2004 Cadillac Seville
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in Ventura County

2004 Cadillac Seville Transponder Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

Upper State Street, mid-morning on a Tuesday. A woman called saying her Seville would crank but die within seconds every time she tried to leave for work. She had already called a tow company and they quoted her the trip to the dealer. She was about to say yes when she thought to search for a mobile locksmith instead.

I was there in under 30 minutes.

She had one key and it was original, probably never replaced in twenty years. The plastic key head had a hairline crack running right through it. That crack had let the chip shift just enough that the immobilizer was reading it inconsistently. Some mornings it would start fine. Some mornings it would crank and die. That morning it just died.

I decoded the key blade from the lock, cut a new key to match, transferred the programming to the new key's transponder chip using the OBD port, and tested it four times back to back. Started clean every time.

The tow never happened. She canceled it while I was still standing there. The dealer would have needed the car on-site, a service appointment, probably a day or two turnaround, and the tow on top of everything. She paid a fraction of that, right in her own parking spot, and drove to work about an hour after she called me.

The cracked key head was the whole story. Happens a lot on keys this old and nobody thinks to look there first.

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