2012 Toyota Yaris
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in San Diego

2012 Toyota Yaris Remote Head Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

I got a call from a guy stopped near Garden Road Area in Poway. He was not in a parking lot. He had pulled off because something felt wrong, and when he looked down, the blade of his 2012 Yaris key had snapped. Half still in the ignition, half in his hand.

He had already called one other locksmith. That guy quoted him a full ignition replacement over the phone without seeing the car, just assumed the cylinder was done.

When I got there, the fragment was seated pretty deep but the cylinder itself was intact. No scoring, no damage to the wafers. I extracted the broken piece using a proper Toyota-fit extraction tool, working around the blade without disturbing the internals. Once it was out, I decoded the lock from the wafer positions, cut a fresh key blade to match, and programmed the transponder through the OBD port.

The remote side of his fob was a separate conversation. Because the 2012 Yaris uses a remote head key, the fob body was still in one piece and the remote was functioning. I only needed to deal with the new metal key and the transponder chip pairing. His existing fob buttons kept working as before.

His original ignition cylinder turned the new key like nothing had ever happened. No drilling, no replacement parts, no marks on the column.

The other locksmith's plan would have cost him significantly more and left him with a replaced ignition. Mine left him with his original lock and a working key, for a fraction of what they wanted.

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