I've had my beautiful MINI for three weeks...left me main key in Birmingham, AL where I was working. Both spares, in a box in the boot!!! Needless to say, my car sat all weekend at the airport while my girlfriend chaffered me around. Not before I let Superpark, AAA, and a AAA referre locksmith all tried to get into it!

My girlfriend told me she's taking the spare bad the valet key is in my wallet.

 

Just be sure to swap out the keys every 3 or 4 months. The keys have a rechargeable battery (not the plastic one) that is recharged while you are driving. If you don't use it every now and then, the battery may completely discharge.

 

Thx! I will. And by the looks of my spelling I'ms strong to thee finish cause I eats me spinach.

 

My car's been in storage for over a year now. Will the key be completely discharged if it hasn't been used? Will it recharge as I drive the car? Or will I need to (or even be able to) replace the battery in it?

 

Now that I'm thinking about it, I probably should have posted this in 1st Gen. Feel free to move if needed.

 

02-04 had a replaceable battery, 05 onward the key recharges when in the ignition.

Mark

 

I remember reading in the manual about how to replace the battery, now that it's been mentioned.

 

I just spent 5 minutes doing a search to answer this issue, came up with this;
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...0&postcount=11

But I know I have seen a post somewhere on NAM with pictures, just can't find it.

Mark

 

Cool! I never knew that the older models had replaceable batteries!

I try and drive with my 'spare' key every few months for a couple of days... just to keep it topped up. I'd bet that a discharged key can be recharged, but I don't know if it will need to be reprogrammed (but I would doubt it or we would have heard about more of these failures here on NAM)... it's probably more of a convenience thing.

 

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think the key holds any programing, it is just a remote "switch". The Body Control Module(BCM) is the brains.

Mark