Key Fob Reprogram

12294 Views 15 Replies 7 Participants Last post by jdean9717, Jun 16, 2015

MJCasiano

Discussion Starter · Jun 3, 2015

Hey all,

So long story short: I was robbed last week and one of the items stolen was my spare Cruze key fob. I live in an apartment and the only place to park in the parking garage, so it wouldn't be hard to keep hitting the unlock button on every floor until they found my car and ultimately drive off with it. With that said, I took it into the closest dealership here in Atlanta the next day. My goal was to have the frequency changed in my lone remaining key fob so that the stolen fob wouldn't be able to beep my car in the parking garage. The dealership hadn't done this before and it took exceedingly long. But when they finally finished, I paid for the hourly bill and drove off the lot.

The next day (and keep in mind I travel for a living) the cruise control and remote start were no longer working. These are two things I use heavily and don't want to live without, not to mention to decrease in value to my car with these two features not working. So I took it back to the dealership and asked them to fix their problem. Clearly the technician did something with the computer to disable those two features on accident when changing the frequency in my key fob. For some reason the service manager refused service because my remote start is aftermarket and he doesn't want to touch it. Even to take a look at the cruise control he said it would cost $114 an hour. I refused to pay this amount to have them look at a problem they created. So he told me to take my business back to Best Buy (where I got my remote start) and have them fix my issue.

At this point I'm not sure what I need to do to get these two features back. The Chevrolet dealership is of no help and Best Buy is last place I want to take my car for a car issue. Has anyone had this happen before or have an idea of what the issue is. Thanks in advance.

See less See more

1 - 16 of 16 Posts

Merc6

· #2 · Jun 3, 2015 (Edited)

MJCasiano said:
Hey all,

So long story short: I was robbed last week and one of the items stolen was my spare Cruze key fob. I live in an apartment and the only place to park in the parking garage, so it wouldn't be hard to keep hitting the unlock button on every floor until they found my car and ultimately drive off with it. With that said, I took it into the closest dealership here in Atlanta the next day. My goal was to have the frequency changed in my lone remaining key fob so that the stolen fob wouldn't be able to beep my car in the parking garage. The dealership hadn't done this before and it took exceedingly long. But when they finally finished, I paid for the hourly bill and drove off the lot.

The next day (and keep in mind I travel for a living) the cruise control and remote start were no longer working. These are two things I use heavily and don't want to live without, not to mention to decrease in value to my car with these two features not working. So I took it back to the dealership and asked them to fix their problem. Clearly the technician did something with the computer to disable those two features on accident when changing the frequency in my key fob. For some reason the service manager refused service because my remote start is aftermarket and he doesn't want to touch it. Even to take a look at the cruise control he said it would cost $114 an hour. I refused to pay this amount to have them look at a problem they created. So he told me to take my business back to Best Buy (where I got my remote start) and have them fix my issue.

At this point I'm not sure what I need to do to get these two features back. The Chevrolet dealership is of no help and Best Buy is last place I want to take my car for a car issue. Has anyone had this happen before or have an idea of what the issue is. Thanks in advance.

Yes I had this happen. The alarm is not GM so they won't touch it at all especially since its a Best Buy install. If they reprogrammed your keys(key in this instance), whatever key or universal key hidden inside your dash to use the aftermarket remote start no longer works. If I can explain it right, the car remote starts because it thinks a key is in the car already. Usually you have a 3rd valet key inside a box or a blank key coded to your working keys and that is used to start the car. I had a spare key cut and not programmed on purpose so if anyone stole my key they had to figure out it only works if you started the car from remote start. If not it was just gonna turn the radio on and unlock the steering column.

The stolen key can still unlock the door handle but I doubt they are gonna manually key each handle of a Chevy hoping to find yours. When you place registration in glove box does it have your address? in Ohio, they give us a restricted copy with no address for that reason and never store your real home address in any GPS. Use the gas station or police station near the freeway so the directions point you near your neighborhood. You should be able to get home from the freeway exit by now unless you just moved 2 weeks ago.

What year and trim do you have? Not sure if losing the key would turn off Cruise Control. You can also contact Chevy Customer care about that issue but the remote start one may be a up hill battle but you are in a better place than I was. I had a bricked ECU in my Subaru and the dealership wanted me to tow my car to Best Buy to valet mode my car before they would run tests and still couldn't figure out I had a bricked ECU from the error codes on the cluster after that was done.

See less See more

ChevyGuy

· #3 · Jun 3, 2015

I'd take the car back to GM and have them fix your cruse control (I'm assuming that's factory). They should be willing to do that much.

As I understand it, in order to wipe out a key from the car's memory, ALL keys must be wiped and then each key programmed back in. So for the remote start, you need someone to re-setup the remote start system. If you have the manual, it might explain how to do that. Or, if you know the brand, you might try searching the web for the install instructions. Everything's probably still wired, so you just have to go though the setup part again.

Good luck.

bostonboy

· #4 · Jun 3, 2015

Hello everyone
I have a 2014 cruze ltz does my car have a factory alarm? If yes how do I set it & how does it work? Yes a dumb question sorry

Merc6

· #5 · Jun 3, 2015

bostonboy said:
Hello everyone
I have a 2014 cruze ltz does my car have a factory alarm? If yes how do I set it & how does it work? Yes a dumb question sorry

Should have it

*Lock the car pressing the lock button on the key fob
*Try to unlock the drivers door handle with the flip key portion and see if the alarm goes off.

Reactions: 1

KENSTV123

· #6 · Jun 3, 2015

The remote start probably has a hidden key by the ignition switch which now will have to be re-programmed also, I think you can do that easily having 1 key already programmed, you just put the good key in ignition, turn on-off and quickly put the hidden key in and turn it on, hidden key might be nothing but the blade though, best buy should do this part for free, the AC must be a separate problem because the key has nothing to do with it except to start the engine to run the AC, the dealer is responsible for that

Merc6

· #7 · Jun 3, 2015

KENSTV123 said:
The remote start probably has a hidden key by the ignition switch which now will have to be re-programmed also, I think you can do that easily having 1 key already programmed, you just put the good key in ignition, turn on-off and quickly put the hidden key in and turn it on, hidden key might be nothing but the blade though, best buy should do this part for free, the AC must be a separate problem because the key has nothing to do with it except to start the engine to run the AC, the dealer is responsible for that

Seeing that we don't have valet keys, I also think it may be a blank. I was gonna ask if the LTZ keyhole would reprogram a blank but LTZ would have remote start already.

KENSTV123

· #8 · Jun 3, 2015

I have a valet key for my LT, starts the car just no remote buttons, the keys have a RF ID pellet in them, the aftermarket remote start's I've seen they hide the key buy the ignition switch and the remote start module makes it happen, on the cruze I'm not sure what the remote start system does--must use the GM buss

MJCasiano

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jun 3, 2015

KENSTV123 said:
The remote start probably has a hidden key by the ignition switch which now will have to be re-programmed also, I think you can do that easily having 1 key already programmed, you just put the good key in ignition, turn on-off and quickly put the hidden key in and turn it on, hidden key might be nothing but the blade though, best buy should do this part for free, the AC must be a separate problem because the key has nothing to do with it except to start the engine to run the AC, the dealer is responsible for that

It's the cruise control that went out not the air conditioning.

MJCasiano

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jun 3, 2015

ChevyGuy said:
I'd take the car back to GM and have them fix your cruse control (I'm assuming that's factory). They should be willing to do that much.

As I understand it, in order to wipe out a key from the car's memory, ALL keys must be wiped and then each key programmed back in. So for the remote start, you need someone to re-setup the remote start system. If you have the manual, it might explain how to do that. Or, if you know the brand, you might try searching the web for the install instructions. Everything's probably still wired, so you just have to go though the setup part again.

Good luck.

Yeah, the cruise control is factory so I figured they would at least fix this problem they caused but they told me it would be $114 an hour and at least two hours of work. I don't want to pay over $200 for an issue they created. I contacted Chevrolet customer service to see what they can do but usually not much comes from it.

Merc6

· #11 · Jun 4, 2015

KENSTV123 said:
I have a valet key for my LT, starts the car just no remote buttons, the keys have a RF ID pellet in them, the aftermarket remote start's I've seen they hide the key buy the ignition switch and the remote start module makes it happen, on the cruze I'm not sure what the remote start system does--must use the GM buss

Valet Key? Was this the Camaro ignition recall key?

MJCasiano

Discussion Starter · #12 · Jun 5, 2015

Bump.

Is cruise control something that falls under the 100k warranty?

KENSTV123

· #13 · Jun 5, 2015

Merc6 said:
Valet Key? Was this the Camaro ignition recall key?

I dunno-got it on eBay, had it cut and it programmed just fine, looks like a regular key and I use it for my hidden key

spacedout

· #14 · Jun 5, 2015

MJCasiano said:
Bump.

Is cruise control something that falls under the 100k warranty?

No, that would be part of the 3 year/36K bumper to bumper warranty. The 5 year/100K Powertrain warranty only covers the transmission, engine and some related components.

What model cruze and year do you have? is it factory cruise control? Can't imagine what they could have done reprogramming the key that would make the cruise control stop working. I think your best bet is to contact customer service and explain to them the issue(went in to get keys reprogrammed and now the cruise control doesn't work). As mentioned above though its gonna be your dollar to get your aftermarket remote start reprogrammed for the key change.

ChevyGuy

· #15 · Jun 5, 2015

spacedout said:
Can't imagine what they could have done reprogramming the key that would make the cruise control stop working.

From reading other threads, it appears the LS trim doesn't come with cruse control, so they have to change out the steering wheel and have the dealer turn on the feature. It appears that OP has a LT, but my point is that it does appear possible that faulty programming could turn it off.

The dealer is probably thinking this is a classic "last one to touch it gets blamed" and it was just coincidence that it failed just then.

Maybe the best thing is to have them fix it and then discuss it when the problem is found. It's possible the dealer will step up and won't charge if it is found to be programming. But they don't want to start with the assumption that it's their fault and then find it's a worn out switch.

jdean9717

· #16 · Jun 16, 2015

I think the OP does have cruise control and the LT models can have cruise, it can easily be added as a accessory. The only way they could of done something was if they reprogrammed the bcm (body control module) as when you are programming it you can select if the vehicle has cruise or no cruise. IMOP they should of never of tried to disable a aftermarket alarm system since GM programming can no change anything in a aftermarket system. I would just kindly ask another dealer to take a look and see if they programmed the BCM wrong and if they have any clue on what they are doing they will be able to know quite easily.

1 - 16 of 16 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.