Keyless Remote Adventure

For the past year and a half, I have manually locked and unlocked the door of my Toyota 4Runner because I had thought my keyless remote was defunct. I was under this impression because I had replaced the battery, and had spoken to representatives at my local Toyota dealership who informed me that I needed a new remote, for somewhere in the neighborhood of $400. Instead of paying for a new one, I figured that I could live with manually locking the door.

One day, my brother mentioned to me that I could probably find a remote online, and program it myself to match my car. A year passed and I had never gotten around to it... until last week.

Lo and behold, I found a remote for $40, that came with Contra cheat code-like instructions on how to program it for my 4Runner. 2 minutes later, I had a remote control that worked. On a hunch, I decided to try and program my old "defunct" remote to see if that made a difference. 2 minutes later, I had TWO remote controls that worked for my car.

Lesson learned, you can buy your own remote and program it to match your car. If your remote has stopped working and replacing the battery does not work, look for the programming instructions online rather than taking it to your dealer to get a new one.

For those of you who have the 4Runner remote with Lock/Unlock/Window down, the following instructions will program your remote:

HOW
1) Driver's door open, all other doors closed, key removed from ignition switch.
2) Insert key into ignition switch, then remove it.
3) Press LOCK and UNLOCK on the vehicle door lock control switch at 1 second intervals 5 times.
4) Close and re-open driver's door.
5) Press LOCK and UNLOCK on the vehicle door lock control switch at 1 second intervals 5 times.
6) Insert key into ignition switch.
7) Switch ignition ON and OFF once to program a remote transmitter code whilst retaining the original codes or twice to program a remote transmitter code whilst erasing the original codes. Three times to check how many remote transmitters are currently registered or five times to erase all codes.
8) Remove key from ignition switch:
9) System should now lock and unlock vehicle. Once, twice, or five times depending on which mode has been selected. One to four times, slowly, to indicate number of remote transmitters registered.
10) Press and hold LOCK and UNLOCK remote buttons together.
11) Press LOCK remote button for 1 second:
12) System should now lock and unlock vehicle once to confirm, twice to indicate registration has failed.

Note: To exit programming mode: Close driver's side door or insert ignition key. A maximum of four transmitters can be programmed.

Have fun!