Blade of ignition key came out of fob. Pushed blade back in to fob, key will now not turn in the ignition switch.

The chip is still in the top of the key fob isn’t it? It’s a trapezium shaped black piece of plastic as seen here.

Click image to enlarge

tb10 thank you so much, you could not have been more right. I went back to the car in daylight and found the chip in the footwell. Fixed the key immediately but the battery was flat as had drained overnight. A quick jump start sorted that.

I’m currently on holiday in the back of beyond with Mrs Turbot and this issue looked likely to derail our few days away.

We are both very grateful to you.

No worries and glad to help. It could have been a very quiet journey home on the back of a flat bed had you not found it (but you would have saved the cost of the fuel though)!!

If you know someone with an appropriate RFID copier you can clone that little ID chip and epoxy it to the bottom of a generic key fob or drop it into an ebay 'cut from photo' BMW key fob.

I keep a cut key with an empty fob in my caravan's hidden key locker (can't start engine) and a cloned ID chip unobtrusively taped to the back wall of the locker.

Suitable RFID copiers and blank ID chips are just a few $ on ebay.

bye. 2003 TD6, EGR delete, vortex crankcase breather update, performance chip, UHF 2 way, Android head unit, crash camera on dash, always-on rear view camera to mirror screen, LED DRL`s, Electric trailer brake controller. FSR replaced. Pulling 3T caravan all about Australia