Hi everyone. My teen son has lost all the keys to his 2001 RX 300. He had been using what i believe was a flip folding key that is now lost. That was the only key that came with the car when he bought it. The dealership quoted $800 to replace the key and program it to start the car if we towed the car to them. Then a mobile locksmith quoted $500 to do the same and finally a friend of his knew a "locksmith" that quoted $250. Keep in mind that this car has over 320,000 miles, has a multitude of issues including a check engine light so its not worth putting much money into it. Add to the fact that my son works a minimum wage job (WaWa) and so has very little money but needs a car to get to work and school. He decided to give the guy offering $250 a try. Unfortunately he was only able to cut a key but could not get it to program to start the car. He kept putting the key into the drivers side door in an attempt to program but that did not work and only cranks the engine. So he gave up and we partially paid him and now we have a key that turns over the engine but will not start the car as the anti-theft immobilizer is not allowing it.

We also have a remote that locks/unlocks the doors. I have attempted to put it close to the ignition but it still will not start. Please does anyone know a free or cheap solution to allow the car to start. Can a wire be cut or a fuse removed to turn off the immobilizer forever? Can a cheap bypass immobilizer like for a remote start be added? Thank you for any help

 

Welcome to Club Lexus and your first Post!

I'm not much help on the RX300 but there are members on here that know a work around for this.

Be careful, the next gen RX330 works differently so plz ignore any tecniques for newer models you may see online.

PS- on the RX300, from what I remember it requires reflashing an eeprom in the Engine ECM with a binary file, someone correct me plz if I got that backwards.

 

I have no personal experience with this but maybe this thread can help: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...ogramming.html

 

The answer to your questions are listed in detail under sticky thread "having problems start here thread". Reading and understanding the issue would have prevented you to go to the locksmith.

See if you can private mail to "mouser".

You can try to purchase an ecu with master key and all cylinders.

Salim