These days almost every vehicle comes with a transponder system which instantaneously answers the question in the title. Nevertheless, there is always the chance to see a transponder system in a vehicle in which you didn’t expect it or even not see it in a vehicle in which you thought it would. So how can you tell whether your car or the key has such a system or not? The following sections shall be all about figuring out the answer to that question precisely.

Ford and it’s early vehicles

We shall kick off with a little history about the transponder technology and why much of our focus shall revolve around Ford vehicles and keys. That’s because Ford was the first automotive company to make use of the transponder technology in their vehicles. The early vehicle fleet of Ford, mainly between 1996 to 1999, consisted of transponders as optional equipment and that too on a very limited number of models. From 2000 onwards, however, the in-home transponder system of Ford – PATS (Passive Anti Theft System) became standard and mandatory equipment on all their vehicles which is the reason why Ford has more vehicles with transponders on the road than any other manufacturer.

O início dessa tendência inicialmente se aplicava apenas a veículos de passageiros e de consumo. Mas com o tempo, até mesmo a maioria dos caminhões de transporte e carruagem e vans da linha de montagem da Ford agora vêm com seu sistema de transponder proprietário.

This brief history only cements the chances that your Ford car key most certainly has a chip. But even still there’s not 100% surety of that fact.

Como saber se uma chave tem um chip?

• The best way to tell whether your vehicle key has a chip in it or not is to make use of the hit and trial method – you do one thing and if satisfactory results turn up then well and good. Otherwise, you just remove that possibility. In this case, you may do so by simply starting with a non-transponder key and see what happens! Mind you though that this method is bound to make things difficult if your vehicle does have a transponder system because if it unlocks with a non-chip key, you can easily conclude the absence of a transponder system. But if that doesn’t happen, the on-board computer shall read it as a theft attempt and probably make your little experiment, something to take home as a lesson and also that your vehicle has a transponder system and needs a key with a chip to open it.
• Existem também outros métodos para saber se sua chave Ford tem um chip ou não, mas esses métodos são um pouco complicados e muito menos divertidos do que experimentos práticos, como no método anterior.
• Uma delas é verificar algumas referências de veículos gratuitas de diferentes fabricantes. Você pode obter essas referências diretamente da Internet ou de seu distribuidor local. As chances com essas referências são sempre de 50-50, porque não é possível cobrir todos os veículos novos lá fora e ainda mais; para cobrir todos os aspectos dos referidos veículos. Mas, como são gratuitos, não custa nada tentar.
• E se livre manuals were of no help, then you can also seek the help of magazines and manuals that you have to purchase. The chances of finding the answer to your question in such magazines is definitely more than finding it in the free ones mostly because if you are paying for something that has a free alternative, you obviously expect to find more quality in it and that’s what these manuals do. Again, however, know that even such manuals are not cent percent accurate. Everyone is human, everyone has a limit, and in the process they can also miss out on some things or some information. If the free manuals have a 50% chance of success, then paid manuals give you almost 80% chance of finding what you’re looking for.
• Uma maneira segura de obter as informações corretas sobre a chave do veículo é entrar em contato diretamente com a concessionária ou com o vendedor por onde você passou, porque esse é o trabalho diário deles. Eles circulam pelos veículos todos os dias e certamente forneceriam as informações corretas sobre a presença ou ausência de um chip na sua chave.
• We’re not quite sure why you would want to take this step just for the sake of information or even E se you would take this step. You can always contact a locksmith, give them the make and model of your car, and they should be able to tell you if your Ford has an electronic transponder system in place. You surely would have to pay them some amount for the same and that’s the reason why taking this step would be illogical?

You can of course contact a locksmith if you lose your key and find yourself locked out of your vehicle and also if you don’t have a duplicate key. But please don’t go losing your key deliberately just to know if your vehicle comes equipped with a transponder system.

informações diversas

Como dissemos antes e estamos enfatizando novamente; se o seu veículo Ford for um modelo projetado após 2000, existem dois cenários-

• É um veículo de passageiros ou de consumo, caso em que sua chave está definitivamente equipada com um chip.
• É um veículo maior, como um caminhão ou van. Nesse caso, ainda são grandes as chances de ele ter um sistema de transponder instalado, embora o cenário inverso também seja possível. A chance de ter uma chave baseada em chip para esses veículos é quase 75%.

Also, the thing with chip-based keys is that they are required for starting the car, but to unlock the car, some models also have a regular key. So don’t go assuming that if your car is being unlocked by a standard key, it does not have a transponder system. Try firing the car up with it and then you’ll know for sure.