Escorts Key Worked In '97 Explorer...!

[Dying4Eternity]

I just got my '97 Explorer V8 about two weeks ago from a POS 91 Honda Civic.... The great thing about Hondas is you really can't lock your keys in your car easily...

Completely forgetting the fact that I was driving a new car, I set my keys on the floormat in the back, grabbed the groceries, and hit the "lock" button in the truck.

I shut the trunk and realized as soon as it clicked that my keys were inside. I was locked out of my car, and out of my house (and the day before we'd gone around making sure you couldn't break in anymore because the roommate we don't like had lost her key and was just climbing through the window in broad daylight...).

I borrowed the neighbors phone and called the good roommate to have her come let me in so I could call a locksmith to get in the Ford.... I hadn't yet got a spare key... she comes home, and while I'm explaining what had happened she took her key from her late 80s early 90s Ford Escort and stuck it in my lock... just because she was bored...

To both of our amazement when she turned the key, it unlocked my car.

I thought it may be a fluke... you know, a worn out lock on the passenger side or something... no... it works on the drivers side, and the ignition too.

What are the odds of that happening? To be honest, it kind of freaked me out... if she can get in my car with her key... who else can?

Our keys are the same basic shape and size and there are only two spots where my key is a bit wider then hers.

Anybody else discover anything unusual like this?

[Beegle]

I've never heard of that happening, but I have heard that each carmaker makes about a thousand different key shapes, meaning that after a thousand cars they would have to start duplicating the keys. I'm not sure how true that is, but maybe you found that one in a thousand.

[XLT03]

I had a 1980 Mecury Capri and I too was bored one day at a friend's house and stuck my key into the door of his Dad's 1971 Ford Torino and it opened the door and started the engine. No it's not a fluke that keys fit many cars. Manufacturers build and ship cars to regions of the US and when shipping they try not to ship "duplicate keys" to the same region, so the chances are relatively remote. So there is a car out there probably on the other coast that has the same key as yours. In my case it was a Mercury key going into a Ford. But of course we know that Ford owns Mercury.

[Opera House]

I believe there are fewer key combinations for the door kocks. Don't think they don't use all the tumbler positions. Tell us if that key also worked in the ignition. Time to think about putting a spare key under the vehicle. I attach mine with a plastic tye-wrap that is easy to break. Those magnet ones are never there when I look.

[BMW_4.4i]

Originally Posted by Beegle

I've never heard of that happening, but I have heard that each carmaker makes about a thousand different key shapes, meaning that after a thousand cars they would have to start duplicating the keys. I'm not sure how true that is, but maybe you found that one in a thousand.

Wow! That's really "lucky" LOL!