Picked this car up on eBay a couple of months ago and have been putting all the parts together to make it a daily driver for me and my wife. These are the wheels I picked up on our marketplace. Helps the looks a lot!

Alright!
To the problem

The car only had one used up key so I contacted my local BMW dealership ordered 2 new keys at a cost of $640 bucks and talked to the parts people and the service department about programming needs and the said that the R53's only needed the key to be placed in the ignition and they would marry up.
The key will crank the car fine but the Auto Unlock feature of the key is not operating. I was afraid that what I was told sound a bit suspect but here we are.
Any help to correct this to get the expensive keys working would be appreciated.
Jimmy

 

This is the procedure for an ‘05 or ‘06 R50/R53 or an ‘05-08 R52/R52 S

 

Well I was thinking that would be easy enough but tried many times with both keys with no success and tried the key I got with the car and it did not work either so tried to program it also with no success so I removed the mirror to make sure the wiring harness to the mirror was connected and it was.This car is new to me so not sure if this feature has worked in years.
What would be my first starting point you would think to figure this first issue out? I have many 05-06 R50/53 minis so I can do some part swapping if necessary

 

The remote receiver is in the rear view mirror in a facelift R50 and R53. You can take the mirror apart and swap just the circuit board, or swap the entire mirror.

When you tried to pair the new remotes did you have the doors closed? They are supposed to be closed or the car will not go into pairing mode. It might not matter but I would make sure the hood and hatch are also closed.

All of the remotes should be on hand for pairing as you only insert the first key into the ignition and turn to accessory and remove, then do the button presses and successfully get the door lock confirmation. The rest of the keys only need to go through the button presses and confirmation right after the door lock confirmation of the previous key. Once all of the keys are paired, opening the door or starting the car is supposed to save the remotes and exit the pairing mode. I don’t remember for sure, but I think all previously paired keys are deleted unless re-paired during the latest session.

 

Well Im bad about leaving the door open! I was disappointed because I immediately took off out there and gave it a try but no success.
I don't know anything about the history of this car but its a JCW car so its getting repaired. For all I know its a 56 mirror with a different frequency
I was going to get a auto dimming mirror for this car anyway to put as many option on it that I can easily so I guess I will start there looking for a really nice one
I will post back as soon as I can source one and see if that takes car of that bug.
Best Jimmy