2006 Subaru WRX
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in Ventura County

2006 Subaru WRX Transponder Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

A guy in the Botanic Garden Area of Thousand Oaks called me on a Tuesday. He'd been sketching at home all morning -- he does graphic novels -- and walked out to find his key turning in the ignition with nothing happening. Car would crank. Wouldn't start. He'd had a shop install an aftermarket alarm a few months back and hadn't had a problem until now.

The street he lives on is one of those narrow hillside roads that dead-ends into a canyon. No shoulder. A tow truck driver had already told him to call back when the car was somewhere more accessible. The dealer told him to have it towed in first, then they'd schedule a programming appointment once the fob -- he kept calling it a fob, it isn't -- was ordered by VIN.

I parked at the bottom and walked up with my bag.

The first thing I did was pull the alarm module under the dash. One of the wires had been spliced into the immobilizer circuit and had developed a weak connection -- intermittent enough that the car had started fine for months, then failed when the connection finally gave out. The key itself was fine. I confirmed the transponder chip was still reading and that the blade was cut correctly.

Reconnected the immobilizer circuit cleanly, bypassed the alarm's kill function, and the car started on the first turn.

He asked if I needed to reprogram anything. I told him the key was already good -- the problem was never the key.

The dealer's plan would have started with a tow and ended with a parts order. His car never moved. That was the whole point.

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