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I had 4 of my cars stored on a rural horse property - 20 acres. As it turned out the tenants were ferrel drug dealers, who proceeded to smash my cars , lost the keys and broke all the underdash ignition leads. Boy did I make a mistake with that!

Thankfully they are gone now, and the property is being put up for sale, so I am needing to move them to a different property - 100 kms north.

My task has been to get replacement keys. I can recall that the glove box was unlocked by the ignition/door key.

For the 81 528i . I removed the glovebox lock , took it too a lock smith, who made a key to suit ( $45).

And it worked - unlocked the steering lock and can start it! -

For the 81 735, I've removed the glove box lock and hopefully that will provide a suitable key - not sure if this car has a immobiliser.

For the 76 525 - there is no glovebox, and it has a immobiliser - I've tried to remove the ignition barrel, but the steering is locked - so unsure at this moment how to proceed. An option could be to remove the boot lock and try that. I had a spare ignition lead (off a e21), which I plugged in after removing the smashed one . Tried to start ( with screw driver), but I think the immobilser is on and killing any ignition circuit

The 78 528i auto parts car - also had its underdash ignition smashed up.

Here is some photos of their current state
525 - interesting turbine wheels






oct 81 528i









83 735i

Poor BMW's. Forgotten heros

Sometimes the dealer can order a new key just using the serial number of the car. E12s are getting a little old for that now but it might be worth a call. You would of course need proof of ownership. Removing the trunk lock should work although depending on how the make the key a door lock might be easier, they might use a trial and error and they might decode the lock which would require taking it apart, a bit of a pain on the trunk. Also the lock number should be on the door cylinders, something like HB1234 which they may be able to use. I don't think E12s used valet keys, if so a key cut from a door cylinder might not work on the trunk. I think you have several ways to do this, although all of them are a bit of a pain. Good luck with it all.

There is a firm in Australia, they do cut keys based on vin#. I did years ago

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 12, 2016, at 2:10 PM, Mike W <mw999@sonic.net (mw999@sonic.net)> wrote:

Sometimes the dealer can order a new key just using the serial number of the car. E12s are getting a little old for that now but it might be worth a call. You would of course need proof of ownership. Removing the trunk lock should work although depending on how the make the key a door lock might be easier, they might use a trial and error and they might decode the lock which would require taking it apart, a bit of a pain on the trunk. Also the lock number should be on the door cylinders, something like HB1234 which they may be able to use. I don't think E12s used valet keys, if so a key cut from a door cylinder might not work on the trunk. I think you have several ways to do this, although all of them are a bit of a pain. Good luck with it all.



Mike W.



1980 528i, 3.5 euro, 5 speed conversion
1981 528i, 3.6, Recaros and more. Project
1998 328is, quick and efficient, but not satisfying
2000 528iit, Vacation mobile/wife's grocery getter

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on my USA 1980 528i the door, glovebox, and trunk are the same, ignition is different.

Hellenic5 wrote:Poor BMW's. Forgotten heros :(

I'm bit embarrased by what has happened to them. however they are still in reasonable nick to drive and be resurrected ( compared to some I've seen on the various boards)

RandyM wrote:on my USA 1980 528i the door, glovebox, and trunk are the same, ignition is different.

They came all the same, but it's not terribly unusual for the ignition lock to get replaced and them not to bother with rekeying it to the same as the rest of the car. I had that issue on my E28.

Here (Ontario) they can do with proof of ownership, then shipped from Germany, takes two weeks..

well I have managed to a key made for the 81' 528i off the glovebox lock which works on ignition also.

The 76' 525 doesn't have a glovebox, so I remove the front door lock and had a key made form that. It also worked to unlock the ignition steering lock.

For the 83 735i I've had key made from the glove box lock and front door lock, but neither work on the ignition/steering lock.