slamdlude

I will start by saying that I am a locksmith and have been for over 6 years now. I would like to clear up some commonly held misconceptions about 97-01 prelude keys. The main one being that a locksmith cannot program keys to your car. We can program keys to your car. They are transponder keys which means that they have an RFID chip in the plastic shell of the key that has to be programmed to the ECU. In order to program a key to the car the RED key has to be present to allow the new key to be programmed. This goes for duplicates or a key generated from scratch. If no RED key is present the ECU has to be either replaced, which comes with a new RED key, or flashed and a new RED key programmed to the ECU. Once you have a RED key the process can be performed by a locksmith with the proper equipment, which I happen to have , or by the dealer, whichever you prefer. A locksmith will usually be cheaper than the dealer because that's how we roll! Anyone with a key duplicator can make you a duplicate that will work the doors on a regular old metal, non-transponder blank. This key will not crank the car and will, if used in the ignition, set off the imobiliser system and render the car useless for a few minutes until the system resets itself. This also goes for use of the RED key in the ignition. Hope this helps someone in the future.