2003 Acura TL
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in San Diego

2003 Acura TL Remote Head Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

I got a call out to Harbison Canyon on a Tuesday afternoon. The guy had a 2003 Acura TL sitting in his driveway and one key that would start the car but had not locked or unlocked the doors remotely in about two months.

He had been living with it, walking up and manually using the key blade every time. He figured the remote was just dead and he would deal with it eventually.

I asked him when the battery was last changed. He looked at me the way people look when they are trying to remember something that never actually happened.

Popped the housing open on the hood of my van. The CR2025 inside had dropped low enough that the remote circuit had nothing left to work with, but the transponder was still drawing just enough to talk to the immobilizer. Classic split failure on a remote-head key. The two functions do not die at the same time.

Fresh CR2025, snapped the housing back together, walked to his car. Lock, unlock, trunk release. All four buttons working, full range across the driveway and then some.

He wanted a spare cut while I was there, which was the smarter move anyway. Decoded the blade from the door lock, cut a new key on site, ran it through the programming sequence, tested every button and confirmed the transponder was talking to the car. He left with two working keys for the first time in probably years.

The dealer was never part of the conversation. He had called them once about the remote issue and they told him to bring it in for a diagnosis appointment. He did not need a diagnosis. He needed someone to show up with a CR2025 and know what they were looking at.

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