Hey Andy, I'm going through the exact same thing with the 99 Explorer I just bought. It was traded in with only 1 key/fob. You must have 2 keys to start with to program additional keys yourself, since I only have the 1 key I have to go to the Ford dealer and pay for the key and to program it. Which in my opinion is a PITA and to expensive. I called the 3 dealers near me best priced one was $30.00 for the key + $45.00 for programing. So, even though I don't want to pay this, I guess I'm going to have to.
Buy the key offline.. its cheaper and you can have them program it also The dealer told me it was $80 to hook the car to the machine. This was when I asked about finding the keyless entry number, Which I know how to find now, so if you need to know how, let me know. They told me it was min of $80 and if I needed a key to just wait and do it all at once so it would only be $80 total. I do have 2 fobs, just one key which sucks
Thats exactly what the book says... so maybe one key will work... I'll give it a try either way.. Thanks
Yup! you can do it yourself with only one key on the 97. I call them up today to find out how much just to cut it. The guy tells me $40 to program it. I say no, I just want it cut. He gets an attitude and says well I cant do that then, the parts department does. So he transfers me. I tell them the situation, they say $5.50. I was going to cut it myself at work, but our machine is broke, and someone told me something about the dealership having an anti-static machine. I dont know if thats true, but either way, the machine at work was broken. I go up there, the guys like the key has to be programmed if you dont have 2 existing keys. Im like yea, I know, just cut it. I can do it myself with one. He stares at me funny and cuts it. Before I leave I get the "You have to program it" thing. I say "I'll be back in 2 minutes." I pay for the key, go to the car, program it, go back in with a new blank. He's like "so you want it programmed huh?" And I say "Nope, I want another key cut, I already programmed it myself in the parking lot, but I didnt want to pay to have 2 keys cut at the same time just incase" He looks at me like im some weirdo, but he cuts the key anyways. So $11 later, and 5 minutes of my time I now have 2 new keys. One's in a secret place, the other is on my spare keychain. Total of $34 invested for 2 keys, cutting, shipping and everything. They wanted $40 just to put it on the machine today, and another $60 or $80 per key (guy couldnt remember off top of his head. lol) As for trying it w/ the programmed key close to the ignition w/ the unprogrammed key in it. I didn't try it, but I did have the programmed key on the same keyring when trying to start it, and it wouldn't work w/ the 2nd unprogrammed key. So I dont think that rumor is true.
