Clio owners: You have the key to ALL (or some) Clio's

[16vMK2 to 172Sport]

Me and the Mrs both own ph2 clios, hers a 1.2 dynamic and mine a 172. The other day i went to unlock hers with what i thought was her key, the door opened and i got in... only when i tried to start the engine, i realised i had MY OWN KEYS in my hand!!! WHAT THE F**K?!?!

We then tried a test to see if her key opened mine. . . dun dun dunnnn!!! MINE OPENED!!!! quite funny, yet at the same time, completely wrong! How can Renault put universal locks on our mk2's!?!

Anyone else discovered this quite shocking fault?? What can we do about it???

Discuss...

 

[rich19]

jesus thats a turn up 4 the books!

thats well shockin but perhaps a good idea not 2 shout about it too much or the dumb thiefs may try it

 

[Leeshez]

It is strange. My brother had a Orion ghia and my mate had a standard 1.6. My brothers key would open my mates car but not start it.

 

[Ben.]

i was aware that some old escorts/fiesta's could be opened with any ford key

didnt realise you could with clio's?

you cant open my car using the keyhole anyway as it sets the alarm off

 

[16vMK2 to 172Sport]

i was aware that some old escorts/fiesta's could be opened with any ford key

didnt realise you could with clio's?

you cant open my car using the keyhole anyway as it sets the alarm off

Still doesn't stop a theif nicking any of your contents thought does it!! lol

 

[Mr Toakley]

Back in the Ford Orion/ Fiesta days you could lock all ford cars with the same type of key and some of them did open others but wouldn't start them.

This is an interesting topic though and would be intrigued to see what Renault have to say about this. I'll try it myself when I get mine as my mate's got a 182.

 

[16vMK2 to 172Sport]

Yeh, the ignition barrels seem pretty unique to each key, but the door locks must just be cheap and 'saggy' lol However, i did find the neither key LOCKED the other car, just unlocked.... BONUS!! lol

 

[lewisniven]

awesome, gonna go sort myself out with a v6 tonight then me thinks

seriously tho thats shocking if it does work :s

 

[16vMK2 to 172Sport]

awesome, gonna go sort myself out with a v6 tonight then me thinks

seriously tho thats shocking if it does work :s

it DOES work, im not actually joking!
What do we think would be the best angle of attack on this one:

A complaint the the dealer the car was brought from, or,

A complaint to the Renault head office?

The latter me thinks... :evil:

 

[172blue]

Nowadays, if they want your contents or car for that matter, they can get in through the window without breaking it probably as quick as it takes to find a key that opens the door, even if they are "universal".

The alarm will go off either way, at least creating noise.

Certainly on the more modern cars, when did you last use the key in the door, I could'nt even tell you if my key opens the door! It starts the car and that is all that important.

If they want your stuff, they'll take it sadly.

Complaining is great.....however what are RUK gonna do? Look at the whole bonnet popping up fiasco, it was almost proved to be right on watchdog, and their answer was "we'll look at it at the dealers"! Unlikely they'll splash out on us all having new door locks....

 

[Gareth]

as said they won't be interested. I'm just glad the Megane's don't have any locks.

 

[prezza]

I am aware on many other cars that there is only a certain number of lock combinations, yet each key is individually magnetically coded to the ignition.This would answer the fact that you can get in, but cant start the car. To find a car which opens using your key should be highly unlikely on the balance of probability depending on how mant lock combinations Renault used on the Clio.

This is even found on locking wheel nuts. For example, my mates locking wheel nut key snapped the other week for his Boxter. Porsche told him that there are only 16 different combinations.... This is worrying too!

The fact that your key fits the missus car may just mean that youre meant for each other !!! Ahhhhhhhhhh

 

[Steve2004]

I am aware on many other cars that there is only a certain number of lock combinations

Indeed, you'll find several other manufacturers suffer from this 'few keys will open many doors' problem. Not just Renault.

 

[16vMK2 to 172Sport]

But surely, cars of the 21st century shouldnt be manufactured like this... should they??

 

[RichRSi]

Quite common, when I worked at a classic car restoration garage they had a box of keys, you just took the box with you and tried till you found one that worked (usually on morris minors) but I would have thought technology had moved on a bit since then.

 

[16vMK2 to 172Sport]

but I would have thought technology had moved on a bit since then.

Exactly... and the shoddy thing about it is, when you look at the two different keys, they a visually different to the eye, so its not even like the two different door locks are just slightly different!!

 

[r44my_k]

as said they won't be interested. I'm just glad the Megane's don't have any locks.

The meganes do have locks mate.

 

[Owen]

Yer, i was round a mates a few years ago and there were three fords on the drive, iirc all the keys would open each others doors, but more worryingly the escort key would start the other mates ka!

On a slightly different note, i remember my mates vauxhall nova where if you took the hazard warning light switch out, turned it upside down and put it back in, it turned the ignition on to '2nd click'... i remember pushing his car down the road trying to bump start it while he was in the shops on many occasions! lol.