We recently purchased a 2009 Chevy Equinox. We weren't informed until we walked out to the car to take it home, that it only came with one key and fob. We went to our usual dealership and bought a 2nd key and key fob and were able to program the key ourselves. Our tech mgr told us to come back on Monday to get the remote programmed because all of his techs were gone for the day. When I got home, I looked up instructions on how to program it myself and it took all of 20 seconds to do. I was pretty proud of myself until this morning when my husband went to use his key fob (the one that came with the car) and it's deactivated now. We tried it again thinking it was a fluke, but it seems that only one can be "active" at a time. Whenever we program one, it turns the other one off.

So my question is...is there any way around this that we can do ourselves? Or is it really something that the dealer has to do? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Was hoping to save the $50 that the dealer wants to charge to program.

Thanks so much.

**Forgot to add that it's a remote start key fob too. Not sure if that matters or not.

 

Found the answer to my own question on the forum. We were doing the fobs seperately, instead of doing them at the same time. Just figured it out and now both work at the same time!!!

 

thats a crappy sales trick; to sell a car with one key and fob. Talk to the sales manager.

 

In the past I have been able to order a key fob on eBay and get it delivered, and programmed in three days at a VERY significant savings. The programming is not a big deal.
HTH