Hi I've got a 2010 fabia 1.2 http and my normal key I use seems to be getting a bit notchyin the ignition barrel and tonight we nearly got stuck in town due the key not turning ,,  

I thought I'd get home and try the spare key that I've never used in the 70k miles the car has done , it opens the car but when I start her up it cuts out and the immobilser light comes up on the dash , the key is genuine and should work , can these be reset? As this turns in the lock much better 

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but this sounds like you bought that car used and a naughty previous owner lost a key and bought a "new" one via ebay and got a new blade cut - and maybe only ever intended to use it to unlock the doors, or when they tried to get the transponder coded, it was discovered that it was actually an unused old key which had already been coded so would not accept recoding.

 

Now if I'm right, you would be wasting money attempting to get that 2nd key coded, so maybe check out options for a new key and maybe a new ignition barrel, we had that issue with my wife's old Fiesta and I managed to get it home using the master key - but immediately ordered in a new ignition barrel to suit the old keys and that sorted it out completely without needing to buy any new keys, you need to catch this quickly before that lock destroys the expensive keys.

 

Edit:- in the mean time, have you tried holding the good but damaged key near the ignition switch while you start the car using the good but faulty key, that should work but it will be a bit messy to do that long term.

Edited 6 November, 20196 yr by rum4mo

...You might be able to swap the blades around so as to have the new blade in your old key fob. This will be easier then pulling out the immobiliser chips which are like a grain of rice and are stuck/bonded in and can break if not removed carefully. Either way, you will have to dismantle the key fob to some degree.

Put some WD40 or similar into the ignition barrel. Maybe this helps with the notching.

 

Open up the "spare" key and look inside to check what type of immobiliser / chip you have. There are instructions on the internet on how to open the key.

 

We bought my my daughter's 09 Fabia with only one key. I ordered a blank one, had the blade cut and we - locksmith - simply cloned the immobiler chip. Now we have 2 keys but they have got the same chip ID. Cloning cost about £40.

This new spare is a genuine skoda key that I presume is the one the car came with back in 2010