So what I'm getting is that people here are having difficulty with the remote/keyless entry part of this all-in-one key right?
Then no problem. I've done this and had my all-in-one key for about a week now, no problems. I know, I know, everyone starts having problems around two weeks. Well didn't GixxerSteve propose a fix that works just fine? He seems to think so. Anyway, mine had the great fortune of having only one out of three clips broken off (hurrah!) so no big deal.
The real part where there's no problem, aside from the very simple fix (again thanks GixxerSteve, I'm sure I'll need that soon enough), is that the key fob and the transponder chip are two completely separate pieces. Here's how I know:
I got a key from extra-partssssssss (ssssssss etc.). Those kind of suck. Buyer indeed beware. Here's the catch: the electronic bits in it are just fine, it's just the material that sucks. I got that key, and after much running around (met a nice guy in parts dept at the stealership who gave me a fresh-cut-from-VIN non-transponder key, then went to home depot [not recommended, read on for why] to have it cut), I found that the key got cut slightly off-center, and on top of that it was a surreptitious matter since Home Depot will only cut keys that they sell to you. I suspect less that it's the Home Depot employee who did it and more that extra partssssssssssssssssssss gives you lame keys. The plastic cover on the keyfob didn't fit either; it wasn't closing fully and the keychain hole or whatever it's called was all jacked up from somebody opening it too many times with a machine gun or something.
SO, I got a new key shell from the recommended link in post #1 of this thread. Came really quick, since the guy's in um.. Texas or something, instead of China. I swapped out the internals and snapped it in to place and the remote worked flawlessly. The key, however, seemed suddenly unprogrammed. I was very confused. Tried reprogramming it and the security light did a samba blink pattern of blink pause blink blink pause pause (assuming each word is an equally measured beat). This is apparently the code for THIS KEY DOESN'T HAVE A TRANSPONDER, RETARD, as I later looked at the extra-partsss(yougettheidea) key and found a little pinky-nail-sized looking piece of plastic on the side, jammed into the corner of the key's plastic area. This was the transponder.
So I broke the old shell (the key was junk anyway, so I figured why not), and put the transponder in the new shell (had to hammer it in, made me nervous I'd break it), and got it cut via legit-locksmith-guy-in-middle-of-ghettoville (for free! nice guy.) and it worked just fine. And it still works just fine.
So what's my point? Maybe at some point your remote will stop working, but I haven't heard any complaints about the non-battery-powered transponder, or the mechanical/physical key itself, so failing remote entry, you can still physically get in the car and the immobilizer will still recognize your transponder. (I hear the alarm stops going off when you turn the key to Run, and you can disable it? by going back and forth between off and Run 5 times.) No big deal after all, right? :jump:
