Question 1

How long does an Acura dealer actually take for a key replacement or fob programming?

Accepted Answer

The programming itself is not what takes the time. On the right diagnostic equipment, pairing a fob to a 2025 Integra takes somewhere in the range of 10 to 20 minutes of actual tool time. What owners consistently report on forums is that the full dealership visit stretches to 1.5 to 2 hours or more. The time gets eaten up by writing the repair order, waiting in the service queue for a certified technician, the tech sourcing the fob from parts, and occasionally slow server connections on the dealer-side diagnostic system. Dealers typically book key programming as a 0.5 to 1.0 labor hour job, but that is flat-rate time, not the time you spend waiting. More than a few owners have shown up for a morning appointment and been told the car was not ready until end of day.

A mobile locksmith works on your schedule, comes to you, and does not have a service queue in front of you.

Question 2

What exactly is a smart key and why does the chip need to be programmed to my car?

Accepted Answer

Your 2025 Integra does not use a traditional key that just cuts metal against metal. The fob contains a transponder chip that has to be recognized by the vehicle's immobilizer before the engine will run. Even if a replacement fob is physically identical to yours, the chip inside it starts out blank from the manufacturer's perspective. It needs to be paired to your specific car using diagnostic equipment connected to the OBD port. Until that pairing is done, the car will crank but not start, or in some cases will not respond to the fob at all.

The five-button fob also handles the remote functions, but the start authorization is a separate layer. That is why you cannot just order a fob online and call it done. The physical piece and the programming are two different parts of the job.

Question 3

Why does the dealer charge so much and take so long for what seems like a simple key job?

Accepted Answer

Dealers are not slow because the job is hard. They are slow because of how a dealership service department runs. Every job goes through a dispatcher, gets assigned to a technician by availability, and requires a formal repair order before anyone touches the car. The tech then has to source the fob through their parts department, load the manufacturer's diagnostic software, and sometimes wait on a server handshake. All of that overhead gets billed as labor time, and the parts markup on a fob through a dealership is significant.

A mobile locksmith cuts out almost every step in that chain. I come to you, I bring the hardware, and I work directly on your car without a queue in front of me.

Question 4

Can I program a second fob to my 2025 Integra myself at home?

Accepted Answer

No. There is no ignition-turn sequence or button combination that adds a fob on this vehicle. The 2025 Integra's smart key system requires a professional diagnostic tool connected to the OBD port to register any new fob to the car. That applies whether you are adding a spare or replacing a lost key. If you bought a fob online, you still need someone with the right equipment to pair it before it will do anything.

Question 5

My Integra shows a key warning on the dash but the fob battery is new. What else could cause that?

Accepted Answer

A fresh battery rules out the most common cause, but a few other things can produce a key-not-detected warning on these cars. The battery contact inside the fob can get slightly bent if the fob was pried open the wrong way during a previous battery swap, leaving the new cell sitting at an angle and not making a solid connection. Cleaning the contacts and reseating the battery sometimes fixes it immediately.

Beyond that, owners have reported antenna sensitivity issues where the fob works fine when held close to the start button or the door handle but fails at normal range. That points to the fob itself rather than the battery. In rarer cases the fob can lose its pairing to the vehicle after a jump-start or a battery disconnect on the car side, and the warning comes back until the fob is re-enrolled. If the car cranks but does not start, that is a different signal than a car that does not detect the fob at all, and it helps narrow down where the problem actually is. Bring the car and both fobs if you have them.

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