2020 Subaru Forester
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in San Diego

2020 Subaru Forester Smart Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

I got a call from a travel nurse working a contract in Lakeside, over in Lakeside Proper, on a Monday morning.

She was parked in the underground garage of her apartment complex with a 2020 Subaru Forester and a fob that had stopped communicating with the car. She had already tried a fresh CR2032, same result. The dash was throwing a key-not-detected warning every time she tried to start the vehicle.

She had called the dealer first. They told her Thursday, maybe Friday depending on parts availability, and she would need to tow the car in since it would not start. She was on a 13-week assignment. Thursday meant three days of rideshares to the hospital for every shift.

I was at her garage that same Monday afternoon. I pulled up the Forester's security system through the diagnostic port and checked which keys were currently enrolled. Her original fob was still registered, meaning the issue was communication-side, not a full enrollment failure. I worked through the fob itself and found that the emergency insert blade, the metal key folded inside the fob body, had never been cut. She had bought this Forester used and the blade was a blank. Prior owner never noticed, or never needed it.

The fob itself needed to be re-enrolled because the security system had logged repeated failed authentication attempts and dropped it from active memory. I registered a replacement fob on-site, cut the emergency insert blade to match her door lock, and walked every function: door lock, door unlock, liftgate, and engine start. All of it confirmed before I handed it over.

She had to be at the hospital by 6 AM Tuesday. She drove herself.

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