Lost key to 2001 Prius

Haven't contacted Toyota? The dealer may be able to program a new key. But that will incur additional costs.

 

Some very capable automotives locksmith can now do a lot of this there are tools that can read the business inside the car already I don't know if generations one had SKS or any of that but they know I can look in the manual to find out but there are people popping up all over the place that will be willing to try You can see them on the Facebook marketplace advertising key work if you notice a lot of the high-end scan tools the $3,000 units are capable of doing key work key coding transponder chip cloning and reading etc so I would think on the big island there should be one or two people at least I have friends that live on Kona they have Teslas so quite the difference in car type

 

Locksmith keyless online believe it or not hasn't exact duplicate of our trapezoidal transponder chip whether your model uses this I'm not sure . 2 Pop-A-Lock on the Big Island says he can do it so there's always that I believe if you look on eBay and all that you can find key fobs from the generation 1 Prius for pretty reasonable not a lot of people to sell them to so I would look into those things and see what you can make happen in the next day or two I don't think this is going to be a huge issue because this is a pretty old model and everything should be in place but give Pop a lock a call He's on the big island.

 

It is easy to DIY replace and program a key FOB for all Gen1 cars. There are a few companies that you can find on eBay and Amazon who sell "Programable" FOBs. They are not expensive, and they give you the very easy to follow "chicken dance" to program it.

If you have lost the actual Key then you are going to have to hire a locksmith (NOT THE DEALER) to come make a key. They will require your proof of ownership.

 

Art's Automotive ran an article years ago about a lost-keys situation in a gen 1:

Gen1 Prius Replacement Key

 

Yeah I saw those keys and Bob's pretty cheap on the web what's the deal with this car You've got a transponder chip in the key and the remote just locks and unlocks the doors?

 

I thought the saying was "Bob's your uncle".

 

No need to worry Gen1 people about keys with transponders. On Gen1 the keys are just basic old school keys, and can be made and copied cheaply and without programing.

And until 2008, Prius FOBs were also quite basic and DO NOT have the advanced security that requires make, model, year, serial number, vin number, coding and programming that can only be done by a specified and qualified/certified locksmith or dealership.

Basically, any automotive experienced locksmith can make new keys for a Gen1 Prius affordably and without any mumbo jumbo about chips and programming (because there is none on a Gen1).

In regard to FOBs... There are a bunch of companies that sell very affordable DIY Programmable FOBs that are very DIY simple to program, and they work great.

I bought my 2003 Gen1 with only one key and no FOB what so ever.
It cost me $18 to have the local hardware store make 2 copies of the key.
It cost me $68.98 to buy a pair of DIY FOBs on eBay, and they were super simple to DIY program, and required NO locksmith.

 

On Gen1 the keys are just basic old school keys (NO Chips), and can be made and copied cheaply and without programing.

And until 2008, Prius FOBs were also quite basic and DO NOT have the advanced security that requires make, model, year, serial number, vin number, coding and programming that can only be done by a specified and qualified/certified locksmith or dealership.

Basically, any automotive experienced locksmith can make new keys for a Gen1 Prius affordably and without any mumbo jumbo about chips and programming (because there is none on a Gen1).

In regard to FOBs... There are a bunch of companies that sell very affordable DIY Programmable FOBs that are very DIY simple to program, and they work great.

I bought my 2003 Gen1 with only one key and no FOB what so ever.
It cost me $18 to have the local hardware store make 2 copies of the key.
It cost me $68.98 to buy a pair of DIY FOBs on eBay, and they were super simple to DIY program, and required NO locksmith.

 

I wonder in what world market that might be true.

My 2001 definitely used keys that looked "old school", but had RFID chips in the plastic overmold on the head of the key. It would come with two black ones and a gray one, and the gray one would not open the trunk (it was a "valet" key).

Simply cutting the metal key would allow it to turn the locks, of course, but the car would not start unless it recognized the RFID of the key. The car was able to remember five keys.

Registering a new key to the car was easy if you had one of the original black keys available. The gray valet key was not usable to register new keys. (Technically, the color of the plastic didn't matter: it was just whether each key had been registered to the car as a 'master' or 'sub' key. Toyota just registered the two black ones as masters and the gray valet one as a sub.)

Registration could be done with Techstream or with an easy chicken dance. So could unregistering keys you no longer wanted to be usable. (You had to start with one of the master keys, and the step was to forget all other keys besides that one, and then you could re-register the others you still wanted to work.)

If you happened to lose all your keys (or even just all the ones that had been registered as 'master'), there was no Toyota-supported way to use the car again other than the ECU replacement described in #6.

While the keys from Toyota came with fixed, read-only RFID chips in them (you just registered those IDs with the car), some locksmiths or hardware stores stocked key blanks with writable RFID chips in them. They could duplicate your original key and also program the new key's chip with the same ID, eliminating the need to register anything new with the car; the new key would just work. Of course the car wouldn't be able to tell those keys apart, and you would have no way of unregistering one but not the other.

Naturally, even using the writable key blanks, you're still out of luck if you've got none of your original keys to duplicate and copy the ID from. But if all you've got is a valet key, you could duplicate that and have another valet key.

 

I have to go through this on my Italian Aprilia motorcycles when I buy them many times without keys because they're stolen recoveries or whatnot and they definitely have a transponder chip in the key head That's what I read about the Gen 1 Prius so I guess rather than having the trapezoidal chip In the fob it's in the key head It also looks like the one key with the fob built into the head that goes to the I can't remember which car looks like it will also work as it has the same key prefix numbers as the Prius It looks like just by quickly looking My locksmith buddy says he believes that he can make that key work in a generation 1 Prius but he hasn't had the opportunity to try it that would give you a key with buttons on it and nothing else to tote with you

 

You have to look at the prefixes that would normally go on the label underneath the generation 2 I don't know where it is on the generation one but their digits and letters that tell the locksmith what series or something is going on and that stuff is used on other model Toyotas

 

One of the first things I did when my '02 was new, (Step 1) was to obtain a couple of transponder key blanks from coastaletech.com and (Step 3) program them according to the instructions they thoughtfully provided on their website. Step 2, I had those transponder blanks duplicate-cut from my master key (Toyota provided two). I also had a plain (non-transponder) blank cut as a duplicate, which unlocks the doors and (I think) trunk, so if I ever locked myself out with the master key in, I could access the valet key I keep in the center console. In 22 years I've never had to do this. One of those duplicate masters went into a magnetic key box that I hid under the car; it has since disappeared, probably dropped off when car hit a bump. The other duplicate master hangs on a hook in the house where I keep other assorted keys. It's always good thinking to have a "Plan B"!

 

Don’t know about the fob. I’ve never had to replace one. As for the key, everything in the above quote is inaccurate. You can make a duplicate key on a plain (non-transponder) blank, and that key will open the car door, but it can’t be used to put the car in “Ready” mode.

 

Yeah, when I got my gen 1, I bought an uncut transponder key blank, and registered the transponder to the car using the chicken dance, before I took the blank to Ace Hardware to have them cut it. They said "wait, we have to program it too or it won't start your ..." and then looked puzzled when I started the car with it and drove away.

 

Lucky you! Enjoy your '01; these are great cars!

BTW, to correct something I said (tentatively) in an earlier post: my non-transponder key will NOT open the trunk! So it only works on the front door locks---period. Not functional in the ignition (but we already knew that, didn't we?).

 

There are two different mechanical key cuts. One cut opens all the doors, the trunk, and turns the ignition. The other cut (the "valet" key) works the doors and ignition, but not the trunk.

The originals from Toyota had black plastic overmolds on the regular keys, and a gray overmold on the valet key, but of course if you buy a key blank it can be any color you want and be cut either way. If you cut it by copying a valet key, it won't open the trunk. That's not because a transponder is missing.

Also, Toyota let you register transponder keys to the car in one of two roles: a 'master' could be used to register other keys, a 'sub' could not. They would register the two original regular keys as masters, and the original valet key as a sub, but again it doesn't have to be that way; using the registration dance, you can register any key to have either role.

 

I couldn't read all of this thread, but I had a key made for a Gen1. Cost around $200 about 5 years ago. I removed the ECM from the dash and the guy came to my house and used the ECM to program new keys? Or re-flashed the module? I then installed it back in the dash and it worked. Helps to have skinny hands to get that module out.