Cutting a key is metalwork. Getting a car to accept one is a negotiation between the chip in the key head and the immobiliser, and the vehicle sets the terms. We do the coding at the car, which on most Vancouver jobs means a stall the vehicle is not going to be driven out of until the work is finished.
This is the half of a car key that no cutting wheel can produce. If the key slides in, turns, and leaves the engine silent, coding is the work you are looking for.
A blade can be perfect and the car will still turn it down, because the immobiliser is not reading the metal. Four versions of that come through on the phone. The most common is a key that was cut and never coded at all, which is what a cutting service without programming equipment leaves you holding. Next is a blank carrying a chip of the wrong family or the wrong generation for the vehicle, identical from the outside and invisible until the car declines it. Third is a second-hand key, off a wrecker or from a previous owner, whose chip is still holding another vehicle's data. Fourth is the one that catches people out: a key that genuinely used to work and stopped. If the car has had its immobiliser re-initialised since, every credential written before that point was discarded, and that key was one of them.
Two routes lead to a working chip, and the vehicle usually decides which one you get.
The first duplicates a credential you already have. Where a key the car accepts still exists, its code can be read and written onto a blank, and the immobiliser is never involved at all. The car goes on believing in one key and is simply being shown that key twice. Nothing is written into the vehicle, which keeps it quick, keeps it cheap, and makes it the way through on a model whose security module is awkward to address.
The second writes into the car itself. Through the diagnostic port under the dash, a fresh credential is added to the immobiliser's own list. That is what a chip the vehicle has no record of requires, and it is the only thing left when no original survives.
One difference outlives the price. Because duplicating never touches the car's list, it cannot take anything off that list either. If part of the reason you are calling is that a key is out there in somebody else's hands, only writing to the vehicle deals with it.
Coding is a cycle rather than a moment, and the length of it belongs to the car. The security module has to be brought into a state where it will accept something new, and manufacturers protect that state on purpose. Some vehicles open it the instant a working key is presented. Others impose a timed delay before they will write anything, and nothing on the outside of the car shortens it.
Two practical things follow. The vehicle's own battery carries the session, and a module that sees voltage sag partway through will generally abandon the write rather than leave a half-finished credential behind, so a car that has been standing for weeks is worth mentioning when you book. And the technician stays connected to the car for the whole cycle. That is a different proposition from an entry job that is over in a couple of minutes, and it changes who needs to be standing there with us.
This city hands you the same job in several versions, and the one you get is decided by where the car is standing when the key stops working.
East of Main the car is usually just reachable. A kerb, or a parking pad off the lane behind the block, where the doors can stand open for the length of a cycle and there is nobody to negotiate with. That is the uncomplicated version, and a good share of our coding work is exactly that.
A stall under a tower on Hornby or Nelson is another matter. Somebody has to bring the technician down, which is true of any automotive call here, but coding is not a two-minute visit to a gate. Whoever lets us in generally has to stay, because a residents-only underground is not somewhere a contractor gets left unescorted, and a timed cycle is indifferent to the fact that they had plans. Worth knowing before you ask a neighbour for a favour on their way out to work.
Two other kinds of spot come up often enough to name. Dunbar and the residential strips west of Arbutus have street parking, which is the entire requirement for a coding job: somewhere the car can stand with the doors open and nobody waiting on the stall. The beach lots do the same work. A car stuck at Kits Beach, at Spanish Banks or at Jericho Beach is already parked for the afternoon, and all three are inside the coverage that runs from Kits Beach out along the Point Grey waterfront. Kits is the one to ask about rather than assume, because the parking there is limited and the lot access changes with the season, so take the arrival window off the phone call rather than off a map.
Yaletown adds a second parking problem, because the van has to stand somewhere as well. Hamilton and Mainland are tight through business hours and the loading zones are what a technician actually ends up using, which is workable for a visit of this length provided the building is expecting one. If the car is in the Emery Barnes Park parkade or behind a tower gate, give the concierge the heads-up when you book. It is the same heads-up those towers ask for on a suite call, and it is what gets a technician walked down to the car rather than held at the gate.
These bands are the ones published on the car key replacement page, so the figure does not shift depending on which page you arrived through. The full list of key types is set out over there.
| Key type | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Transponder key, chip but no buttons | $120 – $200 |
| Proximity smart key for push-to-start | $250 – $420 |
| All keys lost, full immobiliser re-program | $280 – $500 |
| Spare coded during the same visit | $60 – $150 |
A band turns into a number once we have the year, make and model. A handful of cars, usually older European ones, fall outside these entirely, and that is a conversation on the phone rather than a surprise in your parkade. That call is also where parts availability gets confirmed, which matters most on exactly those cars: better to hear it before a van is dispatched than after the technician is standing beside yours.
With nothing left to show the car, there is no credential it already trusts, so the immobiliser's list gets cleared and rebuilt from the vehicle's own data. That is what makes this the long job and the expensive one.
The part worth planning for is what the clearing takes with it. The list is not selective. Every credential written before that point stops working, which includes a key you still own and simply did not bring, and includes the spare in a kitchen drawer at home. If a second key exists anywhere, bring it to the appointment so it can be written back in during the same session, rather than discovering a week later that it has quietly become a paperweight.
Bring photo ID and something that puts the car in your name, a registration or an insurance document. A re-initialisation ends with whoever is standing there holding the only working key to the vehicle, so ownership gets checked against the VIN on the dash before anything is written. That check takes about a minute and it is a large part of what a licensed locksmith is for.
If the chip turns out not to be the fault, these are the other automotive jobs that run from the same van.
Pick-, drill- and bump-resistant cylinders with keys that can’t be copied at the hardware store. Cut, pinned and registered in-shop.
1/2" steel door, digital keypad, fitted and bolted on site.
Car keys are priced by vehicle. Pick what you need and we’ll collect your make, model & year to text you an exact quote.