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Old 06-18-2016, 05:59 PM
oldskewel oldskewel is offline
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Location: SF Bay Area
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The keys I have, referred to above in post #14, are definitely metal (steel alloy), with a light gray plastic head, no buttons, unlighted, genuine BMW. They definitely start the car and open driver's door. They definitely do not lock/unlock the glove box. I believe they are called "valet" keys or "spare" keys.

On the receipt, the part number is 51 21 8 236 594, and the description is "DOOR AND IGNITION K".

The special little envelope the keys came in, with the last-7-digit VIN, dealer order no, my name, etc. (so it seems this came from "the factory" source of the keys), says "/Door and ignition key" and also has part number 51 21 8 236 594.

The almost-all-plastic keys in the photo above are definitely not what I have. I believe those are officially called "service" keys or un-officially plastic wallet keys.

There is a lot of confusion in the names and even part numbers, so I'm trying to be careful here about what I know (since I have them) and what I believe to be true.

When I ordered these 3 valet keys from thebmwminipartsstore.com, I thought they would be unlighted, no remote, but otherwise fully functional (i.e., what I ended up getting except they would also work on the glove box). They sold them as "EWS III key," with no other naming clarification. They (erroneously) confirmed that they would be what I hoped for, but when I got them I realized the error but was happy to live without a locking glove box. Still happy with the solution.
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2001 X5 3.0i, 203k miles, AT, owned since 2014

Last edited by oldskewel; 06-18-2016 at 06:17 PM.
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