8th Generation Honda Civic Forum - View Single Post

bevhoward · 06-27-2008, 11:04 AM

Success... and the dealer (Round Rock, TX Honda) now had the valet keys for reasonable ($17 _including_ programming) They, and the other dealership in the area, didn't have the 2008 keys when I started this quest.

Adding to the equation, it's almost a 100 mile round trip to the Round Rock dealer, which tends to limit simply "stopping by. I did stop at another Austin locksmith on the way there to get a key cut for my bike and asked about the honda key... $50 for a hardware key and $150 for a transponder key.

During the process, being told "Bring the car and _all_ keys in to get the keys programmed" it finally dawned on exactly what the "Key Programming" process probably is...

I had assumed that the "keys" were programmed to the car, but (duh!) I would now guess that each key simply has an rfid chip with a unique number and the "programming" process is to simply notify the car of the rfid of each acceptable key.

I assume that the computer programming process can't do this incrementally (i.e. "Car, add this key to your current list of approved keys") and the only way to add a key is to wipe the car's existing key list and enter a complete new list by sending a code to the computer to start detecting keys, then using every key to simulate starting the car to build a new list.

Thanks for everyone's help,
Beverly Howard

06-27-2008, 11:04 AM	#15 (permalink)
bevhoward Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 26	Success... the dealer's the solution. Success... and the dealer (Round Rock, TX Honda) now had the valet keys for reasonable ($17 _including_ programming) They, and the other dealership in the area, didn't have the 2008 keys when I started this quest. Adding to the equation, it's almost a 100 mile round trip to the Round Rock dealer, which tends to limit simply "stopping by. I did stop at another Austin locksmith on the way there to get a key cut for my bike and asked about the honda key... $50 for a hardware key and $150 for a transponder key. During the process, being told "Bring the car and _all_ keys in to get the keys programmed" it finally dawned on exactly what the "Key Programming" process probably is... I had assumed that the "keys" were programmed to the car, but (duh!) I would now guess that each key simply has an rfid chip with a unique number and the "programming" process is to simply notify the car of the rfid of each acceptable key. I assume that the computer programming process can't do this incrementally (i.e. "Car, add this key to your current list of approved keys") and the only way to add a key is to wipe the car's existing key list and enter a complete new list by sending a code to the computer to start detecting keys, then using every key to simulate starting the car to build a new list. Thanks for everyone's help, Beverly Howard