Greetings.

I recently purchased a 1999 4Runner SR5 Sport. Loving it, but it only came with one very worn aftermarket key (chipless), and no key fobs.

I took care of the key situation by having my local dealer cut some fresh ones off the VIN, but I wasn't about to pay dealer pricing for fobs and programming.

Ordered some ebay fobs, and downloaded the programming instructions.

Programming instructions require cycling the locks five times, doing a little dance, turning the ignition key, sprinkling some foo foo dust, cycling the locks 5 more times, etc...

Not here to complain about the procedure, but after the third time through cycling the locks, they get weak. I can't complete the fifth cycle. And it's all the doors, so the problem isn't a solenoid. I suspect the issue is the central relay getting hot. I hear something clicking in the dash.

I thought it might be a low battery issue, but it starts right up. I put my battery charger on it just to be sure. And the locks seem to recover as soon as I put the key in the ignition switch.

So what's going on here?

Solenoids are getting hot. A lot of people have had good luck rolling the window down and using the key in tandem to lock/unlock the door. Or you can rebuild your lock solenoids for about $30

Other tricks are to do it first thing in the morning when it's coolest, and to simply slow down a little... after rebuilding my one problem actuator, simply slowing down a little was the fix for me (and doing it at 7am when the temps were coolest).

I was able to get it done by "assisting" the lock manually. Took a couple times, but got both fobs programmed.

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