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Titanium key

SPTNSX

SPTNSX

Contributing Member
Joined
3 January 2012
Messages
196
Location
Huntington Beach, CA
Planning to purchase the NSX titanium key soon and I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on them. Do you think it's totally worth it? I personally love the look and feel of it, but $100 for a key is kind of steep. I'm also concerned about the cutting of the key. I heard that you need to cut the key with your vin number at the dealership. I don't mind having it cut at the dealer but I'm afraid that once it's cut, the cut won't work for my car because I read that key is very hard to cut. Please advise. Thanks in advance :)
 
SPTNSX said:
Planning to purchase the NSX titanium key soon and I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on them. Do you think it's totally worth it? I personally love the look and feel of it, but $100 for a key is kind of steep. I'm also concerned about the cutting of the key. I heard that you need to cut the key with your vin number at the dealership. I don't mind having it cut at the dealer but I'm afraid that once it's cut, the cut won't work for my car because I read that key is very hard to cut. Please advise. Thanks in advance :)
Click to expand...

Gday, I was in the same position you recently, pay ~$100 for the 'titanium' key or pay $15 for a replacement.

I went with the titanium........and it's worth it for the look and the heavier solid feel.

Note:

1) It's not really titanium so can be cut at any local key cut store. However, I was also a little worried about the cut not working and then living with $100 toothpick but I was lucky, had no probs.

2) Later years have transponder built in for immobiliser....so maybe why those need to be cut by dealer? But the local key cut shop should be able to do that too?
 
noisuf said:
Gday, I was in the same position you recently, pay ~$100 for the 'titanium' key or pay $15 for a replacement.

I went with the titanium........and it's worth it for the look and the heavier solid feel.

Note:

1) It's not really titanium so can be cut at any local key cut store. However, I was also a little worried about the cut not working and then living with $100 toothpick but I was lucky, had no probs.

2) Later years have transponder built in for immobiliser....so maybe why those need to be cut by dealer? But the local key cut shop should be able to do that too?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that the unobtanium key will not work with the immobiliser at all.
 
Ok I have all the info on these keys.

Acura would not cut the key they said the titanium will mess up the blade on the cutting machine, they told me to take it to a locksmith.

went to locksmith they told to me to go to he tells me " yeah Ferman Acura told you to come to me so they dont F_K up their machine."

then I remembered SOS states the Key isnt actually titanium is a mix of nickel and copper.

went back to the dealership told them this and showed them SOS website
they called the key cut machine corparate office and asked if this key will
f_K up their machine, the corporate office said no. if the key has any percent of steel in the key then yes. but this NSX key will not hurt any cutting machine.

now I have had this same keys cut before at Home depot, and Lowes
the key would not work would turn the ignition a little but not all the way.

what acura did differently than Home Depot or Lowes is they ran the process several times to make sure the machin cut down deep enough.

they did this tried the cut titanium key on my 96 build and it worked perfectly.

so when you have anyone cut it make sure they run the machine several times to insure the key is cut deep enough to work.

thats how I did it.

hope this helps
 
now as for the NSX years that have the imobilizer
all you need to do is take one of your spare keys and ziptie it to the ign switch as close to the sensor as you can
and your titanium key WILL work with your newer style NSX

but your imobilizer will be bypassed
 
Everything Shawn said is correct. When I bought my key the Acura dealer would not cut it. The parts guy said they didnt have the old machine to cut it with. I asked them to get my key code based on the vin. I took it to a locksmith they recommended. Now, those guys did complain about the key trashing their machine and we agreed if it does mess up his machine I will not get charged and if the key does not work he will not charged. Plus he said he had never seen a key like that and thought it was pretty cool. So they cut it based on the key code not a trace. I was really surprised on how different the key looked cut from the code vs a trace of the old OEM and it worked great. I trashed the other Home depot blanks and just keep my OEM keys plus the Ti
 
Last edited:
shawn110975 said:
now as for the NSX years that have the imobilizer
all you need to do is take one of your spare keys and ziptie it to the ign switch as close to the sensor as you can
and your titanium key WILL work with your newer style NSX

but your imobilizer will be bypassed
Click to expand...


Shawn, I will disagree with this, at least for the 2005 Model Year.

Having a Nissan with a Chip key and doing a conversion to a Flip key removing the chip and putting it inside the flip i figured this will be an easy attempt on the NSX.

I decided to buy a key from Tim to see if I was able to get the NSX branded key to work. I had the NSX (the 10 dollar key not the metal one) Key cut at Home depot and also bought a chip key there and was going to see about removing the chip and some how getting it inside the NSX Key.

Well I tested the chip key on the car and it worked great, so I pulled out the razor blade and started the break down process. Inside the 05 key there is a chip that has two wires that are attached to the key. I was able to successfully remove the chip/circuitboard but with how thin they were I did damage the wires attaching the chip to the key. I still continued my quest but was never able to get the extra key to work. I attempted putting my OE key near the ignition and all around just to try to get it to work so i know i didnt waste the money (around 100 bucks total) but it wouldnt work.

The chip inside the key is energized somehow and that is what is allowing the car to start (atleast my 05). My Pathfinder has a capsule type chip that just needs to be close to the ignition.

So I am back to having my OE keys that do not say NSX on them for now.
 
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the real thing that throws them off is the head of the key is were the weight is. if you look at the actual part that will be cut its just as thin as any other key out there.

the thing I figured out is dont say its titanium just hand them the key and have them cut it, and make sure they cut it a few times to make sure its deep enough.

when the key isnt deep enough it will not turn fully. so take it back to them and have them cut it again and flip the key over and have them cut it again. it will work just needs a few passes over the key to make it a working key.
 
Arista5 I will take one of my 2004 keys apart tonight as 2004-2005 are the same and see what your talking about. if you look at the ign cylinder under the dash its only grounded, there are no other wires beside the 2-3 wires leading to the sensor mounted above the cylinder,

now the key you say had two wires connected to the key shaft may have been an antenna for receiving sensor signal.

this is all a What IF though will report back.

but I could be wrong LOL
 
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Is the transponder chip like this?
CIMG0721.jpg


If so, maybe you could hack apart the key and just pop the chip itself in near the ignition. That also might make it more removable. In other words, you could put that chip up under your dash when you are local, but pop it out if you were a little less confident about where you were and wanted the imobilizer to work.

Then again, how much REAL security does the imobilizer provide now a days? Is it that big of a deal to do without it?

Detailed key hacking here (which is where I got the photo from):
http://tl.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=641440
 
blue_myriddn said:
Is the transponder chip like this?
CIMG0721.jpg


If so, maybe you could hack apart the key and just pop the chip itself in near the ignition. That also might make it more removable. In other words, you could put that chip up under your dash when you are local, but pop it out if you were a little less confident about where you were and wanted the imobilizer to work.

Then again, how much REAL security does the imobilizer provide now a days? Is it that big of a deal to do without it?

Detailed key hacking here (which is where I got the photo from):
http://tl.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=641440
Click to expand...


That is the piece. Bottom of mine looked a little more like a circuit board but maybe the bottom of mine separated? Either way I was not able to get the car to start even holding the OEM key next to the other on ein the ignition.

I hope Shawn comes up with something....
 
if you were holding that chip in front of the ign next to the key
you were to far away, you need to pull the lower dash down
and you will see on top of the ign cylinder the sensor.
you need to tape it or ziptie it to that sensor. it need to be super close to it as if it was still part of the key.

you were going in the right direction but need to get farther down

I am sure it will work.
 
chudson1549 said:
Everything Shawn said is correct. When I bought my key the Acura dealer would not cut it. The parts guy said they didnt have the old machine to cut it with. I asked them to get my key code based on the vin. I took it to a locksmith they recommended. Now, those guys did complain about the key trashing their machine and we agreed if it does mess up his machine I will not get charged and if the key does not work he will not charged. Plus he said he had never seen a key like that and thought it was pretty cool. So they cut it based on the key code not a trace. I was really surprised on how different the key looked cut from the code vs a trace of the old OEM and it worked great. I trashed the other Home depot blanks and just keep my OEM keys plus the Ti
Click to expand...

You could Dremel off the metal part of the immobilizer key leaving only the plastic handle containing the chip as a small 'fob' on your key ring.
 
Is the transponder the item indicated "A" in the picture below? If so, would the ideal place to attach the chip be around "B"? Could it be moved further than that?
keycylinder.jpg


Would it even be possible to attach it where the arrow indicates on the photo below?
nsxignition2.jpg


You could Dremel off the metal part of the immobilizer key leaving only the plastic handle containing the chip as a small 'fob' on your key ring.
Click to expand...
Interesting, that would certainly test the limits of how close the fob would need to be to make it work.
 
While i do like the feel of the Nickel key as it takes less effort to turn due to the mass of the thing, that damn key is too heavy to be on a performance vehicle that has a relativley poor torque to weight ratio. Mines been in my safe for about 15 years. The whole thing about the word beings it's Titanium when it's really nickel was a sad affair for Honda. Very out of character for the NSX though.
 
where are you guys getting the keys at? so the best way is just to get it cut at home depot/ any locksmith, DONT tell them its a "titanium" key which it isnt, and have them cut it several times...am I correct on this?
 

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