replacing keys??
 

I have 2 ES300's. 1st is a 1998 , 2nd is a 1997 - bought for my mother.
I recently purchased them with VERY low miles and carfax report verified.
Obviously not totally fault proof , but they were extremely clean soo.....

Anyways.....my 98 ES300 I lost my remote and my key, but I have a 2nd key
which has a bigger plastic head on it, but I have no idea which was the master.
Both started my car, and I'm not sure if they had transponders in them or not.

Both keys looked like this....for both vehicles.
http://i15.ebayimg.com/04/i/000/e7/8d/8680_2.JPG

I did some searches on this forum already and came up with vague info just
like Lexus dealership gave me. They will "charity" me a new ECM and I have to
pay for 2 hours labor and then buy a $150 master key and have them program it,
etc etc......plus a new 3 button remote....I'm looking at $300.

Now I talked to some other people and they told me they got these keys on Ebay
cut by a Locksmith and they work just fine in their RX300
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/LEXUS...mZ150305283990

Thoughts?? They flat out say NO TRANSPONDER chip in them and they are "master keys"
so I'm not sure what the real difference is between a master and a non-master valet key.

I'm familiar with the whole Lexus dealer solution and it's not an option for me.

I believe with both the 97 and the 98, neither have a transponder. You are fine to get your uncut keys and the FOB's off of eBay. You may need to take the keys to the Lexus dealership to get them cut though, I'm not 100% on whether a locksmith can cut them for you. Also, I would suggest going ahead and taking the FOB's to the dealership to get them programmed as well.

you'll need to find a locksmith that can do those kind of keys. I believe the dealership outsources a company to cut the key... and the cutting is probably the part that costs the most.

on my 97 ES 300 I simply bought an uncut key from EBay and had a locksmith cut it for me. No need to have Lexus do it, as long as you have a key that does work. No transponders in the key. Now I do recommend using a good locksmith, and not a place like Home Depot or Lowes. Some locksmiths may ask for ownership verification.

Same goes for the remote, if you need that. Just buy it off of EBay and program it yourself, or you can take it Lexus, where they can do it in 30 seconds.

Thanks ALOT guys, so basically there is no "Master" key for this ES300
since there's no transponders in them is what I'm understanding.

This other Lexus forum is telling me otherwise.....
http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums...howtopic=52455

I ordered 2 remotes used off Ebay but the instructions are all weird.
But I saw this thread after searching and it kinda reinforces it as accurate
so it's more indepth and I'm going to retry it again.
http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/8...ramminghm0.jpg
http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/l...pg/1/w1708.png

if you're at the Lexus dealer, they should program the remote for free if you're not comfortable doing it - it literally takes about 20-30 seconds to do all those steps. Especially if you take the car in to do something else.

As for the key, what it looks like is that starting in 1998 they started putting the transponder chip in it. The 1997 version does not have a chip in it.

So ALL or just SOME of 1998's had transponder keys ??

How do I know if mine has one or not ??

When I got this car I was given 2 keys, and 1 had a bigger black head (barely noticable)
then the other.....not sure if that makes a difference, but I thought
MAYBE if there was a "master key" that would be it.....I'm in the dark here. :egads:

take a look at http://www.streetkeys.com

you'll see that the 1997 key is non-chipped and the 1998 key is chipped.

can anyone vouch that the steps on how to program the key works?

So, if I understand correctly...In my position, with no key at all for the 97 ES300, I can still save a considerable amount by purchasing the un-cut key(s) from ebay? Found 1 for $40 2 for $80, but since I have no key of my own, apparently still need to visit a Lexus dealership or "company they so choose" for the cutting? Furthermore, is there anything remaining they or I will need to do after that point since this isn't a chipped key?

Try this thread https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...ogramming.html

Try this video.

I ordered my key for Sewell and they cut it for me. You also get a discount if you are a member of this forum. Here's a link to the page for 1999 ES300. http://lexus.sewellparts.com/accesso...S300-1999.html Yours might be different.