So I swapped cars with my mother for a week, needed a bigger car to accommodate visiting family. Upon picking up my car and coming home, I removed the key fob from the slot and noticed it was sitting there somewhat loose. After inserting and removing it again I noticed it was not locking in any more and the lower plastic "tongue" was stuck in the inserted position. However, nudging it slightly did activate the ignition unlock and I am able to start and drive the car.

Called mother and sure enough she did not know she was supposed to push the key fob in for it to release, so she used force to rip it out of there (my fault for assuming she'd figure things out).

Question now, is it an expensive repair to fix this mechanism? Anyone encountered this problem?

 

Seems the part is not to expensive at $82.00 or so depending on where you purchase.

P/N 61359231739

You can probably do the replacement yourself as you only need to remove a few panels from around the steering wheel area. and then it should be plug an play.

As far as I know there is no programming required for this part.

 

Thanks a lot for finding out the part number. I searched on realoem.com but could not locate it. Yes, that is something I can definitely replace myself.

 

If I where you I would try one of the several MINI Salvage places around the country, surely one of them could pull the part you need out of a junked MINI.

 

That's a great idea.

 

so for sure no reprogramming needed from Mini if we change this module ?

 

There's a member on this forum called Valvashon that specializes in replacement Mini keys. You might want to check there first.