Hello all,
I have a 2-button key fob (lock / unlock) for my car (gen 7 Celica VVTI) that has become cracked. It’s quite a bad crack, and is in danger of snapping off at the key stem, so I took it to my local Toyota dealer, who said that I would have to order a brand new key. As my car is an import from the UK (I live in Ireland) I would have to do this through a UK (or Northern Irish) dealership, and my local dealer reckoned that this would cost around €200.
Now, I would have to say that my local dealership hasn't in the past impressed me with their willingness to provide easy or cheap solutions. So as both the key and the button unit work, I thought that it should be just a simple job of getting an empty case and transferring both the button unit and the key stem. Is this workable? Is the activating transponder in the button unit, or is it imbedded in the actual key casing?

There appears to be a number of key cases, similar to my one, for sale on eBay (typical example: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOYOTA-REMOTE-KEY-FOB-COROLLA-AVENSIS-CARINA-YARIS-NEW_W0QQitemZ120284565864QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120284565864)"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOYOTA-REMOTE-KEY-FO...em120284565864)[/url]. Would this be a solution for me?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Regards
Joe D

It's probably bad manners to reply to your own message, but for the benefit of anybody else in a similar position -

Eventually, I took the plunge and ordered a 2 button key case off EBay. There always seem to be a handful of these for sale there. None of the cases on auction mentioned "Celica" specifically in the model description, but they looked similar to my broken one, with a blank key stem. I took a chance. The alternative was to go to a UK / N.Irl dealer and pay upwards of £150 for a brand new key.
For £12 (inc P&P). I received the new case. €4 at my local hardware store got the new key blade cut (copied from the existing key), popped in the existing button unit into the new case and tried it out. It worked first time - £130 saved.

So to recap:
The transponder is in the actual button / battery unit
The key blade can be copied very cheaply
Empty, uncut keys can be sourced very cheaply on auction sites
Toyota dealerships are unhelpful in general.

Regards
JD

Nice one JD

I did something similar, only difference being I swapped the key part itself as well as the transponder, a bit fiddly but mucho cheaper

[quote name='GIDDLEPIN' post='839833' date='Jan 9 2009, 01:07 PM']Nice one JD

I did something similar, only difference being I swapped the key part itself as well as the transponder, a bit fiddly but mucho cheaper [/quote]
How did you go about this? I had the key cut but it doesnt fit. Is it possible to savage something and just use the key and transponder of my exisiting key? (of which the casing is broken)

So basically I would just be replacing the casing of my original key.

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