry’s locksmith in Vancouver. I work for the city and we get all our keys made there. Good company.

And they do auto keys too

 

TDIclub is awesome.

If you have a key, the blanks are about 30 bucks...

$20 Replacement Keyless Entry Remote Flip Key Fob fits 2002 2003 2004 2005 VW Jetta, Golf, Passat (HLO1J0959753AM)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XR56757/

You can order the blank without the immobilizer and swap that into the new blank, too.

$20 Replacement Keyless Entry Remote Flip Key Fob fits 2002 2003 2004 2005 VW Jetta, Golf, Passat (HLO1J0959753AM)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XR56757 is the fob without the immobilizer. Since you have the bits and they still work, just gotta pry it out and put it in the blank fob. Then get the mechanical bits recopied over.

..

Oh - rereading - since you have the part with the immobilizer, the key itself is just metal and cheap to get cut.

 

Just wanted to follow up that we ended up having East Portland Locksmith come out and for $350 they cut us 2 brand new keys with new fobs and a 3rd key that can be used with the old fob we still had. They were super helpful and I would recommend them.

From Volkswagon it was going to be $400 and a 5-10 business day wait to get 1 key.

I guess we were lucky because her car is a 2013 and the locksmith told us that in 2014 Volkswagon made it so ONLY Volkswagon can program the fobs and locksmiths can't do anything with them.

 

I know only one locksmith who can do such a job, and if you so urgently need someone to make you a key on a keychain, then try to contact this company -- mylocallocksmithtx.com. Maybe they will make new keys for you by keychain, but as far as I know, this is a very complicated process, but if you want, you will solve this problem. But remember that you may have to leave the keychain and the car in the service where you will do such a thing because you will need to program the key for your car. And it's damn difficult as far as I know from the conversations of my friends, who also lost their car keys, but they still had a keychain from the car.

 

Thanks but we had a mobile locksmith take care of this 6 months ago.

He had no issues, came to the house, made new keys, and programmed new fobs. Was gonna be like $200 to order 1 key from VW and another $200 for them to program it after getting the car towed there -what a ripoff. Mobile guy charged $250 and made 3 sets of keys and fobs.

I can’t remember who the locksmith was. I’d have to check with my wife because she found him. IIRC the VW dealer recommended him.

he did also mention we were lucky she has a 2013 because VW changed abunch of stuff in 2014 that made it impossible for locksmiths to work on and the dealer your only option.