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      12-09-2016, 02:37 AM   #102
SeanWRT
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Drives: E90 M3 & F87 M2
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Shanghai

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Guys, thank you all for the interest.

First of all, my intention of posting here is merely to share my joy of having a fantastic new key that I thought was OEM and the process how it's made, not trying to sell it whatsoever and be a vendor of any kind. The BMW dealer it's sourced from has a very limited supply of it so I am not able to help out many of you that's really interested.

Needless to say it's very helpful to hear you back. I checked yesterday with the dealer on the tiny hole that my key probably should've had but didn't and was told there're too many different variants of razor keys so he needs to check back with the manufacture.

A few hours back, the dealer manager contacted me and sent a few pictures, as I requested, of the keys (see below) of the X5 and X6 they have in the showroom at present, which apparently are different from each other -one with 3 chrome buttons & without ///M on the side, VS. the other one with 3 black plastic buttons & with ///M on the side, but a hole in the insert key is what they have in common. Both are 100% OEM coming with the car from BMW. The dealer also confirmed that a few variants of razor keys come without hole, though he cannot confirm if X5m is one of them. Both of us have no idea what that hole is for.

The other things the dealer manager told or implied, I am in no position to tell, but these, as following, are either my understanding or what I have high level of confidence in believing. Take it with a grain of salt though.
1) The retrofit key is not OEM, technically speaking. I shall and did correct it in the OP.
2) The retrofit key is made in China 100%, the same things can be said to OEM keys of X1/X3/3er/5er.
3) The retrofit X5M chip board (the black one shown in OP) is custom made to accommodate razor key enclosure and is dealing with 434 and 315 signal frequency, which is compatible with F8X & F3X, or all the 434/315 chips. BTW, frequency can be easily known by taking off insert key so you'll be able to see the number shown on top of the key.
4) The OEM X5/X6 chip board does NOT accommodate F8X and F3X chips, which means you won't be able to do the swap without using a retrofit chip board.
5) X5 OEM chip board directly fits retrofit X5M enclosure. This is useful when someone wants to upgrade from black plastic button/side without ///M to chrome aluminum button/side with ///M.
6) The buzz button on the retrofit key is a decorative only (though it clicks normally as a button), because F8X doesn't have buzz function to begin with.
7) Retrofit Insert Key is blank (see picture below with insert key off), can be modded to original key if needed.

That being said, I am still more than 100% satisfied with the retrofit, I'd definitely do it even if I knew all of the above from the beginning. The new key even clicks far better than OEM plastic and aluminum, which is clearly a good fit/quality indication. To say it's made to an equivalent quality standard to OEM key is definitely a understatement. I simply cannot live with the old key anymore. Moving forward, I will be retrofitting the key every time I have a new BMW.

BTW, for some of you who like my key chain, it's made IN HOUSE by my wife and is Sean exclusive
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