Urtyboy

I managed to get my spare key fixed; Daniele at The Automotive Expert LTD (Hampshire) took a look at it and found that the key had not been programmed and did so correctly in 30 mins and for £65. Great chap and I highly recommend using him if you are having car key issues! Certainly beats the stupid prices Skoda were quoting me! Thanks for all your help guys

Have you tried the update portal? https://updateportal.skoda-auto.com/en-GB/

I'm assuming these sorts of chips are relatively safe considering I have a 1.4tdi rapid? Thanks

Ahh I missed the date but yes sounds good. Let's see how it all goes on Monday. Thanks again bud

Not long winded at all, very useful as I now know how it all comes together. I will certainly ask the technician if it will be a clone when I go to see him on Monday which for the pricing it may well be. The good thing is that he is supposedly a VAG specialist so I'll see how it goes. The article is brilliant, made me chuckle at the end: "If you’re truly in need, Jeremy Arnwine with Keymax in Knoxville is a glutton for punishment and isn’t afraid of Ze Germans. " So to summarise, if the key a newly cut and not pre-coded, there is no chance of having it programmed properly as the only other way would be to clone it. If pre-coding is not applied to this version of keys, then there is a slim chance of having it programmed if the technician has the correct equipment. Also, when you say "this means that if you do misplace a key, you can't remove it from the car unless you replace both keys!" , do you mean that it is impossible to assign a new UID to a newly cut key hence making it a big risk if someone happens to find your key and your car? Thank you to everyone who has responded thus far because as I stated before, Skoda will want at least £135 to look at the key plus labour on the repair which is absolutely ridiculous.

Ahh that make sense and unfortunately it was a private seller I purchased from. I have reached out to a car key specialist who has stated that they can reprogram it for £65 which seems reasonable. Based on what you've stated, I'm assuming the immobilizer chip and remote fob can only be repaired by a specialist?

So I managed to start the vehicle with the spare key by turning the ignition on with the main key and then pulling it out and replacing it with the spare key and turning the ignition on and starting. The immobilizer on error didn't display and the car remained started for 25 minutes until I switched it off. However, the key refused to start the car again and the remote buttons still don't work :(

Hi Stevie, Did you manage to find a a solution to your key sync issue?

I have a similar issue however the non working key, when the ignition is on, triggers the immobilizer (immobilizer active). So if I turn to start the engine, it cuts out. Did you face the same issue? I've tried literally anything else I can find on the net apart from your steps which I will try tomorrow as it's 10pm now

Unfortunately this did not work either. I'll keep searching for another method for syncing

I tried this a few days ago to no avail

I'm not sure why I didn't see any of these articles but I will certainly try all of these methods. Fyi The initial battery was fine but I swapped it with what I now know was a ****e battery and then ordered a durocell battery which made it flash again. But nonetheless, Thanks dude I'll keep you posted on how i get on :) Haha yes j was thinking the same thing!!

Hi guys, I've recently purchased a Skoda Rapid and made a rookie mistake by not testing the spare key. It can manually lock/unlock the doors but that's about it. The remote central locking does not work and it also is unable to start the car as it triggers the immobilizer (immobilizer active message + SAFE on bottom right corner). I have been searching through forums and cannot find anything that works; I did reach out to my local Skoda dealership who wants £135 just to investigate plus however many hours it'll take to fix the issue. It's absurd and I can't pay that to be honest so I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions. I spoke to a garage who have a electronics/key specialist who have quoted £175 for a new key. Even then, seems nuts just for a spare key. FYI my main key works perfect eacha nd every time. What could be wrong?