Future buyer.. How important is the Red Key?

[gr1976]

Hello all,

Here's my predicament... I have found a nice low mileage 2007 S2R 1000 but the owner lost the red key. It's confusing since he is the original owner, but in my speaking with him I don't think he understood its importance. This will be my first Ducati and I have been researching this and am still confused myself.  I understand it is required for the immobilizer, but I called my local dealer and the sales guy on the phone stated you couldn't perform certain "maintenance" without it and then told me how better off I would be with a new bike...go figure.

Is there any maintenance that cannot be done without the red key even if the ECU is replaced? The bike has an arrow full exhaust and for what I have read it sounds like a remap is a good idea anyway. So if I have to get into the ECU to remap the FI,  I would just get the immobilizer removed as well. However, I am unsure if that is all I have to do or are there other issues that would need to be resolved?


Thanks

[Duc800]

I purchased a 2006 Supersport last April without the red key.  He was the second owner and had purchased it from a non Ducati dealer and both were clueless as to it's importance.  I said no the the deal the first time but he came back with a deal I coudn't refuse.  I read with interest any of the threads that relate to this issue and am keeping my fingers crossed that I won't have to deal with it.  I do know that with my other SS I needed the red key when the guages were replaced under warranty.  I also know that there are many workarounds out there though am not expert in them.  Most of them I've read are over at Ducati.ms in the Supersport section.  Perhaps a search there will help.  One of them, I believe,  references a company in WA that has solutions to this problem.

Regardless, I think that buying without the red key is certainly worth a substantial discount over buy one with the key.  So definitely use it as a negotiation item.  But it's not necessarily a deal breaker either.

[muskrat]

Check out the tech section.  I've bought two without the red key with no issues.  The work around will cost you no more than $400

[gr1976]

Thanks for the replies. I had searched around the tech section but seemed to find that the red key was only used if the bike was immobilized. Nothing on if it was required for "certain maintenance items" as the dealer suggested.

 

[DuciD03]

Nothing on if it was required for "certain maintenance items" as the dealer suggested.

Your dealer is a unethical money grabber; I would strongly suggest you not spend your hard earned dollars there; he's trying the "dealer scare" -"money grab".  Make a complaint too for being unethical. Sheesh; theres a whole bunch of unnecessary hocuspocus surrounding the red key.  The red key is as a theft deterrant; but unfortunately I have seen dealerships use this as a scare tactic to undervalue perfectly running bikes and to try to sell new bikes.

 

[JimmyTheDriver]

I bought a brand new bike from the dealer missing the red key.  They lost it, and call it what you will, but I didn't feel the need to beat them up for it.  Got a few hundred off the price in case I ever want to work around the issue.

-Jimmy

[RVA Duc]

Both my bikes don't have one. And no problems

[seevtsaab]

I think the facts is, as they exist in my mind,
the earlier immobilizer bikes, the red key is used to facilitate cloning a new key (getting ECU to except it).

Possible the later years immobizer bikes needed the red key for diag and calibration work, no FHE to share.

I haven't needed the red key in my two years of ownership, 2005, but my TPC is set manually, not with a VDST or similar Ducati s/w tool.

Just don't go losing any keys.

You'll sleep better at night if you have the immobilizer override code.

You can also ask scammer if they have both red keys? You might want to wait before sending your money.

[Howie]

The dealer would need the red key to replace and marry either the computer or instrument cluster.  Keys can now be cloned without the red key by some aftermarket folk and you can get around the red key problem by having the computer reflashed to eliminate the immobilizer.

[redxblack]

The nastiest thing about the red key (from a story, not FHE) is someone putting their red key in your bike and immobilizing it leaving you to go digging looking for the red key to reset the immobilizer.