No keys

[John 5678]

2008 Toyota Auris 1.4, no keys at all and no key numbers to order a spare. Dealer where it was bought from has new computer system and has no record of it and wanted £1100 to fix. 

Is there an easier way to get a new key? 

The owner has alzheimers and keys are gone. 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Moved to the Auris club.

Topic title corected to reflect subject.

Presumably the dealer is fitting a new ecu. Only other option would be an ecu and keys from a scrapper.

[Countrylad]

That sounds about as cheap as it gets, I'm afraid. It's twenty years since I paid £600 for a new ignition switch barrel and two keys for a car (a Citroen, not a Toyota). And that was without a complicated immobiliser in the ecu!

It would be very odd if Toyota can't find the immobiliser code in its records - the VIN number ought to get it, and your dealer should be able to take it from there. But it's going to mean at least some replacements in the dashboard department.

In practice, if you can bear the thought, you can probably get away without replacing the five door lock barrels, because they'll open from the push button on the key fob. That was what I did with my Xantia. Just don't let the key fob batteries die.

 

[furtula]

It should be possible to search based on VIN number as suggested above, maybe your dealer just wants to charge as much as possible so they did not say that.

[Cyker]

It's very hard if there are no master keys available. Toyota don't have any immobilizer codes AFAIK - The keys have a unique transponder code which you program into the ECU, but Toyota ECUs require a master key to enable the programming. Without one, the only way to put one in is with the Toyota Techstream software (But I'm told this only works for older cars) or physically desoldering the ECU's flash chip and injecting codes by hand.

When no master keys, the standard Toyota response is to replace the ECU and all the lock barrels which is quite expensive.

 

Other options are:

Getting an ECU with lock barrels and keys from a donor car (e.g. from a breakers)

Finding a autolocksmith who can hack the ECU flash chip to inject new transponder codes; We did have a guy on this forum but I've not seen them for many years - They generally require you to remove the ECU and possibly a lock barrel, and send it to them. Some only do the ECU and you'd still have to get replacement lock barrels from somewhere.

 

These options will be cheaper but will be more time consuming and a pain in the **** to get done - The easiest option is the Toyota option, but that's also the most expensive option...
 

[Notoyboy]

Here's hoping that you come across the owner's keys sometime soon, and save all the hassle of replacement