2003 Toyota Sienna
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in Ventura County

2003 Toyota Sienna Transponder Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

I was out near Mussel Shoals on a Tuesday when a guy called me about his 2003 Sienna. He'd had a copy made at a hardware store kiosk weeks earlier and it had been sitting in a kitchen drawer ever since.

He finally tried it when he lost his original, and the van cranked fine but died the moment he let go of the key. He figured the copy was cut wrong and called a locksmith expecting a cutting job.

When I got there, I checked the blade first. The cut was actually decent, close enough. The issue was the chip inside: blank from the kiosk machine, never programmed, just riding along doing nothing while the immobilizer sat there waiting for a code it never got.

I connected through the OBD port, pulled the car into the pairing process, and wrote the correct chip data to a new key blank. Cut it on site to match the lock. Tested it cold: full crank, clean start, no stall.

He had that hardware store key in his hand the whole time, a little confused that it looked identical to the one I just made him. The difference isn't something you can see.

He'd already paid for the hardware store copy. The dealer was going to charge him for a new key plus a diagnostic fee to figure out why the first copy didn't work. He didn't need either of those things. He needed the right key done right, in the parking lot, before noon.

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