2011 Prius Three Key Fob died

Hi all,

This is my first post. About a month ago, my Prius started telling me my battery in my key fob was low., and soon after, the key fob stopped unlocking the car (but would still allow the car to start, due to the Smart Key ignition, though I annoyingly had to hold it up to the push-to-start button every time I started the car). Okay, that's cool, I've replaced batteries in key fobs before, and I could deal with unlocking the car manually for a few days if it would continue to start. I couldn't find the damn 1632 batteries in any store, so I had to get them from Amazon.

While the battery was shipping, my key fob magically started working again. It would unlock the car, start the car without having to touch it to the button, and everything was working well. Still, I was concerned for the battery life, so when the battery got to my house, I decided to put the new one in my key fob, just to be safe.

This is where the problem started. I opened the key fob very gingerly, but immediately, a tiny metal bar or something similar fell out. I've deduced that it's probably the cover to one of the components, but nothing that should cause any problems if removed. I also don't know if it had been loose the entire time or if I'd knocked it loose via jimmying the key fob open ( because of the rubber inside the fob, it wouldn't make a rattling noise, which I recreated by putting the metal bar back in once I closed up the fob).

However, my key fob doesn't work now. Not only will it not unlock my car (even with the refreshed battery), but it also is like pulling teeth to get it to start my car. I've tried everything short of soldering the metal bar onto the place it should be (again, it looks like a metal cover, not something integral to the operation of the circuits), but it simply will not work.

Has anyone had this kind of a problem? Does anyone know what I should do? Should I take the car to the dealer? Is my key fob defective?

Thanks!