2008 Toyota 4runner
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in Ventura County

2008 Toyota 4runner Transponder Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

A woman near Carpinteria State Beach flagged me down at the laundromat. Her 2008 4Runner had a key from another locksmith that was slowly going bad. Mornings it started fine. By evening the engine would crank for about two seconds and cut out. No warning light stuck on, no stored code she could read with her little OBD scanner. Just a car that worked less and less every day.

She thought it was electrical. Maybe a fuel pump. Maybe the ECU.

I pulled out my VVDI2 and read the chip in her existing key. 4D-72. Her 4Runner's immobilizer computer, the 89780 series unit on the fourth-gen, expects a 4D-67. Toyota's system will sometimes let a close-enough chip pass the initial registration handshake, but the rolling verification that runs over multiple drive cycles catches the mismatch. That is why it worked for about ten days and then got worse.

Cut a new TOY43 blank, programmed a proper 4D-67 chip matched to her immobilizer, and tested it through three full start-stop cycles right there in the parking lot. The security light on the dash did its normal blink-and-go-out routine instead of the solid-on rejection it had been throwing.

She also had a weak battery in the remote head portion, which was making the lock and unlock range flaky. Swapped that too.

Months later, still running fine. The difference between a key that works and one that works for a week is the chip generation. I match it every time because redoing jobs is bad for everyone.

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