Keyfob Battery Cover

9 months in and the back of my keyfob is looking grim. Shiny black soft plastic, easily scratched by other stuff in your pocket, dented too. At the moment, it doesn't look possible to buy replacements, you have buy a complete fob which costs and there are all the security hoops to jump through even if you are not going to use it because the fob comes with the physical key cut for your car.

I think LR should supply battery covers as a spare part, they must cost all of 10p to mould and I'd be happy to pay 100 times that rather than 1000 times for a new fob.

Hopefully, Nick will spot this post and make the suggestion to the spares people. Looks like the fobs are made by Lear who supply quite a lot of other parts for the Evoque.

+1 there Mark.

+2

Wrap them ?

Wrapped mine in white,looks cool!!!!

(26-08-2012 10:48pm)EVO PUNDITT Wrote:  Wrapped mine in white,looks cool!!!!

Go any pics ???

+1 Mark, they either need to sort out the plastic they are made of or supply cheap replacement covers.

I wrapped my key in gloss black vinyl the day I took delivery of the car.

Over time, the vinyl does scratch in the same way as an unprotected key would and as my car is now 6 months old I decided to recover mine and thought I'd take a few pictures to hopefully help others if they decide to do the same.

Picture 1: The wrapped key after 6 months use. Decided to remove and replace.


Picture 2: The materials - 90mm square 3M Gloss Black vinyl.


Picture 3: The key with old vinyl removed - As you can see it's as new after 6 months.


Picture 4: Heat the vinyl and key fob gently with a hair drier and apply to key fob.


Picture 5: Carry on heating and stretching the vinyl over the fob. Take your time and pay particular attention for the corners. It is important to keep applying heat with the hair drier.


Picture 6: When you're happy. Trim the excess vinyl with a sharp craft knife. This is much easier than you might imagine. You don't need any pressure on the knife and you simply follow the obvious join lines on the underlying key fob.


Picture 7: All excess vinyl removed. Apply gentle heat again and apply pressure around all the edges to ensure maximum adhesion.


Picture 8: A close up of how the corners should look.


Picture 9: Keyring back on and key fob good for another 6 months scratch free use.


The textured effect you see in the pictures will slowly disappear over the next couple of days. Once applied the vinyl will require heating again to soften the glue if you want to remove it. The adhesive is very strong!

Hope this helps someone thinking of covering their own key(s).

Regards
Mark

UPDATE: I've had messages asking me where to get the vinyl from.
It is standard vehicle body vinyl wrap. I used some made by 3M but only because I already had it.
Search eBay for 'Gloss Black vinyl wrap' and you'll find loads. An A4 sheet will be plenty to do a key fob many times over and should cost about £2. I wouldn't worry too much about quality as you're only wrapping a key after all and, of course, you're not limited to black. You can order vinyl wrap in just about any colour you desire.

Great write up!

Excellent !