Keys

My wife lost her key for my '98 Jetta (big fight ensues when I won't give her the only key we have left). Is there anything special about this key? Do normal hardware stores have blanks or is it a dealer thing?

Thanks

my local ace usually has the blanks. nothing special.

Nothing special, you can go to any key making place and have it done.
Tell her she can have your key after you get a new one made . Get a couple so it isn't an issue again...

i had to have 5 made for my ex's car. one for me and five for her, which i would dole out to her as she lost them.

There are a few options for keys and I have had some made locally without an issue. Any decent key place should either have one or be able to get one in short order.

She lost this one on a camp out in Michigan. She put hers in the tent and kept borrowing mine for all the stuff she decided to keep in the trunk. I don't know why she HAD to have stuff in the trunk. She kept forgetting to give me my keys back and almost threw them in the trash once.

My car keys stay in my left front pocket ALWAYS so I know where they are and don't lose them. She can't understand why I get upset when they're not there, until she loses her keys...

Original VW keys are steel, not brass. My local locksmith didn't believe me, until he looked at it.

I'd hold onto the original, if it's OE VW. An OE VW blank is about $35, nowadays. Give her the duplicate.

-Todd

Yeah she's not getting my key again.
Real Mercedes keys are steel too. I've never been real sure how I feel about putting a steel key into brass tumblers...

curtludwig said:

My wife lost her key for my '98 Jetta (big fight ensues when I won't give her the only key we have left).

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So, no car key for her but prob no newkey for you

^^^ I see what you did there....

I've personally never had issues with steel keys and brass wafer tumblers in 20+ years. If it makes you feel better, shelf the steel key to keep as a master to cut brass blanks.

-Todd

The tumblers in VW locks are hardened steel, not brass.

vanbcguy said:

The tumblers in VW locks are hardened steel, not brass.

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I beg to differ with you. The Chinese lockset tumblers are steel, the OEM VW are brass. The Chinese ones are also thinner and there are less of them in a lockset. When mixed together you can easily pick them up with a magnet and leave the OEM ones behind. You can use the Chinese tumblers in an OEM lockset but you cannot use the OEM tumblers in a Chinese lockset due to the additional thickness, which makes it hard to re-key a Chinese lock.







Here are the 4 different tumblers used in OEM VW locksets, some tumblers have no numbers but some years did.




I rekey the locks all the time and they are indeed brass. While I have seen some worn, I have never seen one worn out, but I have see a number of keys worn out.

Interesting. I had heard that they were steel. But I haven't taken my locks apart. The ones you are showing are definitely brass!

Interesting, the tumblers pictures above look exactly like Mercedes w123 tumblers. Wonder if I could re-key my VW to use my old Mercedes keys...

If it will fit inside the lockset then I'll be you could.

Got a new key yesterday at a local hardware store. The guy had to fart around for a long time to find a blank but he got it there in the end.

I went through this just a couple weeks ago. I bought a VW key blank from the dealer.
It is the same "secondary' non-flashlight key my car came with. It was 9 bucks.
I took it to the largest Locksmith here in town and they WOULD NOT CUT IT because it was steel! A Locksmith,are you kidding me? Where would one go to then?
I took it back to the VW dealer and he had it cut for free.

$9? I'd grab more.

-Todd

I had to visit quite a few big box stores to find the blanks, evidently they aren't that common anymore, so once you find a source, consider making a few spares.