I called my local Volvo dealer for a new remote. They quoted me $112 with tax and another $150 to program it, all I could say was HOLY $H!# !! How reliable is it to buy one off of Ebay and how hard are they to program? I use to have a Nissan Pathfinder and when I purchased the remote for it they just reached under the drivers seat and pushed something and said ok its done. I know Volvo is not going to be that easy, but I can only hope. Does anyone know of a cheaper route?

 

You can get the remotes elsewhere as long as it has the same part number but I'm pretty sure you have to go to the stealer to get it programmed. My '04 Jeep was about the same and the key for a '99 Maxima I had.

 

I bought one off flea-bay and couldn't get either local dealer to program it. They said I needed the original code for the remote to do this. I've heard on this forum and others it is possible, but not with the dealer in Napa CA or Walnut Creek CA. If any one knows how to do this, I'd love to know as I still have the one I bought that is wotheless, and would be nice to have a spare.

Jerry

 

Go to the dealer.

 

Definitely go to the dealer. You are lucky you have a 2001. The later keys are basically the equivalent to cell phones in their complexity, what with the anti theft, door unlocking, hatch opening, heart beat displaying functionality.

Cars and security systems have a limited number of key codes that will work with any one car. Meaning that you can get a max of, say, 4 different keys (each with their unique ID number that needs to be identified to the car) over the life of the car before you are beyond the number range. Makes sense if you don't want a duplicate key/code over a certain number of vehicles.

Funny story - I used to work at the GM Tech Center. I had a company car at the time - a grey Chevy Lumina Z34. Was going to lunch and asked one of my employees to get my car for me. He pulled up in a grey Z34 all right. But not mine. My key fob and key (with passkey security) unlocked the door, disabled the security system, and fit the ignition of someone else's identical car parked in the same parking lot as mine. At the time GM had something like 27 key combinations total. After I learned that I started walking around the lot just to see how many cars I could unlock with the key fob. It was a lot. Things have definitely improved but the improvement comes at a cost.