lost keys..need help

Kinda, sorta. You can have a normal or a valet key, which has to do with the physical cut of the key; you can tell which one you've got by trying to open the trunk. Master/sub refers to how the key was registered with the immobilizer, and you can tell which one you've got by watching the LED when you insert it. Either kind of physical key can be registered either way. If a key is registered as master, you can use it to register others; if it is registered as a sub, you can't.

As originally delivered, you'd get two keys with black plastic heads and one with gray, and the black ones were normal cut and registered as masters, and the gray one would be valet cut and registered as a sub, and that would stay true unless an owner chose to reregister them differently for any reason.

When shopping for key blanks on eBay, I was only finding black ones, so any key made aftermarket is probably going to be black, regardless of how the owner wanted it registered or cut.

The opens-the-trunk test and the LED test are the definitive ways to tell whether you've got a valet key and whether you've got a sub key, respectively.

-Chap

 

of course, they should give you a printout of parts and labor time.

 

did they give you a cost, or did you give them carte blanche?

 

Perhaps Paul, Eric, or Ari can work up some sort of "deposit" for a consignment sale:

This would put the part and key in 3d party repair hands pending the next "lost key" Prius. Heck, they might even make some extra master keys with blank cuts? It would take a Prius with a non-locking, ignition switch.

Bob Wilson

 

congrats! sounds like you read them all wrong.

 

There *is* a way to reprogram the ECU, I had to get this done, though Toyota does not official support this method. You ship you ECU to places like this:

Immobilizer Reset Services

And have them reprogram it with the new key. Charging $169 for this service is a bit of a rip off, as once the ECU is out, it takes 2 minutes of insertion of a couple jumper wires, and waiting for 30 minutes. I had instructions and schematics for this several years ago, when this happened to me. I should have posted it in PriusChat for common knowledge then...sadly, I did not keep this document.

BTW, it is an AMAZINGLY painful job with at least 2 dozen screws to unscrew to get the ECU out. See here:

1st Gen Prius Immobilizer Lost All RFID Keys

However, it's reassuring to know that the 1st gen Prius won't be able to be started easily by thieves. As far as I know, it's much easier to cut a new key when all are lost in most cars.

 

I'm in same boat, last month bought my wife a 2003 Prius gen 1, 92K miles from a somewhat sketchy used car lot. Car came with only one key though (It's the black one with Toyota logo and remote key fob). We were also trying to figure out how we would acquire a second key for it. This thread has me thinking I need to do this sooner than later.

 

First step, find out two things about the one key that you got. (1) does it turn the trunk lock? If it does, it's a normal key, if not, it's a valet. (2) what does the security LED do when you put this key in the ignition? If the LED goes out immediately, this is a master key, and your situation is good. If the LED lights steady for a couple seconds, then goes out, this is a sub key, and you will face expensive choices.

The master key lets you program new keys yourself. So if you want new keys, they should cost you no more than about $17 for the blanks on ebay and a couple bucks to cut them at your local hardware, and a couple minutes of your time to program the car to them. If you only have a sub key, you can't program any new ones without shelling out for immobiliser replacement or reflash. If you're pinching pennies, you could get by with clonable keys.

So lets hope when you check your key, the LED shows it is a master.

All the programming steps you can find in the service manuals at techinfo.toyota.com. Even before you think about programming new keys, I would recommend going through the program procedure for "forget every known key except this one" (and the same for the fob). The more sketchy the used car lot seemed to you, the sooner I would do that.

-Chap

 

Thanks Chapman, I went out and checked, my single key does open the trunk, and as soon as I put the key in the ignition my blinking security light goes out immediately. I'm going to look on Ebay for a blank, thanks again.

 

Damn...I'm not in Greenville, but I'll warn my Greenville friends to stay away from there.

 

Dude, are you sure you're not making this up?

"Service advisor told me a couple of days later that bulbs had burned out (apparently 12 at once)...I wish he had just said,"I'm gonna lie to you now"..."

The service manager of the dealer is actually going to stand there and tell you that the console light bulbs all blew at once, and, even though the car was in their possession at the time, they are in no way responsible for fixing it for less than $800? That's just flat-out robbery there. I'd escalate up to the president of the dealership before I go to corporate...or maybe do it simultaneously. The corporate path may be rather slow and that dealership needs to know what kind of crooks he has running the Service Dept. But, then again, maybe he already knows and that's why he hired them.

I'd consider contacting the local Greenville TV station on that. And start a Twitter feed. That's just BS!