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One of the key fobs for my 2017 Accord Hybrid is no good. It's partly my fault... OK, it's entirely my fault. I was changing the battery and wasn't careful and the whole buttons and electronics guts of the fob came out, and the labels fell off. tl;dr - I've screwed it up to the point where I can't get the buttons to press and work reliably. The other fob still works fine.
I know that if I go through official channels, this is going to cost me something like $400+, so I'm looking for cheap workarounds. It all starts with the fact that you can search on Amazon and elsewhere and find the right model fob for as little as $35. I don’t know if it’s used or bootleg or what. Has anyone ever bought one?
Assuming these things are legit, will a locksmith program it for me, and what will they charge?
A hack idea: If you open the fob, above the battery, you will see a square box, which I suspect has more than a single chip in it. Mine says Panasonic and has a QR code that contains the model number and another code. In fact, I think this is the entirety of the electronics on the fob, including the programming and memory. Is it socketed? Could I buy a cheap key, pull the one out of my busted key and swap it in here?
Busted FOB
