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Prius smartkey question

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by benjasik, Feb 25, 2009.

  1. benjasik

    benjasik Junior Member

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    I have a 2008 prius and lost a key. I bought a used smartkey on ebay (silver back) and took it to a shop to get it reprogrammed, but only the immobilizer ended up working. Neither the remote nor the smartkey worked. They tried a few times to reprogram it with no luck

    Is there anything different about programming a 2008 prius vs the 2004-2007?

    How could I troubleshoot what's wrong with a smartkey? Has anyone taken one apart?

    Thanks in advance!
     
  2. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    It's a used key. Only the immobilizer will work. The other parts can't be set back to synchronize with the car, as the ECU expects a new key fob.

    Tom
     
  3. benjasik

    benjasik Junior Member

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    Is there any way to reset a used key? So what you're saying is once a key has been programmed there's no way to reprogram it?
     
  4. RobH

    RobH Senior Member

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    Actually, it's the car that is programmed to recognize the keyfob. The black logo keyfob has a counter in it that increments by one each time a key is pressed. Apparently it is only possible to program the car to add a keyfob that has been used some small number of times. The silver logo keyfob uses a different encryption chip, but it behaves in much the same way.

    If you're really interested, go the Microchip website and download the data sheet for a HCS362 encryption chip. It is used in the black logo keyfob. Note particularly the section on "limited seed" mode. It limits transmission of the seed value to a counter value of 127 or less. I don't know if Toyota uses this mode, but it would account for the observed behavior.
     
  5. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Exactly. As posted above, the car is programmed to accept the fob, not the other way around. For security reasons, you cannot add a fob that has been used for more than a small number of cycles.

    Microchip makes the guts for these things. Their web site is a good source of technical information if you want gory details.

    Tom
     
  6. spitinuri

    spitinuri Member

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  7. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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