Last week we lost the smart key for our 2012 plug in prius someplace in the house or yard. The key must broadcast a signal of sort for the car to detect it. Before I begin the replacement journey, I wonder if there is a way to locate it with some sort of proximity scanner?
welcome to priuschat! if you move the car around, the doorlocks will be active if you're within range. all the best!
That's when it becomes really expensive. That's why I recently purchased and programmed a third key. The system allows five keys to be programmed into it.
I'm always curious about what you folks do with your keys. Mine always goes on a hook right inside the door from the garage and my wife's stays in her purse. Never lost a key in over 50 years of driving. And now I've probably jinxed myself.
The Car broadcasts a "anybody there?" on a 134.2KHz signal. That would be the easy part to identify with an oscilloscope. Then you can just rebroadcast that message as you sweep the search area with an appropriate transmitter. What you are looking for is the fob saying "I'm here!" on 315MHz. However, the data is different for every response, and encrypted obviously, so you will most likely need a signal strength meter and just look for spikes of "im here" without being able to decode the message. You probably want a high powered omnidirectional transmitter and a directional receiver to actually track it down. Not hard, but not trivial. Is it worth the $300 that Toyota charges for another key to be made? It might be worth it if that is your one and only key and now have no way to drive the car as a complete reinitialization is extremely expensive.
It cost me under $200 to buy a brand new OEM key, to program it with the $35 Techstream mongoose mini-vci cable and to cut a key insert. New Smart Key Programmed on a 2013 Plugin Prius for $115.00 | PriusChat And, it's worth every cent. If you lose you last key, you may be looking at a two grand plus parts, labor, and fees to get the car working again.
Update: My local Toyota dealer gave me a discount on the smart key and programing. The final cost was about $400. That said, just 2 hours after I returned home with the new key, the lost key was found. Thanks for all the suggestions.
