2008 Cadillac DTS
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in Ventura County

2008 Cadillac DTS Transponder Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

Got a text from a guy sitting in the parking lot at St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo. His 2008 Cadillac DTS would not start. He turned the key, the engine caught for about two seconds, then died. Security light on the dash, solid. He tried it four more times before he called me.

That pattern is textbook PK3+ rejection. The body control module is not reading the transponder pellet in the key head, so it cuts fuel injector pulse after the initial crank. Every retry just makes it worse because the BCM stacks lockout timers.

I drove out with my programmer and a Strattec 5912545 blank already in the kit. Parked next to him, checked the original key under the scope first. The transponder chip had a hairline crack in the glass capsule. Probably from being on a heavy keyring and getting knocked around for sixteen years.

Cut a fresh blade to code, programmed the new PK3 transponder through the OBD port using the existing key's data from the BCM, and the DTS fired right up. No two-second stall, no security light.

He had been looking up tow trucks to get it to a dealer. That would have meant a tow out of Camarillo, a wait for a service appointment, and a bill that would have been a lot more than what I charged him standing in that hospital parking lot.

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