2007 Toyota RAV4
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in San Diego

2007 Toyota RAV4 Metal Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

In Old Poway, not far from the park on Midland Road, a woman called me about her 2007 RAV4 that would crank and immediately die. She had already been to a shop.

The key a previous locksmith cut was the problem, but not in the way she thought. She assumed it was the car. The engine would catch for a second or two and then cut out, every single time. She had driven it like that twice before it stopped starting altogether.

When I got there and looked at the key, the blade was sloppy in the ignition. Worn just enough to turn, but the cut did not match the depth specs for her lock. That kind of fit causes the ignition to read the key inconsistently, and the vehicle security system does not forgive inconsistency. It either sees a valid key or it does not, and a vague signal is the same as a wrong one.

I decoded her lock cylinder right there on site, cut a new key to match, and walked through the registration procedure. First turn, clean start. She stood there watching it idle and said she had not heard it run that smoothly in two weeks.

She mentioned the dealer had quoted her a number that made her wince before she even finished reading the text back. What she paid me was a fraction of that, and she did not have to tow the car anywhere.

The difference between a key that starts a car and a key that starts it reliably is the cut. I have seen a lot of jobs in Poway that were really just someone else's sloppy work on a blade.

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