Can You Use Walmart’s Spare Key Machine for Car Keys?
Have you ever needed to clone a house key—either at the local hardware store or a Walmart? Well, what if you could do that for your car?
Most newer cars use a fob, or a small, electronic remote-controlled key that can’t be simply cut in a Walmart. North Mississippi-based TikToker Brianna Nechelle (@Lifewiththelewisfamily) tried to clone a key for an older vehicle that didn’t use a fob.
Nevertheless, the experiment didn’t work out.
Is it her bad luck or an issue with duplicating keys like that in general at Walmart?
What Keys Can Be Cut at Walmart
Walmart has partnered with two key-making companies, KeyMe and minuteKEY. When you go into one of their stores and see a yellow kiosk that offers such a service, it’s KeyMe. If it’s green, it’s minuteKEY.
In her video, Nechelle approaches a yellow KeyMe kiosk at her local Walmart.
“So I tried the KeyMe machine out at Walmart. I needed a spare key for my older car. It came in about a week. They sent it in this little yellow folder here. I am using the Walmart key,” she says with a thick drawl.
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We don’t see the car, but from the dashboard as she approaches it in the video. The make is indistinguishable, but it’s very clearly an older model of something. Brianna then attempts to start the car by turning the key.
“Let's try it,” she says in the clip.
The key doesn’t turn the engine.
“I know you lying. I know you lying,” Nechelle says.
Why Didn’t It Work?
KeyMe has noted on its website that not every vehicle key can be cloned:
“Most car keys include a transponder chip that transmits a signal that is read by a receiver in the car. If the car doesn’t detect the key’s microchip or the exact serial number, it won’t start," it reports. "To program the transponder chip, a locksmith uses specialized equipment and needs to be physically at your car to complete programming.”
In sum, car keys can be sneaky. Even older ones.
Motor1 reached out to Nechelle over TikTok’s direct message service to determine what type of car she had and from what year, but didn’t immediately respond.
Car makers first started adding chips to their keys in the mid-1990s. Depending on the make and year, it’s possible that Nechelle’s car required such a chip. KeyMe claims to offer a 100-percent money-back guarantee and has a page for customer service, so maybe the best place to go after dealing with an uncooperative key would be its website.
