Several Days to Program a Key Fob?

[petergottlieb]

So, I probably just need to share here. When my car got delivered it had a single key fob. They tried to quickly program another one, but after an hour accepted that wasn't going to happen. No problem, I'll just bring it back another time. Well, that other time came on Thursday (a bit more than a month after I picked it up). And once again after four hours, they couldn't get a second key working. Long story short, that was yesterday, and they still weren't able to get it working today, even after, if I understood correctly installing a new antenna and some security ECU under the headliner. When they called me this afternoon to tell me it wouldn't be ready, they said they were talking to "engineering" to try to figure out why it wouldn't accept another key.

So, has this happened to anyone else? I think this spooks me a bit because I think of pairing a new key to a car as a fairly simple task - not a multi-day adventure in auto-repair. I'm clearly wrong about that, but for lack of a better way to put it, I don't know enough to know why I am wrong.

P.S. For those who may wonder, I'm not really complaining - Lucid gave me another Lucid as a loaner, if I could just get it to remember my seat adjustments, I'd be totally happy with it .

P.P.S. Making this all feel just a bit dumber, we don't even use the key fobs. We both have mobile key set up on our phones and while I sometimes wish it was a bit less sensitive, it's always worked fine for us. But because we're leasing it, and expect they will want two keys back in three years, we thought we needed to take care of this.

 

[borski]

So, I probably just need to share here. When my car got delivered it had a single key fob. They tried to quickly program another one, but after an hour accepted that wasn't going to happen. No problem, I'll just bring it back another time. Well, that other time came on Thursday (a bit more than a month after I picked it up). And once again after four hours, they couldn't get a second key working. Long story short, that was yesterday, and they still weren't able to get it working today, even after, if I understood correctly installing a new antenna and some security ECU under the headliner. When they called me this afternoon to tell me it wouldn't be ready, they said they were talking to "engineering" to try to figure out why it wouldn't accept another key.

So, has this happened to anyone else? I think this spooks me a bit because I think of pairing a new key to a car as a fairly simple task - not a multi-day adventure in auto-repair. I'm clearly wrong about that, but for lack of a better way to put it, I don't know enough to know why I am wrong.

P.S. For those who may wonder, I'm not really complaining - Lucid gave me another Lucid as a loaner, if I could just get it to remember my seat adjustments, I'd be totally happy with it .

P.P.S. Making this all feel just a bit dumber, we don't even use the key fobs. We both have mobile key set up on our phones and while I sometimes wish it was a bit less sensitive, it's always worked fine for us. But because we're leasing it, and expect they will want two keys back in three years, we thought we needed to take care of this.

I’ve never heard of this. I’ve lost a fob, and had them replaced (with new versions), and pairing them has always been a 1-minute thing for service. I haven’t heard of anyone else having the issue either.

It sounds like there’s something unique going on. Sorry to hear that.

 

[Blue Lectroid]

So, I probably just need to share here. When my car got delivered it had a single key fob. They tried to quickly program another one, but after an hour accepted that wasn't going to happen. No problem, I'll just bring it back another time. Well, that other time came on Thursday (a bit more than a month after I picked it up). And once again after four hours, they couldn't get a second key working. Long story short, that was yesterday, and they still weren't able to get it working today, even after, if I understood correctly installing a new antenna and some security ECU under the headliner. When they called me this afternoon to tell me it wouldn't be ready, they said they were talking to "engineering" to try to figure out why it wouldn't accept another key.

So, has this happened to anyone else? I think this spooks me a bit because I think of pairing a new key to a car as a fairly simple task - not a multi-day adventure in auto-repair. I'm clearly wrong about that, but for lack of a better way to put it, I don't know enough to know why I am wrong.

P.S. For those who may wonder, I'm not really complaining - Lucid gave me another Lucid as a loaner, if I could just get it to remember my seat adjustments, I'd be totally happy with it .

P.P.S. Making this all feel just a bit dumber, we don't even use the key fobs. We both have mobile key set up on our phones and while I sometimes wish it was a bit less sensitive, it's always worked fine for us. But because we're leasing it, and expect they will want two keys back in three years, we thought we needed to take care of this.

Thanks for sharing. Thats a bit of a bummer, but I’m certain Lucid will make it right!

 

[mraschko]

So, I probably just need to share here. When my car got delivered it had a single key fob. They tried to quickly program another one, but after an hour accepted that wasn't going to happen. No problem, I'll just bring it back another time. Well, that other time came on Thursday (a bit more than a month after I picked it up). And once again after four hours, they couldn't get a second key working. Long story short, that was yesterday, and they still weren't able to get it working today, even after, if I understood correctly installing a new antenna and some security ECU under the headliner. When they called me this afternoon to tell me it wouldn't be ready, they said they were talking to "engineering" to try to figure out why it wouldn't accept another key.

So, has this happened to anyone else? I think this spooks me a bit because I think of pairing a new key to a car as a fairly simple task - not a multi-day adventure in auto-repair. I'm clearly wrong about that, but for lack of a better way to put it, I don't know enough to know why I am wrong.

P.S. For those who may wonder, I'm not really complaining - Lucid gave me another Lucid as a loaner, if I could just get it to remember my seat adjustments, I'd be totally happy with it .

P.P.S. Making this all feel just a bit dumber, we don't even use the key fobs. We both have mobile key set up on our phones and while I sometimes wish it was a bit less sensitive, it's always worked fine for us. But because we're leasing it, and expect they will want two keys back in three years, we thought we needed to take care of this.

Maybe this will make you feel a little better. We bought my wife's Audi Q7 during the chip shortage. At the time, they were delivering cars with one key fob and a promise to deliver another one in a month. Well, that month stretched into several, but eventually the key fob arrived, and Audi told us to bring in the car to have it programmed. That was supposed to take a day or so. It ended up taking 2 months (fortunately they had given us a loaner) and they told us that they had to have engineers (in Germany?) write custom software to finally make it work.

So, sucks that you're dealing with that but I'm betting that Lucid can beat Audi to the finish line. Good luck!

 

[californiaboy935]

Wow, I lost a fob a few months back and they programmed a new one for it at the Torrance service center in under 30 minutes. Sorry you are dealing with that but it definitely is an outlier.

I will say they are expensive, even the little black credit card keys are like $100 out the door. But that’s emblematic of the whole car market. My S550 car key is like $800… so I’m happy that Lucid’s is cheaper.

 

[petergottlieb]

Maybe this will make you feel a little better. We bought my wife's Audi Q7 during the chip shortage. At the time, they were delivering cars with one key fob and a promise to deliver another one in a month. Well, that month stretched into several, but eventually the key fob arrived, and Audi told us to bring in the car to have it programmed. That was supposed to take a day or so. It ended up taking 2 months (fortunately they had given us a loaner) and they told us that they had to have engineers (in Germany?) write custom software to finally make it work.

So, sucks that you're dealing with that but I'm betting that Lucid can beat Audi to the finish line. Good luck!

Oh my. heh, well the race is on, Audi vs. Lucid to the Key Fob finish line: I'll report back in when I get it back.

 

[briank]

Peter, those of us with metal roofs have to suffer through this poor engineering design. Theory is the headliner is too thick for the key fob pairing signal.

Obviously this happened to me too. When my '25 Air got delivered in San Francisco last month it only had a single key fob. The dealership tried to program another one, but gave up after an hour. Because my TCU needed resetting, I had a mobile service Tech here today. Rebooting the TCU took him only a minute. I then watched him try to pair 10 new key fobs before giving up. Apparently this is the standard service procedure and the next step to remove the headliner. It's best to bring it back to the dealership for that. Definitely a waste of everyone's time...

 

[petergottlieb]

Peter, those of us with metal roofs have to suffer through this poor engineering design. Theory is the headliner is too thick for the key fob pairing signal.

Obviously this happened to me too. When my '25 Air got delivered in San Francisco last month it only had a single key fob. The dealership tried to program another one, but gave up after an hour. Because my TCU needed resetting, I had a mobile service Tech here today. Rebooting the TCU took him only a minute. I then watched him try to pair 10 new key fobs before giving up. Apparently this is the standard service procedure and the next step to remove the headliner. It's best to bring it back to the dealership for that. Definitely a waste of everyone's time...

Ahh. It’s nice not to be alone at least. They tried pulling down the headliner and even installing a new ECU. Now they are moving on to replacing the “central antenna” (I think I have that right). I am glad I have a loaner - that makes me less grumpy, but what a pain for everyone involved.

 

[petergottlieb]

Well, it looks like they got it fixed - 8 days (but really five business days). I haven't picked it up yet, but below is what their notes are about what went into getting it working again. Sounds very frustrating, but glad they got it dealt with.

 

[californiaboy935]

Well, it looks like they got it fixed - 8 days (but really five business days). I haven't picked it up yet, but below is what their notes are about what went into getting it working again. Sounds very frustrating, but glad they got it dealt with.

It seems like they did a really thorough job and diagnosing the problem so I am happy to see that they got you all squared away

 

[scal_air]

Well, it looks like they got it fixed - 8 days (but really five business days). I haven't picked it up yet, but below is what their notes are about what went into getting it working again. Sounds very frustrating, but glad they got it dealt with.

Reading through the service, I'm not positive what solved the problem but it sounds like replacing the central node antenna did the trick...did they really say that the metal roof interferes with pairing? I and probably hundreds of others have a metal roof and functional key fobs!!??

 

[petergottlieb]

Yes, it’s not clear. Definitely a fairly deep design/odd software/odd hardware interaction. They just tried things until something worked. I’ll test both of the fobs when I pick it up and confirm it works. If it does, I’ll be happy and then put the fobs in their box and keep using my phone as the key.