I am writing this guide as I have seen so many peoply being lulled into buy MG Rover remote fobs, I have advised sellers and asked many questions of which 99% go unanswered. The sellers I believe either do not know what they are selling or just want ot make a quick quid ! I can go into ebay most days and find remotes that are more useful as a paper weight.

Feel free to send me an auction number if you are unsure if the specific fob will work or not.

Generally these fobs should be ok to get reprogrammed at a dealer or independent :

Rover 1/2/400 - ZR/ZS - Square,black 2 button type with no led often referred to as 17TN , 3TXB etc...

The ones to definately steer clear of are :

Small square single dimpled button specifically for the early Rover 600.

Rover 600 / 800 fobs with 2 buttons and a led in the top corner.Although this may light up without a bar code label,coding is not possible.These fobs also have a nasty habit of becoming scrammbled so even with a barcode the chances of it working are remote ( no pun intended ).

Rover 200/400 upto 1994 with 2 buttons and a led in the top corner.Again it may light up but these remotes are matched to a receiver inside the vehicle so it is virtually useless again unless you have a matched pair.

Rover 75 key/fob assembly. Well we all know these are expensive from the dealers. £107 to be precise.If you see one on here for £4.99 great !! The downside to these are the key has been cut for another vehicle so only part of it is usable.You would need to dismantle and throw away the key blade and insert your key blade.Easy yes ?? That is where the fun starts - these cannot be reprogrammed without - you guessed it the magical barcode label.Even if you had the barcode label the remote will only activate the door locks and not the immobiliser.The chip inside is preprogrammed by the dealer with your vin number to demobilise your vehicle. If there is a reputable locksmith electrician who can tell me otherwise I will gratefully take your knowledge onboard.

ZR / ZS pektron fobs - these are the later rounder type fobs, cheaper to buy from the dealers than the older 17TN fobs believe it or not, but again be careful without the barcodes.

To summarise, the general rule of thumb if its too good to be true quite often it is.Unfortunately in todays day and age there are too many people out there willing to add "check with your dealer , may need coding" take your money and run.

I hasten to add not all traders are like it and careful scouring the net will find you a bargain, but I have been in the MG Rover game for a long time now and have been asked on numberous occasions to code remote fobs with very little chance of sucess. Again if you are unsure if the fob will be suitable for your vehicle, send me the aution number along with the specification of your car to latesATlates600DOTcom and I will do my best to help you out.

kind regards

Lates600

Updated 08/10/06