2002 Dodge Dakota
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in San Diego

2002 Dodge Dakota Transponder Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

I got a call from a guy out in Harbison Canyon, one of those long canyon roads off the 8 where the lots run back into the hillside. He had a 2002 Dodge Dakota, and he was standing next to it with a key that turned the ignition but wouldn't keep the engine alive. It would fire, run for maybe two seconds, and then shut off clean. He said it had been sitting a few weeks and he figured it was fuel. Already had someone look at the fuel pump. That wasn't it.

I knew before I pulled up what it probably was.

When I got there, the truck looked solid. He had a spare key he'd had cut at a hardware store a while back, and that was the key he'd been trying. The original had gone missing somewhere in the move. So he was attempting to start a truck with a chip-less copy, wondering why it kept dying on him.

I explained what was happening. The immobilizer was doing exactly what it's supposed to do -- seeing an unrecognized key and killing the engine after ignition. He had that look people get when the answer turns out to be simpler than the diagnosis they already paid for.

I cut a new key to the vehicle, programmed the transponder to the truck, and had him turn it over himself so he could feel it catch and hold. It sat there idling like it had no complaints at all. The whole job took well under an hour, done in his driveway, for a fraction of what a dealer visit out of the canyon would have cost him in time alone.

BSIS Licensed

LCO#6792

CA Bureau of Security & Investigative Services

NASTF Certified

National Automotive Service Task Force

Fully Insured

Liability & vehicle damage coverage

Google Guaranteed

Verified & backed by Google