JeffG

I have a 2001 Lincoln Town Car I bought used. It came with one coded key. I went to a locksmith who made up two additional coded keys. All 3 coded keys work after the programmed them with a computer tool.

Later, I made up a fourth coded key and tried to program it myself according to the instructions in the owners manual. I put the first key in, turned to ON for one second, took it out, put the second key in to ON for one second, and put the new key in to ON for one second, but the new key didn't start the car, and afterwards, none of the keys would start the car for several seconds.

I have a few questions.

1) What did I do wrong? Did I not leave the keys to ON for long enough?
2) Why did no keys start the car after the programming failed? Is this normal? Is it just the time is takes for the PATS to reset itself? After maybe 10 seconds, all three keys that I had before worked.
3) Do I run any risk of deleting the keys from memory if I try this process and it fails? In other words, can I be left with NO keys that will start the car?

Thanks!

rtg143

Do any of the keys start the car now? If they do, Start again and make sure you have the 2 that start it and the one to program. You shouldn't have to reprogram all the keys again. You just need 2 that work and the one to program. If you want to program more than 1, run the next one after shutting everything down and only have the 2 and 1 for programming. Just do 1 at a time and wait awhile.

thefonz

The locksmith probably did not program new keys, probably just cloned yours.

JeffG

He did program all of them. They all worked, and still do.
It's just after I tried to program a fourth key MYSELF, none of the keys worked for maybe 10 seconds. After that, the three I had before all worked again.

Is this normal? If you use an unprogrammed key, does the PATS system time out for a few seconds (and recognize NO keys) until the system resets itself?

rtg143

I know there's a timer involved but not sure about what happened to you. I never had that experience. Did you retry to program it again?

thefonz

Quote: All 3 coded keys work after the programmed them with a computer tool.

This sounds like they were cloned, not programmed as new keys. If that is the case, you won't be able to program additional keys.

JeffG

I understand. Let me explain what he did.
He brought this tool out to the car and plugged it into a port under the steering wheel.
It took 10 minutes to do something. After the 10 minutes was up, he did something else, not sure exactly what.

Isn't that the procedure for actually programming all the keys to the car? If he had cloned the keys, as you say, that would have done in his shop, not in the car. Right?

thefonz

It could depend on the equipment, but it sounds like he did progam the keys and not clone them. The cloning machine we used was done in the shop and key programming was done on the vehicle.
As far as why the 4th key wouldn't take the programming is hard to say. It could be a bad transponder. When you say "Later, I made up a fourth coded key", how did you make a fourth key, where did you get the key from?

JeffG

Here's what happened.

I bought the car, it came with only one key.

My mechanic sent me to a locksmith he's used, who made me two additional keys, and he programmed them to the vehicle (I think). All three started the car after his work.

Later that day (the day I had keys 2 and 3 made up), I went to a Ford dealer for another part I needed. I asked about making up keys there (to compare the price) and they were even cheaper than the locksmith. So I had them cut me a (fourth) key, and he said I can program it myself since I already have atleast 2 keys that will start the car.

So I tried to program the fourth key as per the owners manual, but it didn't work. I probably just didn't leave the old keys in ON for long enough. I did the whole procedure pretty quickly.

What scared the h*ll out of me, was that after it failed, NO keys would start the car, but this was temporary. After maybe 10 seconds, the first three worked again.

I haven't had a chance to yet, but I'll try again, and take a little more time with keeping the keys to ON. Someone else suggested waiting to see that the theft light goes out before removing each key.

So back to my original question:

Is this normal, for there to be a delay during which no key starts the car? And can I totally screw this up by trying to program the fourth key? In other words, if I do it wrong, is there a risk that the computer will no longer recognize ANY keys? If it's temporary, I can deal with that. Again, I just got freaked out when it failed and there was that delay when NO KEYS worked.

thefonz

I not positive and I guess anything can happen, but... I think it was just the PATS doing its job and timing out. I should have the programming procedure and I will double check for you.