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Key Repairs Fiat Multipla

The key for a car no longer responds due to issues with the micro switch or battery. Solutions include replacing the battery, resoldering the micro switch if it has come loose, or sourcing a replacement switch. A dealer can code a new key to the car using a computer that reads the car's ECU, which takes around 15 minutes and costs around £140.

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Pedro Miguel
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269 views5 pages

Key Repairs Fiat Multipla

The key for a car no longer responds due to issues with the micro switch or battery. Solutions include replacing the battery, resoldering the micro switch if it has come loose, or sourcing a replacement switch. A dealer can code a new key to the car using a computer that reads the car's ECU, which takes around 15 minutes and costs around £140.

Uploaded by

Pedro Miguel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Problem:

The Ignition key no longer responds/unlocks/locks/alarms the car


Solutions:
Well this is a perplexing and sometimes costly situation.
A number of things to try are as follows:1) Change the battery by prising the key apart with a coin or screwdriver.
2) Check and see if the small micro switch has come adrift from the motherboard. If
so and you still have it carefully re solder it on and if your lucky, all will now work
again.
3) If the switch is lost or missing then you need to source another from somewhere
like Maplins or RS Components. Here are a few details found by one member...
The switch looks like an ALPS switch. One of SKQLLA, SKQLLB, SKQLLC or
SKQLLD should do I think http://www.mouser.com/catalog/625/1167.pdf
Where to get them is another problem!
Panasonic EVQ-PSL02K, EVQ-PSQ02K EVQ-PSM02K, EVQ-PSR02K are all very
similar
http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/components/pdf/ATK0000CE9.pdf
Digikey do the Panasonic switches and have them in stock for around 60p
but they have horrendous minimum order prices which add up to around
20. Maybe someone on this group knows someone who orders from Digikey
and can get them added to an order. www.digikey.com and select the UK
flag.
4) A work around, buy another key off eBay and make one up from the two!
One member used the advice and bought one off ebay for 10.00, they took the blade
out and put one from a key cut by Timsons in the slot. They just needed to get it
linked to the car. Sadly I dont think we ever found out if they accomplished this
though so it may be a red herring!
Now follows a cracking description of what goes on in a main dealer when they sort
you out with a new key.
Our thanks go to Panda bloke for his input!
There are pictures of the insides of the key in the yahoo group photo section. The
microswitch on the PCB detatches itself. Simple little resoldering job. Did mine on
the old uglybug about a year ago and it worked fine when I sold it a couple of months
ago.

Here is an article I wrote on Fiatfourm about key coding.


"Took my nosejob Multi, Myrtle, to Northgate Fiat in Canterbury to have a new key
coded to the car.
There has been a lot of discussion as to the cost and what it entails so I asked Chris,
the workshop controller if I could have a look at the process. He kindly agreed.
So, firstly Chris grabbed the now legendary 'computer' which reads the ecu on the car
and looks for all sorts of faults. It looks like a laptop with a lead and pluggy thing
coming from it. This lead plugs in under the right hand side of the dashboard on all
Multiplas. Look under your dash, extreme right and there is a little panel that pops
out and your diagnostic socket sits there.
We mated Myrtle to the computer. Just to demonstrate the computer's talents, he
checked my ecu for faults and there were none (thank heavens, I'd just spent 10,000
buying the bloody thing!)
Chris then explained how the keys worked. In your key there is a transponder. This
sends a signal to an aerial around the ignition switch. This aerial sends the
transponder's signal to a key code box in the car and if that recognises the key it tells
the ecu just that. You can then start the car. Also there is an alarm code in the key
unique to your alarm.
There is no way around this. Chris says they have looked and tried but in the end it is
excellent security. That is what we pay for I guess. The only thing you can do
apparently (if you are an absolute animal...) is remove the transponder, attach it to the
vicinity of the ignition aerial, butcher the ignition switch and start the car with a
screwdriver! Nice!
My existing key was placed in the ignition. As it was an approved key, the computer
read the key code box and ecu and I was amazed to find that it knew that there were
two keys in existence for my car. It had all of the info on those keys, including the
electronic code which is necessary to program the key to the car. Chris then asked if I
had the other key, which I didn't. So he cancelled this key. So if the old owner (an
MD at Fiat UK!) tries to nick the car with his key, it will no longer be recognised!
He then put the new key in the ignition. The computer was asked for the key code,
which he promptly entered and after a bit of software wizardry, he turned the key in
the ignition and, a roll on the drums (and a sandwich on the piano....), the car started.
Cool. This key code is individual to the key and should come with it when it's
delivered.
Unfortunately a problem then arose. The alarm would not recognise the key. When
we pressed the plunger to arm the alarm, nuffin happened. Bugger all. Zilch. Not a lot.
Never mind. Chris whizzed off to Service Reception, prodded another computer and
swiftly came up with an alarm code to program in. In went the new key into the
ignition, more witchcraft and, wahey, one completely working key.

This was the first nosejob Multi Chris had key coded but despite this, the whole
business would have taken about fifteen minutes had he not been explaining things
and I'd not been taking photos. However I was amazed at the complexity of
programing the key to the car and the level of security we Multi owners appear to get
from our key.
And that was that. Job done.
Emma the gorgeous and exceptionally knowledgeable young lady on Service
Reception says that they (Northgate) will supply and code a key to your car for about
140. (I assume an hours labour, cost of key and cost of plugging into computer.)
Expensive? Yes.
Worth it? Well, on my year old Multi I believe it to be worth every penny. But I can
understand it seem horrifyingly expensive on your ageing uglybug work horse. But
there isn't a way round it. Yet..... (I didn't pay, Thames Fiat at Slough coughed up for
this one!)
Similarly they will plug you in to the (3000 plus) computer for a bit of diagnostic for
50 plus the old vat. And it is a cracking piece of technology, I can assure you.
And just another useful piece of knowledge here. Their computer cannot particularly
recognise remapping (hoorah), BUT Chris says that it can recognise the signs of it as
incorrect values and similar and thus itself alter the remapping if you don't tell them
that you've had it done. It could show up as faults or similar which it or an unwary
technician could try to correct. So beware. Tell them you've had it done and they'll try
not to bugger it up.
Get to know your folk at your local dealership if you can. Some are blithering idiots, I
know, but all of the folk at Northgate I have dealt with have been excellent. I have
just chatted to them and wandered around the showroom and, yes, had loads of work
done there but have developed a rapport to the extent that they let me in to the
workshop to see what was going on and I am extremely grateful to all at Northgate
Fiat."

The offending Micro switch that


has to be re-soldered to the
motherboard

Battery

Press switch for


alarm

Coded Micro chip

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