Had a very irritating event with my new 2012 Platinum yesterday. A friend of mine and I were at a business (95

miles from home) and he needed to go out and unlock my tailgate to put some things in the bed. I have an Extang

Solid Fold bedcover on it. When he inserted the key and tried to unlock it the key got stuck in the lock and we

couldn't get the tailgate open or the key back out of the tail gate. I could remotely start the truck and lock &

unlock the doors but had no way to drive it. I only have 600 miles on and had just picked it up last Tue (it had

400+ miles on it when I bought it). I finally got ahold of a local dealership and a service rep and mechanic came

out to look at it. They had no idea as how to fix my problem. I ended up haveing to call the Ford Roadside

assistance. After an hour a flat bed tow truck showed up (A CHEVY AT THAT !!!) to haul me to the dealership. This

became interesting because the shifter waslocked in Park and the steeling wheel was locked with the front wheels

turned slightly. The tow truck driver was able to get the shifter out of park and into neutral bY sliding under the

truck and messing with the linkage but he didn't know how he could get the steering wheel unlocked.

He was able to tow me across the road (fortunately I was parked faceing into the busineess and we were in sort of a

rural area) into a grassy area along side of the road. After pulling the trucks back wheels onto his truck bed he

was able to keep manuvering his truck to keep changing the angle to be able to keep pulling my truck, with the

turned front wheels, onto his truck. I give him credit for being able to do that without hurting anything.

When we unloaded it at the dealers shop the mechanic decided to bring another new truck in and pull the inside panel

off its tailgate so he could look inside to see what he was facing. Bottom line; he ended up having to drill a

1/2" hole in my tailgate right next to the key. After that he was able to get a pick inside and release the latch,

and key. They called Enterprise and rented me a 2012 Ford crewcab to drive home. I called today and they said I

'MIGHT' be able to come back and pick my truck up on Friday.

Why this long story? After they got my tailgate open and the inside cover off I could then see how things worked.

The mechanic discovered he could replecate the problem by pulling out on the release handle and turning the key

(unlocking motion) at the same time and the mechanisim would jam up. This is an obvious design flaw and I wanted to

let everyone know about it. I checked and there are no TSB's on it at this time. If you have a bed cover with the

unlocking mechanisims inside of the bed and you try unlocking the bed at the same time you're pulling on the handle

this could also happen to you!

There is a thick plastic plate that interacts with the bed handle and retains a metal tab that is bent upwards ( OR

INWARD, DEPENDING ON THE POSITION OF THE TAIGATE) and attached to the lock barrel. For some reason when you pull on

the handle and turn the key that bent metal tab pops out from under the flat plastic retainer that the gate handle

interacts with. I don't have access to this area on my rental truck or I would take photos and post them. Oh yeah,

my tailgate does have the integrated step built in and with the inside cover off that entire area is exposed.

 

Did you copy and paste this or did this happen to you (the spacing of the story made me wonder)... very interesting, indeed.

 

Yeah, as a matter of fact I did paste it in. It was such a long write up that I decided it would be easier to create it in MS Notepad, copy it and then logged on and pasted it into my posting.

I've talked with a couple of dealers and had them check for a TSB with no luck and no one seems to have heard of this happening before. I called the dealer who has my truck and they said I 'might' be able to get it back this Friday. At least that kind of tells me that they are ordering a replacement part rather then plugging 'their hole' with bondo and painting over it. Once they had gotten my tailgate open and the key out of it I was tempted to just drive it home and have it repaired locally. I was afraid though that I might end up in a pissing contest with a local dealer saying that they wouldn't have had to drill the hole and might have refused to take care of the problem and I would have had to drive 95 miles back over there again.

 

As I get it, Unlock the tail gate before trying to open it ? Thanks.

 

Unless I hear from Ford that they have addressed that problem I am going to be very diligent in how I open my tailgate from now on. I'm also going to have a 'dumb' (valet) type of key made to either hide somewhere on the truck or carry in my wallet. If this ever happens again, especially if I'm out of town, I'll be able to pull the key apart and remove the battery and still be able to have a key to drive myself home for repair. No sense going to some other dealer and having my truck tied up for a week while they try and find parts. I'm still driving a rental truck while my new one is 95 miles away at some other dealer's shop.

At this time I don't know if this can happen with any tailgate or only the ones with the built in step but I suspect all of the tailgate locking mechanisims are made the same. The 2012 F-150 rental truck I'm driving doesn't have the same exposed area under the black plastic inside cover

 

Ebay for pats key blanks, and you can easily get them cut at Walmart for free, and program them yourself in the driveway.

 

Interesting ..... Haven't found any key blanks ...... Didn't know WalMart did ANYTHING for free ........... how do you program the keys yourself ????

I talked with the dealer, who did the repair work for me, about getting a 'dumb' valet type key made and they said it wouldn't work and may screw up some codes in the vehicle. They said the OEM keys had a chip inside matched to the vehicle and without it the new key wouldn't work. I haven't verified any of that with my friend who owns the dealership.

Never mind :-( I did a search for PAT Keys and DID find them on ebay but unfortunately none for a 2012 yet. AND they did provide a description on how to program them yourself. BUT ... I STILL DON'T BELIEVE WALMART WILL CUT ONE FOR FREE YET.

Interesting that you need two original keys to do it. I guess this makes all that more important to have extra keys made now BEFORE you lose or 'break' one of your originals. Do you know if these 'ebay' keys are any thinner than the OEM keys. I don't want one with the door lock & engine start buttons and just want a key to carry in my wallet.

 

Seems like i would have drilled through the plastic handle before i drilled through sheetmetal....

 

They drilled through the tailgate insert containing the handle and key lock, not really the actual tailgate so they only had to replace that 'small' part but my truck was tied up for 4 days while they ordered the part. Not sure what they would have done if I was away on vacation somewhere. I would have been stuck in a hotel somewhere !!!!!!!!

Hopefully I've attached this photo correctly. If so, the metal tab described rotates to the right in the direction of the arrow when being unlocked.


Between the red arrows is where they had to drill the 1/2" hole. Basically what the mechanic did them was stick a probe through the hole afterwards and push in on the plastic retainer so the metal tab could be moved back under it and back into place. Key comes right after that and everything works fine.


Hope this helps in case someone else gets into this unfortunate situation.

 

From what I understand the 2010 and 2012 keys are interchangeable. The 2010 key wont have the remote built into it, which does make it somewhat smaller, but not really wallet friendly.

Walmart cut mine for free, both of mine actually. The guy said they charge for the keys, but cutting is free. Worst case scenario, buy a cheap key from them, but have him cut the PAtS key you bring.

With your truck having a number pad keyless entry, why not find a extremely sneaky hiding spot for one of the new keys. Use your imagination on how deep to bury it.

My ebay PATS keys are IDENTICAL to the OEM keys. There is no way to tell them apart.

 

You sell PATS keys on ebay? Can you send me a link?

 

I should have been a little more specific. The Pats keys that I bought on ebay are identical to my OEM keys. In actual fact, the same keys worked for my 01 Ranger, and my 05 Explorer Sport Trac.

I still have one in a brand new bag, as at the time I bought the explorer keys it was a sweeter deal on 6 keys. Anyway, the bag is factory sealed & is a Strattec brand with a part number of 599114

It also lists a ford licensed product part number 691769AC1B001

For $12.26 shipped, this listing here is identical to the keys I cut for my truck. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-Mercury...a530f7&vxp=mtr

 

I checked the link and unfortunately they say it definately will not work in a 2012. This is their disclaimer:
[B]Up For Sale:

1- NEW Ford / Lincoln / Mercury 40 Bit Transponder Chip Key Blank
(Ford # 164-R0475) (Strattec # 599114)

No Logo

PATS stands for Passive Anti Theft System

This Key Replaces The Blue Oval Ford Logo Key

This Key WILL NOT Work With 2011 & Newer Models,
Or Any Model That Requires An 80 Bit Key![/B]

 

Hmmm, 40 bit, 80 bit, who knew? Sorry for leading you down the wrong path. I'm glad you were smart enough to double check before ordering. Good luck in your hunt.

 

No problem. I usually try and double check everything anyway. I found another add on ebay that indicated they have keys for the 2012's but I had problems purchasing them through PayPay. I ended up calling them ( MidWest LeyLess ) direct and gave them a credit card number. Two keys are $14.49 :-) They have phenominal customer service and even called me back to let me know they had shipped the keys etc. I am expecting them here tomorrow, just in time to get them cut to take on my trip. Rather than just going to WalMart I think I'll go to a local locksmith and have them cut instead, just to be on the safe side ha ha