2000 Lexus LS
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in Ventura County

2000 Lexus LS Remote Head Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

Got a call from a woman staying near San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito. She had a 2000 Lexus LS 400, one key, and that key had stopped doing anything useful. Remote buttons dead. She figured the battery died, which was half right.

She tried the dealer route first. They told her to tow the car in and they could look at it the next afternoon. She was checking out in the morning. That math does not work.

I drove out that evening. Her remote head key, the HYQ1512V with three buttons, had a bloated CR1616 that had leaked just enough to corrode one of the battery terminals inside the fob shell. The 4C transponder chip still worked, so the engine should have cranked on the mechanical turn alone. Turned out she had been trying to start it by just holding the key near the column, like a proximity system. This car does not have that. You insert the key and turn it.

Once I cleaned the contact inside the fob housing, dropped in a fresh CR1616, and showed her the actual start procedure, the car fired right up. Remote lock, unlock, trunk, all responding.

She did not need a new key cut or programmed. She needed someone who knew the system and could get to her that same day. Whole visit was maybe twenty minutes, and it cost her a fraction of what the dealer quoted before they even touched the car.

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