Hello, Unfortunately, I had a car break-in last month, where my personal belongings was stolen from my trunk, including my spare fob key (A family member was carrying my extra keys in their purse, which was stolen). (For those curious, this happened Friday evening around 8:30 PM in a parking lot, while I stopped at a bakery. It was a quick stop and everything was hidden in my trunk, so I didn't bother being more cautious. After ten minutes, I came out, and found that the vent window on the driver's side was broken in, and my trunk was opened from the inside. Later, when I reviewed a nearby grocery store's CCTV, I saw the pair of thieves--one lookout, one breaking into my car--completed everything in less than 5 minutes.) Do you think I should consider "re-programming" my fob, so that my stolen fob can't be used to drive away my car? Even if I re-program my fob, is it possible for the thieves to use the manual key to enter my car anyway? Or am I being paranoid, and don't need to re-program it? (considering that the thieves don't know my address, and the theft happened in a different part of town) Finally - Do you recommend going to the dealership for this, or try to find a cheaper alternative? Thanks!
1. At least have the stolen FOB removed from the ECU so it can't be used electronically to access your car. 2. They have the mechanical key so you'd need your car's mechanical lock changed. Not sure what's involved there. If you did (1) they won't be able to use the FOB to start the car. 4. If you have access to a Certified Locksmith you may get a better deal than a dealer. I have no first had experience there.
contact your insurance company and you're dealer. no one wants your car to be stolen next. all the best!
If the FOB was in the back, how were you able to lock the car? I've accidentally left a key FOB in a jacket pocket thrown into the back area and the car would not lock. It just makes aloud single beep to tell me that the FOB is still inside. It's unfortunate that your car didn't do this. It might have prevented this unfortunate situation.
I am sorry to hear your misfortune. Sound like pro thieves. I hope police will apprehend them soon and retrieve your lost key fob. If you can not retrieve the fob, and if that was me, I would definitely consider changing the fob and lock, yes both. Luckily it did not happen at your house, but it would not take much effort to find where you live especially if you lost some ID's that was in the purse. I've never done this, but I know most locksmith can do the programing change and maybe lock cylinder change as well. I am not sure if the body shop you need to take your car for the repair of the glass can do it. If all fails you can always take to a dealer, but the first thing you should check is to see if the insurance will cover the cost. I think they should if you had comprehensive coverage. Good luck and let us know how it develops.
My wife has left the fob in a jacket in the trunk and yes, the car will make a single loud beep to indicate such (or other potential issue such as window open) but may be manually overridden by locking via pressing the lock button on the fob you DO have in hand. Of course, this could leave you with the issue Kaynin experienced (ooops!).
they were probably just burglars, druggies, looking for quick easy cash, maybe they would try to use the credit cards. the rest got trashed within 20 minutes. if they were the type that wanted a car they would have taken it right then and there, they had a key !! if someone had an id with address and house keys were in there, i would be more worried about them burgling the house...
Thanks everyone. I did call two local dealerships. The dealerships told me that they could "re-seed" the key, so that only the FOB I have would be kept and the stolen FOB to be removed from my car. They would also give me a replacement FOB. The cost they gave me was: $396 for labor $326.46 for replacement FOB for a total of around $722 Replacing the mechanical lock would be $453. The second dealership I called was slightly cheaper. Wow, this is expensive. I'm gonna shop around for a bit.
Wouldn't it be something if there was a way to track the FOB to who had it? A reverse safety connect.
Unless something has changed drastically from earlier generations, with Techstream the "forget every fob you used to know except this one I have here" operation takes mere seconds. "Reseeding" is more for when you've lost every fob. An easy way to take care of the mechanical key issue is just to buy a replacement cylinder set. There's only one door that even has a cylinder, so it's not any kind of labor-intensive replacement. You can swap it yourself in about two minutes with a Torx screwdriver. The cyclinder set includes two mechanical keys (the parts that will slip into your fobs) already cut to match the cylinder.
The only reason I would get the replacement cylinder set mentioned above is that I'm married. If I were just me, I wouldn't bother since as mentioned above, the thieves HAD the opportunity to steal the whole car. If you're worried that they might use the address in your registration to break into your house and you think that they have a house key, you might want to get the house lock re-keyed or replaced. This isn't a real big threat in my opinion since these guys were just after some quick jack, but then again I live where home invasions are a little riskier and I have the world's most sophisticated layered security system: Old neighbors, little dogs, retired spouse. So... If you cannot replace the car's lock cylinder get a friend to do it or take it to a locksmith. It really IS a very easy job. While you're at the locksmith have them give you a replacement FOB (giving you at least two) and delete the others. This whole thing should be resolved for not much > than $250. I would not involve the insurance company - especially if it's something that might find its way onto a future CARFAX report or give them a reason to raise your rates. I have $1,000 deductibles, so the next claim I make will be the first claim I make in over 25 years. Good Luck!!!
Me too. I highly doubt they knew they had a fob for the car when they grabbed everything and ran. Thieves don't sit in the car going through all the "loot" to see what they want and what they don't. And if they knew how to open the hatch from the inside, they must have some knowledge of the car. Though it seems like it would have been faster and easier just to fold the rear seat and grab from there. How do you open the hatch from the inside without crawling over everything in the cargo area? But they didn't know it, as mentioned above.
One of my keys was stolen. Toyota of southern Maryland provided one key blank with a new transmitter, cut the blank to match the old key, and then reprogrammed both my new and old key for $463 total. The Reprogramming charge and key cutting was around $95 for one hours worth of work. I had to leave the car and the old key for an hour. The car had detected the new key codes; there was a pop up message stating that the key had been reprogrammed for a couple of days. You may be able to go to Amazon or ebay to get the transmitter and key blank and then bring it to a non-gold digging dealer. Look for the model number below the red panic button.
Even on older generations without this new override feature, that inside fob detection was 100% reliable. A number of owners accidentally found a few spots inside where a fob was not detected. It certainly would involve either a much larger battery, or far far more frequent battery changes.
Less than 5 minutes? Those boys need to find a new career. I had a car window smashed and contents removed from a car and the whole event was less than 10 seconds! I watched it on color security cam recording from the restaurant I was at. Police eventually arrested the turds and figured that had done over 200 window-smash burglaries of cars parked at businesses on streets adjacent tp Highway 101 in San Mateo County. I never had any of my stuff recovered, of course, but at least the turds went to jail.
