Key points to key issues

Re: A better idea? Not from Ford, March 17

I read your article regarding the possibility of someone having a key that will open more than one Ford vehicle. I am sure many people are shocked that their vehicle may be able to be opened by another person’s key.

Perhaps you could put a little more perspective on this. As your article indicated, there are approximately 3.5 million Ford vehicles potentially on the road today in Canada.

How many could have a key that could open another Ford Vehicle? The answer is quite a few; but in the grand scheme, not r eally t hat many.

If you look at the notches in your key, you will see that there are eight individual cuts to various depths. How many key variations could there be with eight “tumblers” or “pins?” Each cut in the key has only four different depths that they can be cut to. So, given eight locations with four different depths, there would be four to the power of eight different keys or 65,536 different keys possible. Given your estimate of 3.5 million Fords, this would give an average of 53.4 vehicles with the same key, or rather the same door key.

As you also indicated, the two keys you had, would not actually start or operate the wrong vehicle. This would be due to further security measures in the form of a security coded chip in the key to the individual computer in the vehicle. So, at worst case, someone may open your door, maybe get inside, but they are not going to drive it away.

The probabilities are fur- ther reduced by the fact that Ford has already changed the design of their keys to a new side cut, so there is less than 3.5 million cars in the potential “pool” that the key will even fit in.

The pool will further be reduced, as the keys have changed over time as well, so older Ford vehicle keys won’t fit in the newer ones either.

Ford is not t he only manufacturer t hat uses an eight- pin position key: Chrysler has used the same key design for over 10 years. Consequently Chrysler, like Ford, is changing over to a new side cut key in a number of their vehicles. Wayne Van Petten, former parts manager for an auto dealership