New keys and coding with ak90

[X5smw]

Hi all. Not sure if I’m in the right place but hey….

bmw main dealer wanted a LOT for a replacement key for the x5.

so I went and bought a cheap ak90 key reader from Amazon and a cheap key with all the internals from Ali express…. 
 

both arrived early and the key was an exact duplicate of the genuine key. So off to the locksmith I went… ten minutes later and I had a second key that worked the ignition barrel. 
installed the ak90 onto my windows 7 laptop and fired it up.  After a short bit of working out how to install drivers etc, it connected and I read the key. It did what it said, showed me the key was blank and ready to programme. 

i went into the car and removed the ews unit from under the dash and used the ak90 to read the unit…. It’s a little tricky to hold the connections, but it read and saved.  Then, I ran the evaluation software and the ews told me what key slot to use, I selected it and inserted the key… it wrote within a minute and then I just updated the file back to the ews module.  

I fitted the ews back to the car, pluggged in pa soft to see what keys read and what are active and started it up with the old key. 
No issues there…. 
now for the new key…….

 

Success!!!!!!   

it reads the transponder fine, i programmed the central locking in about 10 seconds and now, I have a fully working key! 
 

all in all, the costs were…

ak90 about £20

key £9

key cutting £10

 

i have ordered another key so we can both have nice new ones that are not taped together which as I have the software, will cost £19! 
 

** the key cutter on the high street starting with T…. Will not cut your own key **