Scotty,  You are very informative and extremely entertaining.  Thank you for what you do.

I have a very perplexing problem with my wife's 2006 Lexus RX330.  We have had this auto for 3-4 years and have been using the same 2 keys with it for that time.  My wife's key is with the full function fob while mine is plain w/o the fob functions.  So, a couple of days ago her key could no longer be inserted into the ignition. It would go about half way in, enough to activate the steering wheel to move into the driving position, but would go no farther.  No matter how much I would wiggle the key or squirm in the seat it would go no farther.  Well, I took my plain key and tried it.  Lo and behold, it worked just like it has been working for the last 3 years.  And, then I found that the fancy key (hers) would not go into the door loc

k either more than half way but the plain key worked fine.  Now, all the fob features on the fancy key still work as intended.  That tells me that the battery is still functioning in the fancy key, but I don't know how this affects the transponder function.  Am I correct in thinking that these are transponder keys?  Though, I am not sure that I understand all that I know about transponder keys. 

So, there is my perplexing dilemma, Scotty.  The solution is probably very simple and I am sure you  know what it is. So, thank you Sir.  I await your reply.

tommy glen