Key problems?

My fiance has a 1999 Maxima SE with the Theft Immobilizer System (I believe this is the first model year the system was offered). Both of his keys to the car have broken, so the loop where you hook on a keyring no longer exists.

Has anyone else had this problem with their key, and does anybody know how much I'll be spending to get a few new keys that have that little chip in them?

Oh, BTW I've heard people say that the immobilizer chip doesn't do anything..well, that's not true. My Infiniti's key is very, very similar to his and actually turns the engine over...but the car won't stay started without the chip.

i remember the dealer guy telling me that each key was like $100 bux a piece. not a key you want to break or lose. but why dosent he just keep the old key just mess around and make his own holder for it. drill holes or sumthing just dont hit the chip. but about the keyring part breaking hasent happond to me looks real sturdy on my 03' keys.

Originally posted by SE-R WolfPac
i remember the dealer guy telling me that each key was like $100 bux a piece. ..

:eek: ?!?!? For $100 we will mess with the old keys!!! For crying out loud, my Infiniti key cost that much but it's brushed titanium, not some crappy plastic!! :bloated: :bloated:

Oh and I don't know what the 2003 keys look like but on the 1999 the keyring loop is just plastic, no metal inside. 1 key was broken when he bought the car in Oct. The other one just broke. We keep supergluing it but the superglue just doesn't hold up.

just reviving this thread to see if any of you homeys have a chep place or dealer to get a replacement key for my '99. i lost one key and the one i have now is on its last leg. thanks.

just reviving this thread to see if any of you homeys have a chep place or dealer to get a replacement key for my '99. i lost one key and the one i have now is on its last leg. thanks.

OK.
My update is, for our 1999 Max (now totaled) we got 2 20th Anniversary Maxima keys uncut off ebay. For $40 each.
When we got the keys home we found that they were SHAPED the same, but thicker. Hard to explain, but they require a wider (not taller) keyhole to fit in than the 1999 has since they were made for the 2000.
We took them to the dealer - which got confused and couldn't figure it out.
So we took them to a key shop and had them cut to match the old keys.
Then we had them filed thinner- which worked!!
But, it turns out the maxima gets VERY VERY ANGRY if you try and start it 5x with a key with a blank or non-matching chip. How angry? So angry you may have to get towed back to the dealer. Security feature.
But luckily, we DID get it to start for real...the trick was pulling out the chip from the old key and just switching it with the new one, we did that for both.
If you don't HAVE the old chip, you basically have to pay the dealer to reprogram them (another $40), or search around on google, maybe there's a way to do it yourself but I don't know. I know you can reprogram remotes yourself....