i have a 2004 ford explorer and my husband has a 2004 ford ranger. I found out by mistake that my husbands keys unkock my doors and mine unlock his. Is this normal? my car was broken into and everything stolen out of it. the doors were locked but there was no forced entry? some one told me that ford only makes 34 different keys? others tell me they have never heard of keys unlocking other vehicles and that i should report it to ford and have them rekey. i do not feel safe leaving anything in the car. I am worried about my chids car seat being stolen now.

 

This is very true! I work for UPS as a package car mechanic. We have alot of ford vehicles that we can use the same key for, but dont work in others. Maybe call a lock smith and possibly they can hook you up on some different key tumblers.

 

It is somewhat true.
Most 2 sided key unlock the door and starts the engine.
The keys have 2 parts the tip half works the door and the back half the engine.
There are (and I might be wrong on the numbers) 8 positions for each half and
some 8 settings for each position (that like 2.09 million keys). So its pretty much
like a combination lock, but no to key will be the same for the door and engine,
so even if somebody can open the door they can't start it.

Some Nissan where even worse, some keys could open the door, but not start the
engine. But any key could turn the ingition to the 'on' position, if standard and you
have to do is push start it and your gone!

 

yes indeed , seen it many times , it appers to be worse on keys that have been cut aftermarket, I guess the points are'nt near as sharp an will depress the pin in the lock an there u go , an in the old days , we would take a key an have one side cut to fit the Ign. an the other side cut to fit the door , so u only needed one key !!!!

 

Also the lock tumblers wear and make it so that keys that are close in combenation will work them as well.

 

From mid 2001 and up Ford started using their transponder PATS system. While as stated above there are only half the tumblers in the doors and half in the ignition (with 2 common tumblers) even a key that would turn the ignition would not be allowed to start the engine without a properly encoded transponder chip. Tumblers do wear and as that happens some room for error will occur so that a key that is only off by 1 or 2 depth cuts might work, though not well. I would not really expect this though on a 2004. It does happen, since there is a finite number of combinations in a key, that you will occassionally get one that will work a different vehicle, though it has been my experience that it is very rare.

One thing I will say, noting that the one poster mentioned a break in with no visible signs of entry, fords can be picked with relative ease. As a master locksmith, when I am called to open a locked ford the first thing I do is attempt to pick one of the door locks, and usually am in the vehicle in under a minute. Of course this would mean that the person breaking in would have the knowledge and tools to pick a lock and if you are up against someone who is a "pro" nothing will ever be able to be done to prevent entry. The transponder system though will 9 times out of 10 prevent them from actually taking the vehicle. Best advice I give my customers is to install an alarm system with an ignition cut off. This will not prevent anyone from gaining access, but will prevent the car from being driven away.