2009 Volkswagen Beetle
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in San Diego

2009 Volkswagen Beetle Remote Flip Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

A vet assistant finishing a late shift at a clinic in Lomas Santa Fe walked out to the employee lot around 10pm and her flip key would not turn. Not a dead battery situation. The key went in, nothing seized the way a locked steering column does, but the cylinder was fighting her. The dealer was closed and had no availability for days. She needed the car that night.

I was in the area and met her before 11.

First thing I did was run a quick check through the OBD port to confirm the immobilizer side was not part of the problem. The transponder was still recognized by the system, so the issue was purely mechanical. What I found was a worn wafer inside the ignition cylinder that had shifted just enough to bind. The key blade itself had worn down over years of daily use to the point where it was no longer moving that wafer cleanly.

I freed the cylinder, cleaned the binding wafer, and decoded the lock to cut her a fresh blade. Her flip key worked clean on every function after that. Remote lock, unlock, the flip mechanism, all of it.

She drove home in under 40 minutes. Dealer would have been days away and a much heavier bill. She did not leave her Beetle in a dark clinic lot overnight, which was really all she wanted.

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