V8 Vantage Plastic Spare Key

[Sniper67]

I'm looking for an alternative to the plastic ECU I have with my 2010 V8 Vantage. The glass ECU key is lovely but needs a little chip repair. I am planning to send it off for repair but it got me thinking, the plastic one is awful and the buttons almost impossible to see. Is there anywhere that supplies something a bit less prototype looking? I have seen a thread with Jaguar fobs being used but I'm not sure that works for my key or earlier versions that had a fob and key for starting the car.

On a separate note, had mine for 6 months now and still can't help but smile every time I see her. I think the girlfriend might be a bit jealous of our relationship!

Hopefully the link works to show my key model, sorry if it doesn't, I'm no IT genius..

http://www.astonmartinbits.com/bit_images/0003/088...

[yellow_tang]

Have you tried these people. They offer solutions for the plastic valet key:-

http://www.astonmartinkeyrepair.com/

[Sniper67]

Great, thanks for the tip. I will give them a go.

[m33ufo]

The innards of your plastic key are the same as the crystal key. Buy a new crystal key and swap the internals.

You can almost have a new crystal key for the price of a repair (not from Aston of course!). There are two repair companies that I'm aware of, one quoted £370 and the other £400 to replace the crystal on a damaged fob.

I've literally just bought a new key myself - by all means email me and I might be able to help

[QuantumV8]

How do you feel about sterling silver...? https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[woodsypedia]

yellow_tang said:

Have you tried these people. They offer solutions for the plastic valet key:-

http://www.astonmartinkeyrepair.com/

I got a quote from these folks. They're out in Dubai - and horrifically expensive. I got a quote for a carbon fibre shell from them. They sent me back a price that was 4 figures and it was "carbon effect". They never replied to my question to whether it was genuine carbon fibre.

I'd suggest sending your shell away to be hydro dipped or something. Would probably give a good result.

Cheers

Chris.

[Sniper67]

Thanks everyone for your help. Lots of options. Decided to seek out a new glass key and use the chipped one for darting around and a new one for bragging! ;-)

[Del Lardo]

woodsypedia said:

I got a quote from these folks. They're out in Dubai - and horrifically expensive. I got a quote for a carbon fibre shell from them. They sent me back a price that was 4 figures and it was "carbon effect". They never replied to my question to whether it was genuine carbon fibre.

I'd suggest sending your shell away to be hydro dipped or something. Would probably give a good result.

Cheers

Chris.

Strange, their contact details show a Cambridge phone number to me (and I am behind a VPN) and the Company listed on their website is listed as in Farnham so looks UK based

[yellow_tang]

woodsypedia said:

I got a quote from these folks. They're out in Dubai - and horrifically expensive. I got a quote for a carbon fibre shell from them. They sent me back a price that was 4 figures and it was "carbon effect". They never replied to my question to whether it was genuine carbon fibre

They are definitely UK based. Had one of my glass keys refurbished by them as the black bit was heavily scratched. Decided to get it colour coded to my car in the end. They did a great job at a reasonable price, very happy with it.

Don’t think they make carbon fibre covers for the plastic valet key, as they say it is a carbon effect.

[johnnyBv8]

yellow_tang said:

woodsypedia said:

I got a quote from these folks. They're out in Dubai - and horrifically expensive. I got a quote for a carbon fibre shell from them. They sent me back a price that was 4 figures and it was "carbon effect". They never replied to my question to whether it was genuine carbon fibre

They are definitely UK based. Had one of my glass keys refurbished by them as the black bit was heavily scratched. Decided to get it colour coded to my car in the end. They did a great job at a reasonable price, very happy with it.

Don’t think they make carbon fibre covers for the plastic valet key, as they say it is a carbon effect.

They put a picture on FB and to be honest the carbon effect looked pretty nasty. Perhaps a single colour gloss finish would be better, but given plastic keys always show slight signs of wear from the mechanism, I wonder how long it would stay looking smart.

[woodsypedia]

Hmmm. Maybe I got it wrong. I could have sworn they were international.

No drama