2021 Chevrolet Colorado
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in San Diego

2021 Chevrolet Colorado Transponder Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

I was already near the Las Americas Area in San Ysidro when the call came in. A guy on a road trip had snapped his key clean in the ignition of his 2021 Chevrolet Colorado at a rest stop just outside town. Half the blade was stuck deep in the cylinder. The other half was in his hand. He was not touching it, which was the right call.

When I got there he was sitting on a concrete barrier next to his truck, key fragment between two fingers, just staring at it. He had been trying to decide whether to call a tow for about twenty minutes before he called me instead.

I used a broken-key extractor to pull the fragment out without disturbing the wafers in the cylinder. Once the cylinder was clear I decoded it, cut a new blade to match, and ran the transponder programming through the OBD port. The immobilizer relearn on these trucks has a timed security cycle baked in, so there is a waiting period you cannot skip. I told him upfront so he was not watching me stand there thinking nothing was happening.

Engine fired on the first turn. He tested it himself twice, which I always let people do.

He was back on the highway in under an hour from when he called. He mentioned the dealer was going to be his next call, which would have meant a tow, a wait for an appointment, and a bill that was a fraction of what the dealer would have charged him. A snapped key at a rest stop feels like a trip-ending disaster. On a 2021 Colorado, it is one of the more manageable jobs I run.

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