Question 1

Do you use OEM or aftermarket keys on the 2004 Murano?

Accepted Answer

We use quality blanks that are verified to spec for the 2004 Murano's remote-head key setup. On a vehicle this age, the key itself is not the gamble. The gamble is a cheap shell with brittle plastic that cracks at the pivot point, or a board that loses its pairing after a few weeks.

Nissan dealers will sometimes decline to program a key they did not supply, and online forums are full of Murano owners who bought a blank off a marketplace site, paid a dealer to program it, and then watched it fail within a month. We only bring blanks we are comfortable putting our warranty on. The battery is a CR1620, and we stock those too so you are not leaving with a key that needs a battery run on the way home.

Question 2

How long will a replacement remote-head key last on a 2004 Murano?

Accepted Answer

A properly made key should outlast the car if you treat it reasonably. The programming does not wear out. What does wear out is the battery, the contacts, and the plastic housing. CR1620 cells in these fobs typically last two to four years depending on use. When the battery gets low, remote range shrinks first, then the buttons get inconsistent, and eventually you get a no-start if the transponder side is not getting enough power to communicate.

The other thing that ages on these is the fob shell itself. Twenty-year-old plastic gets brittle. If the housing cracks and the board shifts around inside, you will start getting intermittent failures that look like a programming problem but are actually a physical one. If that happens, we can often move the electronics into a fresh shell without reprogramming anything.

Question 3

What if the new key stops working a few weeks after you make it?

Accepted Answer

Call me. We stand behind the work. If the key loses remote function, throws a warning, or stops starting the car after we made it, we come back and sort it out.

That said, on the 2004 Murano specifically, a complaint that shows up on owner forums is intermittent key-not-detected warnings that come and go. Sometimes it is the battery. Sometimes it is the immobilizer antenna ring around the ignition cylinder getting weak with age. We check for that during the job so we are not handing you a perfect key and sending you to a car with an antenna problem. If we find something like that, we tell you before you drive away.

Question 4

I have two keys but only one of them starts the car. Can a locksmith fix that without wiping the working key?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and this is a common situation on 2004 Muranos. The vehicle can hold multiple key registrations and adding or repairing one does not erase the others when the job is done correctly. The risk only comes in during an all-keys-lost reset, which is a different procedure entirely and only gets used when no working key exists.

If one key starts the car and the other does not, the non-starting key either lost its registration or the transponder side of that fob has a problem. We can test which it is on the spot. If it is a registration issue, we re-register it using the diagnostic port. If the transponder is bad, we make a new key and register that one. Either way, your working key stays working throughout the process.

Question 5

The remote works fine but the car hesitates before it starts, or starts and acts strange. Is that a key problem?

Accepted Answer

It can be. On the 2004 Murano, the remote and the transponder share the same battery. A battery that is low enough to cause weak transponder communication will sometimes let the car crank and then hesitate or stumble before it catches. Owners on Murano forums describe it as a rough, reluctant start that clears up after a new CR1620. The remote often still works at that battery level because the lock and unlock functions need less power than a clean transponder handshake does.

Start with the battery. If the hesitation continues with a fresh CR1620 properly seated, then it is worth looking at the immobilizer antenna or the ignition switch itself, both of which can develop issues on a vehicle this age.

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