I have an 06 Dakota. The other day other day I lost my key, it somehow managed to literally break off my key chain. I went to the dealership and had them cut me a key. I told them I wasn't going to need the programming because my wife had the spare and I could follow the directions in the manual to duplicate the other key. Well, for a week now I have been searching for my wife's spare keys. I've given up at this point. I'm assuming she lost that set. So right now I have 4000 lb paperweight.
What are my options? The dealership is not close so I'm not looking forward to towing the truck and paying the fee to have the key programmed.
Ive seen some programmers on the market, like the T300 but I don't know if they are any good, and I cant find anything less than $200 shipped.
Is there any cheaper alternatives? If not is that T-300 worth getting?

 

Have you tried calling a locksmith to come to your house? Im not sure if they would have the ability or not to reprogram your truck, but if they do it would probably be cheaper than the tow and dealer fees.

 

Sorry to hear about your situation. I am interested to hear what your outcome is. When I bought my truck used, it only came with one key. So I need to get another made before the inevitable happens.

 

If you have one key that is already programmed, you can do it all yourself. Buy a key fob from a dealer or ebay, get it cut by your local hardware store and you can program the second key yourself as long as the first one still works. You need the first working remote to enter "programming mode"

 

I lost the only key I had for my corvette and they have like a chip (actually a resistor) on the key for anti-theft protection. I called like 10 lock smiths and they all wanted $200+ to come out and use something called an interrigator to find out which chip my vette needed for the key. The dealership did not have the info on which chip it was because it is an older car but I would assume your Dakota being a 06 they would have that information, but they will probably charge you a fee to program it. Luckily for my situation I bought my corvette from my best friend in atlantas dad so they happened to have a spare and took it to the dealership up there and they did whatever to it and found out which chip it needed and called the dealership down here and they were able to get me a new key, which i promptly locked inside the car the next day and had to go have a new door key cut lol.

 

You need 2 keys to program it yourself, look in your owner's manual.

 

I know. I only have one however. The Vehicle has to be present at the dealer in order for them to program it.

So currently, my options are to tow it 30 or so miles to a dealer, and pay 60 buck to get it programmed. I'll probably have to take off of work to do this as well.

or

Buy a $200 programmer that apparently serves a a scan tool as well. "the T-300."

It's somewhat expensive, but then again so are scanners and I've been wanting to buy one. I just wish I knew someone that had used it before.

 

Are you sure your Dakota uses a transponder?
Don't laugh....try to start it.

I only had one keyfob and went through the trouble of ordering another keyfob and thought I could program it with one key.
I had it cut at Home Depot (Lowes would not do it, HD did it for FREE).
For kicks, I put it in the ignition and she started right up!
I had the working fob in the house WAAAY away from the truck.

This is how I found out I do not have a transponder key system

 

I believe the transponders are only in trucks with the mopar security system, but dont quote me on that. I got a copy made of my key at the local hardware store so I can start my truck and lock the truck with my remote on cold winter mornings. No transponder for my 05.