If A Dealership Wants To Charge You Hundreds To Program A Key Fob, You Might Want To Try This Instead

In a world in which new cars now cost upward of $50,000 on average, annual maintenance bills are creeping up to four figures, and such outlays don't seem to be getting cheaper any time soon, a budget-friendly hack is very welcome. The hack comes courtesy of a Silverado owner, who posted his experience on TikTok under the username TimRuiz13, after being faced with a $260 bill to code a $160 key fob for his truck.

Fortunately, he recalls buying a $40 key fob programmer from O'Reilly's in the past, and opted to give it a go. The procedure was straight-forward; just plug the device into the OBD-II port, hold the lock and unlock buttons on the new key fob for up to 30 seconds, or until you hear it beep, and then voila — key fob coded. While forking $160 out for a replacement key fob is still a considerable outlay for a small piece of plastic, not having to spend an additional $260 for GM to code it is a huge win.

There are a huge variety of car keys out there, including some crazy expensive variants, so this trick might not work for every car and every owner. However, with key reprogramming tools available from Walmart for less than $20, it's well worth giving it a go before spending hundreds with your dealer.

As it happens, this doesn't seem to be a lucky one-off for the Silverado owner. While each automaker will likely have its own slightly different way of introducing an extra key fob, or how to program a single key, there are some methods you can try at home which are typically quite universal. For instance, to add an extra key, you can try the following method. 

Sit in the car with both your current and new key. Put the current key in the ignition and turn it, but don't start the car, just get the dash powered up. As soon as the car's electrical systems fire up, turn the key back and remove it. Now, fast hands are the key here as you likely only have five seconds to make this procedure work, but now grab the new key and do the same. Put it in, and turn it to the point that the systems come to life, but not so that the car starts. This should see you enter your car's security mode, where the key can be programmed. Depending on your exact model, there may be specific instructions to follow on the dash.

This is of course different to the method tried and tested by the Silverado owner on TikTok. The tricks might work for you, they might not, but with one tip being free to try and the other costing between $20 and $50 depending on which device you buy, they are certainly worth trying before shelling out hundreds at your local dealership.