1. borgestes

    borgestes Member

    Joined:
    Sep 21, 2017
    84
    75
    0
    Location:
    New York
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    II
    I want to share a success story here to let everyone know what is definitely possible at home. I had read about dealer wanting hundreds of dollars for a all lost keys situation. Here is mine
    I bought a 2016 off an auction, locked, no keys, dead battery as is where is.
    I have a vxdiag interface as well as a vci and dedicated laptop.
    Vxdiag would only work with version 18 of techstream and would only provide me with version 18.
    The passcode calculator I used to get the seeds wouldn't support 18. I paid 30 dollars for 5 seeds. The site allowed you to retry with the same vin with the same key code multiple attempts. make sure the provider you use allows you to do this retry as it took me probably 7 attempts till I got a version of techstream that would work.
    I located a copy of version 17.10 and thought i was good to go. I could not make it work. It would start, give the seed, you put in the response code and it would fail. Tried this like 4 times, resetting car, laptop, techstream, imagine chicken dance, no joy.
    My version 10.10.18 that i used with vci would only allow you to choose up to 2015. I saw that 10.10.29 worked on a 2016? If anyone would like to donate a copy to my cause please message me a link, it would be appreciated :).
    I selected 2015 and went through the lost keys process with version 10, took 16 minutes. After it completed you program the primary key fob. After you program the primary keyfob then you have to use the primary key fob to add additional fobs up to 6 I believe, maybe 5.
    After using techstream to program the fobs the door locks worked like they were supposed to and everything appears to be fine. The fobs came off amazon for 40 dollars each. I matched up the part number from a parts online seller and the replacements were fine. I do still need to pull a lock to get the door keycode or go to the dealer but with two working keyfobs it is not a priority. Also since I have already broken into the car once.
    so it looks like total cost for a lost key situation was 110 dollars. My backup plan was to call AAA as I have locksmith service and try to get them to program my new fobs. I hate dealing with service people because they dont want to use your parts cause that is part of their profit and I understand but when I buy the part, it becomes part of MY profit.
    When surfing around the internet I saw talk about some vci 2.0, I dont have that, I have the version that came out like 5 years ago.
    Previously I had this great plan to purchase an immobilizer for a similar car from ebay, fobs, computers, everything but that just seemed like a expensive pain in the nice person. I have also seen users getting quotes from the dealer for 800 dollars stating they have to replace the immobilizer. Well I have now confirmed that is BS. Talk about gravy money the dealer is out an hour of time, and they get the mark up on the fobs.
    I am quite excited about my success, my greatest since I have been playing with prius cars so I wanted to share it with the group.
    the seed code picture is just something I found surfing but it shows where you go in techstream and what it looks like. The other pics are the auction car, cause no pics it never happened right?

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    #1 borgestes, Feb 10, 2026 at 10:41 AM
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2026 at 10:47 AM
    bisco likes this.
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    114,415
    52,192
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    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    Thank you and congratulations!
     
    borgestes likes this.