New Registered key is not being detected

I've just bought a new off-market smart keyfob for my 2013 Prius and registered it using Techstream Ver: 12.20.024. It locks and unlocks the car from over 50ft away but doesn't work via the door handle sensors.
Also, when trying to start, it displays 'Key not detected" so I have to touch the power button with the key to enable the start procedure. This does not always work right away and can take up to about a minute and during this time, the tiny red LED flashes.

I've checked the keyfob battery and it's at 3.3V. Is it possible to have two fobs set up differently in that I need to customise the new one to match the original? I did notice when checking the battery that the ciruit board contains four switches, although the case only has three buttons so I'm assuming that the same board is used for models with A/C control.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Al

 

I think that would be the case where the key has been previously registered to another vehicle but mine was new. I'm not sure what you mean by "Techstream workaround not being permanent" as that is what the dealer techs use.

 

Toyota didn't program it, in fact the keyfob does not actually get programmed. It gets registered so that the car recognises it and I used Techstream to do this myself. It is a straight forward process and there was no indication that there was any issue. The fact that it can lock and unlock the car remotely suggests that it is correctly registered but possibly not configured to match the original one.

 

Thanks for that information. It certainly matches what I'm experiencing so maybe I'll need to try and re-register it. Swapping the old module into the new shell is not really an option as I'm trying to provide a separate key for my wife. We downsized recently to only having one car and I feel that there is now a greater chance of the original getting lost (that's all I'm prepared to say).

 

My original OEM one works exactly as what I think you are saying except the Gen 3 does not have the slot to insert the remote when proximity sensing doesn't work. With these, you have to touch the power button with the remote to start. I'm just trying to get the new non-Toyota one to work the same way as the original.

 

Yes, you may be right, although others seem to have had no issues doing it themselves. I'll persevere with it for now and pay closer attention to the Techstream options. I need to wait until my wife gets back home later today.

 

I’ve not come across any reference to copying and pasting from one key to another so if you can share any further information on how that is achieved, it would be very helpful.

My key is new, never used, so why would I need to erase it?

My understanding is (and I may be totally wrong here) that the new key does not get programmed to the car and I’m not sure how Techstream could do that, as the key is not connected in any way to my laptop. As far as I know, it’s the other way round where the key transmits ID data which then has to be registered in the car’s computer via Techstream, to allow it to work with the car. The nearest analogy that I can think of is where a new garage door remote controller has to be ‘registered’ to work with the garage door opener. The remote doesn’t get programmed.

At the moment, my new key is recognized in that it can lock and unlock the doors but as Leadfoot J. McCoalroller points out, I need to also register the RFID to allow the proximity sensors to work. So that’s what I’m about to try and do in a few minutes time.

 

Okay, I'll do some more research on this. Thanks.

 

Well, I just spent a few hours in panic mode, thinking that I had well and truly bricked the car. I had decided to unregister the new key and start afresh so I used the Techstream Erase function to do that. Previously, it had shown that I had 3 keys registered, presumably, the two originals plus the new one. I held the new one up to the power switch, as directed and in a second, I was down to one registered key instead of two - and it was not my original one as it had stopped working entirely!

I immediately thought that it must have been the other original that was the 'master key' and as I had never owned that one, I couldn't see how I could re-register any of the two I had without a 'good' key. Not only that but I had turned off the ignition by this time and had no way to get auxilliary power back to raise all four windows, which I had opened because of the heat. At least there was no rain forecast for a few hours.

As the panic increased it became rather obvious that I would need to reset the codes but that requires a 96-character Seed Number followed by a Passcode. Although the ignition had been turned off, Techstream was still connected and generated the seed number. I found a site which sells a minimum of 5 tokens to allow the Passcode to be generated but after numerous attempts, Techstream showed that the code was incorrect - further panic!

Without going into even more boring detail, I finally discovered that somehow, the new keyfob was actually the one that was still registered - what a relief! This allowed me to turn on the ignition and re-register my old one which is again fully functional, whereas the new one is still not being recognized by the proximity sensors. I'm not too inclined to mess with it any further so will maybe contact the ebay seller, as it was supposed to be identical to my OEM one.

I hope this saga will be of some useful help to other Gen 3 owners.

 

Yes, I felt like throwing this new key into a fire! Believe me, I have spent hours watching every YT video I could find on activating a new key. It's not difficult to do with Techstream, providing you have the correct replacement key. I just noticed half an hour ago that, despite the ebay seller claiming that his had the same printed circuit board number, it is totally different so I've sent him an email regarding that, asking for a proper replacement this time. Thanks for following along.