As I had two extra keys from my last Prius (totaled 2010), I took them to the dealer to get them programmed - they spent gobs of time, but could not get them to register. They verified they were the correct keys - but in the end, could not get through to Toyota's higher level tech support to troubleshoot it.... They said they'd try again on my first service. Anyone know why there would be an issue programming extra keys???
Normal programming will not work with used SKS keys. Once the fob has been used for more than a limited number of cycles, it will no longer pair with any other Prius. This is done as a security measure. There are a limited number of dealers that pay extra to have the equipment and access to allow for resetting the security measures. The have a special programmer, and then they have to call Toyota and get a code that is good for a limited number of minutes. This makes it a hassle for the dealer and labor intensive. That translates to cost for you. You may find that it is easier and cheaper to buy new fobs. Tom
Tom - thanks - that's another good reason not to buy Ebay keys... As part of the purchase 'agreement' they are suposed to program these free. My old keys should have been programmed once (from my new 2010) - the tech clearly didn't know much about the process, and as he said, kept trying different things - which may be why they won't program now. I know he did mention trying to call someone at Toyota in L.A. - but couldn't get them - maybe this is what you are talking about (???). At any rate, sounds like this isn't going to be a simple process. I'd guess they already spent at least an hour working on this...
It isn't the number of times the fob is programmed, it's the number of times the fob is used. Each time you use it to unlock the car it increments a counter. Once the counter gets past a fairly small number you can no longer reuse the fob, except as discussed above. For example, if you programmed Prius A to work with a given fob, and then used to fob a couple of times with Prius A, you could still take the fob and program Prius B to work with it. On the other hand, once you had used to the fob extensively with Prius A, you could no longer program Prius B to work with it. Fortunately this is your dealer's problem, since they agreed to do it. Tom
This is fairly uncharted territory. On the Gen2 (2004-2009) a used SKS keyfob can be registered after doing a "Smart Key Reset" with a Techstream scantool. The Gen3 is different, so there may or may not be a similar function. The dealer could always just provide you with new keyfobs.
