Car Key Replacement in Palo Alto
Keys cut and programmed at the car for most makes, hybrids and EVs included, $155 to $419.
$155–$419
Typical price
22 min
Avg. arrival
24/7
Availability
When the last key to a car is gone there are two roads: a flatbed to a dealer with a wait for parts, or a technician at the car who is done inside the hour. Tall Tree Lock & Safe takes the second road. Keys are cut and programmed for Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Hyundai, Kia, Ford, Chevrolet, Nissan, Mazda and most European makes, at a Stanford Shopping Center lot, the University Avenue or California Avenue Caltrain lot, the garage at Stanford Hospital, the end of a driveway in Barron Park, or the Baylands lot at the end of a long walk.
A modern car key is a blade and a chip, and each half is done at the car. The blade is cut from the code the technician reads off the door lock, or from the code pulled from the car, which is why a car with no key at all is not a tow. The chip is the part people forget: a blade cut perfectly but never taught to the immobilizer will turn the cylinder, crank the engine and stall it a second later, so the transponder is enrolled before the door is closed. Where the model allows, the keys that went missing are erased from the immobilizer in the same session, and a key found in a coat pocket next month starts nothing. Proximity fobs for push-button cars have their own page under fob programming. Identification and registration come before the first cut.
Car key replacement sits between $155 and $419 with the $89 visit inside. A plain transponder key for a common Japanese or domestic model is the $155 end. Remote-head keys, rolling-code systems on newer cars, and all-keys-lost work that needs the immobilizer module read reach $419. Evening arrival carries $55 inside the figure, overnight $90.
You call and describe the car: year, make and model, and whether any working key still exists, since the method depends on that answer more than on the make. The figure is said on the call. The van leaves Midtown, and a text names the technician and the window. Ownership, blade, chip, erasure of the lost keys, then both doors, the trunk and a start. The receipt repeats the figure, and it is sent with the engine running.
“Dinner on University Avenue ran late, and at twenty to ten my keys were sitting on the driver's seat in the Alma Street Caltrain lot. The figure said on the call was $169 and included the evening hour. The van was at the lot in twenty-two minutes. The technician used an air wedge and a reach tool, and nothing on the window seal or the paint shows he was there. I paid by tap on the sidewalk.”
Every job is priced from the list below. One figure is said on the call, with the visit, the labor and the parts inside it, and the receipt shows the same figure.
- Daytime (7am–8pm)standard rates
- Evening (8pm–12am)+$55
- Overnight (12am–7am)+$90
FAQ
Car Key Replacement: quick answers
What is the difference between this and the dealer on El Camino Real?+
A dealer can only make the key in the service lane, so the car has to get there, which means a tow when no key exists, and then a slot in the schedule and a wait for the part. Here the van comes to the car, the blade is cut and the chip is programmed at the space, and one figure covers all of it. You drive away when the van does.
Every key is gone and the car is in the garage under a building on University Avenue.+
Text the level and the space, and meet the technician at the garage gate, since the opener was probably on the lost ring. The door lock gives up its code, a blade is cut to it, the chip is programmed, and the missing keys are erased. Bring identification; the registration in the glovebox does the rest once the door opens.
The key snapped off in the door lock at the California Avenue Caltrain lot.+
Extracting the stub takes a few minutes and does not hurt the lock. The cylinder is then read and a new key cut to it. A key does not usually snap in a healthy lock, so the technician also says whether the cylinder is worn enough to replace now or can wait a year.
Related
More automotive services
24/7 — nights, weekends & holidays
One call, one figure, and the lock kept whole
Calls answered 24/7 across Palo Alto, Stanford and the towns beside them. The $89 service call, the labor and the parts are inside the figure said on the call, the lock is opened without drilling wherever it allows, and the receipt repeats the figure.