TechStream Key Programming in DFW??
03-16-18, 10:27 AM
#16
Lexus Fanatic
My dealer only charged me $50 to program a key...
03-18-18, 04:20 AM
#17
Lexus Test Driver
Ah, but was it a brand new key?
03-18-18, 06:23 AM
#18
Lexus Fanatic
Yes, but brand new keys can be found so cheap there’s no point in buying used keys IMHO
03-18-18, 12:28 PM
#19
Lexus Test Driver
That argument could be made, sure.
At the same time, I received only one fob with my car, so I needed a second fob and I really wanted a pair of credit card keys. My wife will put hers in her purse and that's all she needs. I plan on the other being by the door to the garage, so I can just grab it on the way out, if need be. Because of our house's layout, it's a hike back to the master closet from the front of the place.
Used, I paid $244, shipped to me, for all three. Sure, I need new key blanks for all three, but meh, that's minor.
At the same time, I received only one fob with my car, so I needed a second fob and I really wanted a pair of credit card keys. My wife will put hers in her purse and that's all she needs. I plan on the other being by the door to the garage, so I can just grab it on the way out, if need be. Because of our house's layout, it's a hike back to the master closet from the front of the place.
Used, I paid $244, shipped to me, for all three. Sure, I need new key blanks for all three, but meh, that's minor.
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mckellyb (03-20-18)
03-19-18, 04:22 PM
#21
Lexus Test Driver
Dude, really?!
You da man!!! Let me get the final fob here, and I'll take you up on that!
I'll get with you on where we can meet up, to do 'em both.
I hope we don't brick either of them!
You da man!!! Let me get the final fob here, and I'll take you up on that!
I'll get with you on where we can meet up, to do 'em both.
I hope we don't brick either of them!
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mckellyb (03-20-18)
03-20-18, 04:23 PM
#23
Lexus Test Driver
I know the feeling.
I want this car to have everything it would have had, originally, even if the credit card keys were extra.
I want this car to have everything it would have had, originally, even if the credit card keys were extra.
04-11-18, 06:17 AM
#25
Lexus Test Driver
Yeah...this...this was interesting.
A bit of background. I'm a gearhead, have been since age 5 or 6. I'm also an IT-guy, it's been my career since Y2K. Before that, was a finance person, securities, but I've always liked to know how things work, how to repair them, and how to modify them.
I have a fake Techstream, A.K.A. Fakestream. It works just fine on 64-bit Windows 10, so I figure I'm set for a good while. However, the car I bought in October of '16 had only one key, much like damon, above. I've never lost the keys to any vehicle, but with my luck, we'd be on a trip, somewhere, and I'd lose it. Can't have that! My wife needs a copy, for good measure, and I want a pair of card keys to go with it...just because.
So, Mark comes over to my place, because I figure, if I'm going to 'brick' my car, that's a job best done at home, right? I'm erasing a used key/key cards, and Mark just needs programming of a pair to add to his single key, so I go first, figuring, if I'm going to screw something up, better it be my car than someone else's.
The erasure process is borderline terrifying. First, it's a fairly long procedure, and you have to copy a 96 character code BY FREAKIN' HAND!!! Third time was the charm, after I discovered copying from Notepad to the SW which requires a "token" (I'll rant about this, later) added two spaces to the string, resulting in 98 characters. Well, the last two were lopped off, and it didn't take too long to find both spaces. I copied into Notepad thinking it would be safer because I could quadruple-check and verify all was correct.
This took much longer than expected, as it's not as if the code has any strings which the human brain can remember relatively easily...like phone numbers. No...can't have that.
So, after about an hour of copying, verifying, correcting, re-copying, having a beer, checking to make certain all is well and I've followed every single step, it's time to wipe the ECU, the keys, and reprogram them. Here goes...
The reset process takes 16 minutes, per the software. During this time, and from the very start, the driver's door must remain open and the ignition 'on'. You must have a battery charger on the car, or else, after about 20 minutes, it'll shut off for battery preservation's sake. With what is effectively a charging voltage of 13.8-14.2V going into the battery, however, the ignition will never turn itself off. I learned this many months ago when I was using the car as my boombox, in the garage. No big deal, I have a charger on that side of the garage, one of those wheeled, near-industrial ones.
Mark liked sitting in the back of my LWB model, watching and waiting to see what kind of damage I was going to do, and really quite happy he didn't try it, himself. The fobs were a breeze, but the card keys were something else, altogether. Turns out, the super-thin 2412 batteries these take, hold enough of a charge to fire a neuron, because my batteries are less than six months old, and they're both dead as door nails. I even tried to Rube Goldberg a large, cylindrical battery, an 18650 mA in a giant AA format, and use it to power the card keys to reset them, but nope. Didn't work. This ate another 45 minutes, and eventually, I gave up.
At least I have two functional fobs! Thanks for the token, Mark!
With the above all said-and-done, I think I'm going to send my card keys to a place in the NE for a reset, as that's $32 + shipping to be re-virginized. Getting tokens...sigh...caution, incoming rant...Toyota, why? Why did you decide this was the proper way to control key programming? Someone will eventually break the token code and provide the means to crack keys for no cost, so all you've done is irritate the crap out of a relatively small subset of Toyota-owners. The entire token thing is absurd, and a non-dealer network of key reset providers appeared, anyway.
On to Mark's car. This took almost no time at all, because all we were doing was adding keys, not erasing any (which means erasing ALL of them), and it went mostly smoothly. One had a low battery, which was problematic, and another had a different FCC ID. Took about 20-30 minutes, but we were in no screaming hurry, and were waiting on my wife to return with a battery. I tested his old battery, later, and yep, dead. However, he now has two keys as well.
Interesting thing...my driveway/garage must have had some kind of hex put on it, because initially, Mark's keys, neither of them, would start his car unless you held the key up to the start button. We think it was very weak batteries, and if you get them close enough to the receiver in the car, they can be 'read'...much like RFID...still, it was unnerving. Then, he fired up his car and it died immediately. "It's never done that, before..." Yeah, I understand. I had this exact behavior happen to my car a couple of weeks ago, and I honestly think it's worn spark plugs, but his car was parked all of 8 feet from mine and the haunted side of the garage. However, it happened only the one time.
So, if you buy a used key, and want to tie it to your car, I highly recommend having the key(s) reset by someone, as there's no token garbage (for you), and it doesn't take an hour/hour+ to reset them. Knowing what I know, now, I'd have gladly sent off all three of mine to be reset for a cost of $48 plus postage. I don't make $48/hr, but it took that much off my life, wondering what I was keying incorrectly and waiting to see if I still had a mobile vehicle.
Mark used this place: http://www.ezautoremote.com/ They're up in PA, I'm going to swing by a locksmith local to me and see what they charge to merely wipe the cards with no programming. If it's more than $45, I'll send mine to PA.
Oh, and you can tie five keys to your LS 460.
A bit of background. I'm a gearhead, have been since age 5 or 6. I'm also an IT-guy, it's been my career since Y2K. Before that, was a finance person, securities, but I've always liked to know how things work, how to repair them, and how to modify them.
I have a fake Techstream, A.K.A. Fakestream. It works just fine on 64-bit Windows 10, so I figure I'm set for a good while. However, the car I bought in October of '16 had only one key, much like damon, above. I've never lost the keys to any vehicle, but with my luck, we'd be on a trip, somewhere, and I'd lose it. Can't have that! My wife needs a copy, for good measure, and I want a pair of card keys to go with it...just because.
So, Mark comes over to my place, because I figure, if I'm going to 'brick' my car, that's a job best done at home, right? I'm erasing a used key/key cards, and Mark just needs programming of a pair to add to his single key, so I go first, figuring, if I'm going to screw something up, better it be my car than someone else's.
The erasure process is borderline terrifying. First, it's a fairly long procedure, and you have to copy a 96 character code BY FREAKIN' HAND!!! Third time was the charm, after I discovered copying from Notepad to the SW which requires a "token" (I'll rant about this, later) added two spaces to the string, resulting in 98 characters. Well, the last two were lopped off, and it didn't take too long to find both spaces. I copied into Notepad thinking it would be safer because I could quadruple-check and verify all was correct.
This took much longer than expected, as it's not as if the code has any strings which the human brain can remember relatively easily...like phone numbers. No...can't have that.
So, after about an hour of copying, verifying, correcting, re-copying, having a beer, checking to make certain all is well and I've followed every single step, it's time to wipe the ECU, the keys, and reprogram them. Here goes...
The reset process takes 16 minutes, per the software. During this time, and from the very start, the driver's door must remain open and the ignition 'on'. You must have a battery charger on the car, or else, after about 20 minutes, it'll shut off for battery preservation's sake. With what is effectively a charging voltage of 13.8-14.2V going into the battery, however, the ignition will never turn itself off. I learned this many months ago when I was using the car as my boombox, in the garage. No big deal, I have a charger on that side of the garage, one of those wheeled, near-industrial ones.
Mark liked sitting in the back of my LWB model, watching and waiting to see what kind of damage I was going to do, and really quite happy he didn't try it, himself. The fobs were a breeze, but the card keys were something else, altogether. Turns out, the super-thin 2412 batteries these take, hold enough of a charge to fire a neuron, because my batteries are less than six months old, and they're both dead as door nails. I even tried to Rube Goldberg a large, cylindrical battery, an 18650 mA in a giant AA format, and use it to power the card keys to reset them, but nope. Didn't work. This ate another 45 minutes, and eventually, I gave up.
At least I have two functional fobs! Thanks for the token, Mark!
With the above all said-and-done, I think I'm going to send my card keys to a place in the NE for a reset, as that's $32 + shipping to be re-virginized. Getting tokens...sigh...caution, incoming rant...Toyota, why? Why did you decide this was the proper way to control key programming? Someone will eventually break the token code and provide the means to crack keys for no cost, so all you've done is irritate the crap out of a relatively small subset of Toyota-owners. The entire token thing is absurd, and a non-dealer network of key reset providers appeared, anyway.
On to Mark's car. This took almost no time at all, because all we were doing was adding keys, not erasing any (which means erasing ALL of them), and it went mostly smoothly. One had a low battery, which was problematic, and another had a different FCC ID. Took about 20-30 minutes, but we were in no screaming hurry, and were waiting on my wife to return with a battery. I tested his old battery, later, and yep, dead. However, he now has two keys as well.
Interesting thing...my driveway/garage must have had some kind of hex put on it, because initially, Mark's keys, neither of them, would start his car unless you held the key up to the start button. We think it was very weak batteries, and if you get them close enough to the receiver in the car, they can be 'read'...much like RFID...still, it was unnerving. Then, he fired up his car and it died immediately. "It's never done that, before..." Yeah, I understand. I had this exact behavior happen to my car a couple of weeks ago, and I honestly think it's worn spark plugs, but his car was parked all of 8 feet from mine and the haunted side of the garage. However, it happened only the one time.
So, if you buy a used key, and want to tie it to your car, I highly recommend having the key(s) reset by someone, as there's no token garbage (for you), and it doesn't take an hour/hour+ to reset them. Knowing what I know, now, I'd have gladly sent off all three of mine to be reset for a cost of $48 plus postage. I don't make $48/hr, but it took that much off my life, wondering what I was keying incorrectly and waiting to see if I still had a mobile vehicle.
Mark used this place: http://www.ezautoremote.com/ They're up in PA, I'm going to swing by a locksmith local to me and see what they charge to merely wipe the cards with no programming. If it's more than $45, I'll send mine to PA.
Oh, and you can tie five keys to your LS 460.
Last edited by mckellyb; 08-11-19 at 06:18 AM. Reason: typo
04-11-18, 06:19 AM
#26
Lexus Test Driver
Thread Starter
Was hoping McKellyb would step in with an update when he got a chance. We went thru the seede # process first with his 460 and it had me on pins & needles! McKellyB was extremely well prepared & comfortable with the whole process and was able to get everything working with the exception of his credit card key. I had used Stu’s EZ Auto Remotes in Fairless Hills PA to “flash” my used key & that looks like the preferred route as their price with return mail is only $15.00.
Last edited by damon; 04-11-18 at 10:30 AM.
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mckellyb (04-11-18)
04-11-18, 06:29 AM
#27
Lexus Test Driver
Whoa...talk about timing!
I've been writing this up while taking breaks replacing the RX 300's timing belt.
Reminds me, I need moar beer for that. It's really not pleasant.
I've been writing this up while taking breaks replacing the RX 300's timing belt.
Reminds me, I need moar beer for that. It's really not pleasant.
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damon (08-08-19)
04-11-18, 07:23 AM
#28
Can I ask, why do you call it "fakestream" ? It is the official software but, it's your $15 cable that limits what it can do. If you wanted to flash calibration/firmware updates on your car, you CAN but, you need a $500+ cable and you can get a 2 day sub to Toyota's TIS website so you can even download the updates for your car.
A little more info here on the Techstream "lite" program that they run...
http://scantoolresource.com/toyota-scan-tool/
You can see there is a sub for $15 that will allow you access to their TIS site for 2 days and as I understand you can update you car.
Someone should buy one of these and loan it out for like $25 for a week. I would do it, I get use of the cable, pay $15 for the 2 day sub, I can update my car and not pay $150 from the dealer, then spend $7 for priority mail to send it back.
PS. Looks like you can update keys...but man sounds like a PIA... Thanks for the update on this.
A little more info here on the Techstream "lite" program that they run...
http://scantoolresource.com/toyota-scan-tool/
You can see there is a sub for $15 that will allow you access to their TIS site for 2 days and as I understand you can update you car.
Someone should buy one of these and loan it out for like $25 for a week. I would do it, I get use of the cable, pay $15 for the 2 day sub, I can update my car and not pay $150 from the dealer, then spend $7 for priority mail to send it back.
PS. Looks like you can update keys...but man sounds like a PIA... Thanks for the update on this.
Last edited by DavidinCT; 04-11-18 at 07:26 AM.
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yyymmm31 (04-11-18)
04-11-18, 10:14 AM
#29
Lexus Test Driver
I call it "Fakestream" because it's not 'official'. I know it's merely a copy, it's just a way to differentiate.
04-11-18, 10:33 AM
#30
Intermediate
@mckellyb Couldn't agree more about paying attention to the status of the car battery while using Techstream. I learned it the hard way when I was replacing the brake fluid. My car battery died after I bled the two front brakes while using Techstream, which was about 20 minutes. Because the battery died in the middle of brake bleeding, my brake system went into the dreadful "stop the car immediately and contact a dealer" mode. The car battery needs to be fully charged and to continue to be charged while using Techstream. Using Techstream drains the battery quickly. Thank you for sharing your experience of programming car keys.
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