Car Key Replacement in San Rafael
Keys cut and programmed at the car for most makes, hybrids and EVs included, $149 to $409.
$149–$409
Typical price
21 min
Avg. arrival
24/7
Availability
Losing the last key to a car means either a flatbed to a dealer or a technician at the curb who is finished inside the hour. Marin Lock & Key cuts and programs keys for Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Hyundai, Kia, Ford, Chevrolet, Nissan, Mazda and most European makes, at the car, wherever it is parked: a Civic Center lot, the Larkspur ferry lot, the end of a driveway off Lucas Valley Rd, the garage under a Loch Lomond condo, or the Marina after a weekend on the water.
There are two halves to the job, and both happen beside the car. The first is the blade. The technician reads the cuts from the door lock or pulls the key code from the vehicle, so a car with no key at all is an ordinary call rather than a tow. The second is the chip. The transponder inside the key head is enrolled with the immobilizer, since a blade cut to perfection and never programmed will turn the cylinder, crank the engine and stall it a second later. Where the model allows, the lost keys are erased from the immobilizer in the same session, so a key found later in someone else's pocket starts nothing. Push-button cars with proximity fobs are handled under fob programming. ID and registration are checked before the first cut is made.
Replacement keys are named between $149 and $409. A plain transponder key for a common Japanese or domestic model is $149. Remote-head keys, rolling-code systems on newer cars, and all-keys-lost work that means reading the immobilizer module reach $409. The $89 service call is inside the total. An evening arrival carries $55 and an overnight one $90, both named on the call.
You call and describe the car: year, make and model, and whether any working key still exists, because that single answer changes the method more than anything else. The full figure is named on the same call. The van leaves and calls from the gate, after the text with the name and the window. Cut: ownership, the blade, the programming, erasure of the lost keys, then the doors, the trunk and a start. The receipt repeats the figure, card or tap, sent with the engine running.
“A late showing at the Rafael Film Center, and my keys were on the passenger seat in the garage off Fourth Street at a quarter to eleven. The call named $154 and said the evening hour was already part of it. The van was on the level below mine in fifteen minutes. The technician had the door open before I had finished explaining which seat the keys were on, and nothing on the window or the seal shows he was there. $154 on the card, receipt in my email on the walk home. The evening hour was already inside the figure before I thought to ask.”
Every job is priced from the list below. The full figure is named on the call, before the van leaves the yard, and the receipt repeats it.
- 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 in Novato?+
The flatbed, mostly. A dealer needs the car brought to the service lane, which means a tow on top of the key, and a slot in the schedule that may be days away. Here the key is cut and programmed where the car sits, for one figure named on the call, and you drive off when the van does.
Every key is gone and the car is in the garage under a Loch Lomond condo.+
That is the commonest version of this call. Text the level and the space number and meet the technician at the garage gate, because the opener is probably on the lost ring. The door lock is read, a blade is cut and its chip programmed on the spot, and the missing keys are erased. Have ID with you; the registration in the glovebox does the rest once the door is open.
The key broke off in the door lock at the ferry lot.+
The broken piece is drawn out with an extractor in a few minutes, and the lock is not harmed. The cylinder is then read and a fresh key cut to it. If the lock was worn enough to snap a key, the technician tells you whether it needs replacing now or can be left for another year.
Related
More automotive services
24/7 — nights, weekends & holidays
One call, one full figure, the same figure on the receipt
Calls answered 24/7 across San Rafael and the Marin towns beside it. The $89 service call, the labor, the parts and the drive up the hill are inside the figure named on the call, and the receipt repeats it.