Why won’t a copied key start the car?
Because most vehicles built after the late 1990s check for a small chip in the plastic head of the key before the engine is allowed to run. The metal blade turns the lock. An antenna ring around the ignition reads the chip by radio at a range of about an inch. A copy cut on a blank with no chip, or with a chip that was never paired to this vehicle, does everything a key appears to do: door opens, ignition turns, dash lights up. Then the starter stays quiet, or the engine catches and dies two seconds later with a little key icon blinking at you.
The cut was fine. Nobody told the car about the chip.
That is the whole difference between copying a key and making one. Copying is a machine tracing a blade, and the kiosk at Rural King in Albertville or Boaz and the counter at Weathers do that well on a plain key. Programming is a separate step with a diagnostic tool plugged into the port under your dash, writing the chip ID into the short list of keys the immobilizer will start on. The kiosks copy some chipped keys and not others, and neither a kiosk nor a hardware counter is set up for a vehicle with no key at all. That second lane is the one we work in, at your vehicle rather than at a counter.
We do see the workaround. An old cracked key head taped up under the steering column so a bare cut blank will start the truck. It runs until the tape lets go some cold morning, and in the meantime anybody with a blade cut to your lock can drive off.
Which kind of car key do you have?
Four rungs, and the price and the job both hang on which one you are standing on. The car key page lists the same ladder, because it is the first question on the phone.
- A plain metal key. Thin steel, or a plastic head with nothing inside. Vehicles older than the late 1990s, a lot of farm trucks, some fleet vans. Cut only, and this is the one job a kiosk does as well as anyone.
- A transponder key. The fat plastic head on an otherwise ordinary key. Cut to your lock, then programmed to your car.
- A remote-head key or a separate fob. Buttons on the key itself, or a fob riding on the ring beside a plain-looking blade. The buttons need programming, and on a remote-head key the chip inside needs it too.
- A proximity smart key. Push-button start, key stays in a pocket. Nothing to cut except the emergency blade hidden inside it. The whole job is programming.
There is an edge case above the top rung, a model so new the maker has not released programming access to anyone outside its dealers. The locksmith or dealer guide covers where to go for each key type. Say the year, make, and model on the phone and you hear which rung you are on before anybody starts the van.
What does a locksmith need to make a car key with no spare?
Three things, and the technician asks for every one of them.
- The VIN. It is on a plate at the base of the windshield on the driver side, on the door-jamb sticker, and on your registration and insurance card. Photograph it before you call. With the VIN we can pull the key code and bring the right blank in the van instead of finding out on arrival.
- Registration or title. The paper that ties the vehicle to a person.
- Your ID, with a name that matches that paper.
Anyone we send holds an AESBL license, the state credential that comes with a fingerprint background check, and confirming that the person asking for a key owns the car is part of how a licensed locksmith stays licensed. Turn it around. A tech who will cut a key to any vehicle for anyone standing beside it would cut one to yours. Our guide to spotting a fake locksmith covers the outfits that skip this step, and skipping it is one of the tells.
The paperwork gets complicated more often than you would think. The truck is in a parent’s name. The car was bought last month on a bill of sale and the title has not come back from Montgomery yet. The vehicle belongs to an estate. None of those are dead ends. A call to the owner while the tech is standing there, plus a photo of the registration from their phone, settles the first two. An estate needs the paper that names the executor. Sort that before the appointment.
How much does a transponder key cost with all keys lost?
The same key costs two very different amounts depending on whether a working key still exists.
With a working key in hand, the job is a clone and a short programming session. Around Albertville that runs $60 to $120 for a basic metal or transponder key cut and programmed, $120 to $250 for most remote fobs, and $180 to $350 for a proximity smart key. Ten minutes in your driveway. The full board, with the notes on what moves a job inside its range, is on the Albertville price board.
With no key at all, the blade has to be cut from the vehicle rather than traced from a key, the code pulled from the VIN or read off the lock itself, and the immobilizer put into a learn mode with no existing key to hand off from. An all-keys-lost call costs two to three times what a spare does for that reason, and it takes longer. Figure an hour or so at your driveway. That still beats the dealer route, where a smart key is often quoted at $300 to $500 plus the tow to get a keyless car to the service lane.
If you are reading this with a working key still in your pocket, cutting a spare this week is the $60 to $120 version of the same phone call. The same goes for a battered one at your parent’s house or a spare riding in a coat pocket in the hall closet. Any key that still turns the ignition keeps you out of the all-keys-lost lane, so look before you decide there is none.
Can a locksmith program a transponder key at my house?
Nearly always. The programming tool, the cutting machine, and the blanks ride in the van, so your driveway works and so does the employee lot where you parked it. The car never moves. Say where it is sitting when you call, though, and whether a van can get to it. A car shut in a garage with a dead opener, or one parked at the bottom of a pasture track, changes the plan.
The exceptions are narrow. A dealer-locked model, which you hear about on the phone from the year and make rather than after a drive-out fee. A key still covered under the maker’s warranty, where their price is zero and we will tell you so. And the one that catches people out: an ignition that is physically broken, a snapped blade wedged in the cylinder or a wafer stack that has seized. That is a repair with a part in it, and no amount of programming substitutes for the part.
What about work trucks and fleet keys?
A truck that hauls for one of the plants or runs the 431 corridor all day has a different paperwork shape. The registration is usually in a binder in the fleet office, not the glove box, so have someone in the office ready to text a photo. The person at the truck rarely owns it, which is fine. The owner or the fleet manager confirms by phone and the tech carries on.
The bigger fleet lesson is timing. A work truck with one key on one ring goes down the day that ring goes missing, and all-keys-lost on a truck that should be on a route costs the job price plus the lost day. Two spares made while a key exists, one in the office and one with the driver, cost the spare price each. For a handful of vehicles that is a single visit.
If that is the shape of your yard, one call to (256) 388-2802 with the vehicle list gets the spares cut in a single stop.
