HOW I SAVED $250 - $185 BY PROGRAMMING MY OWN TRANSPONDER KEY FOR OUR CAR

My 16 year old daughter just passed her driver’s license test and needed a car to drive herself to school. My generous sister offered to give her an older car to use, 2005 Toyota Corolla since buying a new car for her at this time was out of the question. However, she only had one key for this car and suggested we get a spare key made asap.

Thinking this would be an easy job, I first made a trip to our local hardware store only to find out they couldn’t make the spare key to start the engine. Apparently, the hardware stores cannot duplicate “transponder keys” (keys with ignition chip), however, they can make copies to open the door. They advised me to go check with the car dealer to have the keys made.

My next step: I made a call to our local Toyota dealer to get an estimate on how much it would cost to get this key made. The price they quoted me was about $250/key!!!

I was not going to spend $250 to have a key made, and searched ebay to see if anyone was selling transponder keys. Yes!! I found many sellers with these keys for 2005 Corolla (most under $10/key), however, not one seller will program the keys. What to do? I decided to check if a locksmith can program transponder car keys. The local locksmith I called was able to program the keys at the cost of $185 :(

Okay, there’s got to me another way….I checked Youtube for diy videos on how to program transponder keys. Luckily, I was able to find a few videos for Toyota transponder keys and the demonstrations seemed easy enough to follow…even for me.

The charge to have the keys cut was FREE…yes, no charge!!… Because I brought my own blank key :) Thank you to our local Lowe’s store.

The Final Steps: I started to review the instructions on youtube on how to program the key and then followed the steps to a tee.

It worked!!! I successfully programmed my transponder key myself!!! Yes, I felt so good in knowing I didn’t spend $250 - $185 to have a spare key made that I wanted to share this experience in hopes of helping other steemians.

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