2005 Honda S2000
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in San Diego

2005 Honda S2000 Transponder Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

I was parked on a side street near Downtown El Cajon on a Saturday morning when I got a call from a woman who said she had already paid another locksmith for a key that did not work. She had found me through a search and was frustrated enough that she led with that detail before she even told me the car.

It was a 2005 Honda S2000. The key had been cut and supposedly programmed, but every time she turned it over, the engine would catch for about two seconds and then quit. The other locksmith had told her the car had a module problem and walked away from the job. She believed him long enough to wait two weeks before calling again.

I drove out, and she met me in the parking lot. The car was exactly where she had left it.

I tested the key cut first. The blade was actually correct. Whatever the other tech had done, the cutting part was fine. The problem was in the registration. The immobilizer on these cars requires a full timed security handshake to write the new key permanently into memory. If you rush through it or lose the connection partway through, the car will accept the key temporarily, the engine will fire, and then the security system will shut fuel down almost immediately. That is exactly what was happening.

I connected my scan tool through the OBD-II port, looked at what was sitting in the immobilizer memory, and found incomplete data from the previous attempt still in there. I cleared it, ran the full registration sequence with the proper timing, and watched the confirmation come through on my screen. Then I tested it the way I always do: start, let it idle, shut it off, start it again, a third time. No two-second cutoff. Just a clean start every time.

She stood next to the car and watched the whole thing. When it started clean on the third try she did not say much. She had just been through a frustrating two weeks and a wasted payment. I understood.

I charged her for the programming work, not the cut, since the blade was already correct. She saved a good chunk compared to the dealer, even accounting for what she had already lost on the first attempt. I could not fix that part. But I could make sure the key was actually done right before I left.

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