How to Start a Chevrolet with a Dead Key Fob
Starting Your Chevrolet
- First, if you are still locked out, click here for help getting inside!
- Second, you can find video help here!
- Finally, if you need another manufacturer, click here.
Chevrolet vehicles uses all three of the key fob styles made by General Motors. There are also way too many back up start variations, but we have them all here. And you can find a whole lot of videos here.
Here’s the deal: Buckle up, find your model, and if your start battery is still good, we’ll get you underway. Note that they are generally presented as sedans, then SUVs then pick ups.
Corvette
The Coupes made by GM will show up early in this list, including the Corvette (C6, C7 and C8 models). So, note immediately that the latches are electronic and if the main 12-volt battery is dead and you’ve closed the door, the lever to the right is your only escape. You will find it below the door on the floor where you would expect to find a trunk release (right). Pull it up and the door will open. There’s another on the passenger side for that door.
The rectangular style key fob is used in most GM vehicles prior to 2014. 
In Corvette models built before 2014 (C6), the pocket is on the left of the inside of the glove box. Place the transmitter in the pocket with the buttons facing the glove box storage area (right). Then, with the vehicle in P (Park) or N (Neutral), press the brake pedal and the Start / Stop ignition button as normal.
In the 2014 (C7) Corvette, the transmitter pocket is moved to the right side of the steering column, as shown to the left. Place the 
transmitter in the pocket with the buttons facing up. Again, with the vehicle in Park or Neutral, press the brake pedal and the Start / Stop ignition button as normal. Find a helpful video here. See below for the C8.
Newer, rounded “flip key” key fob and a rounded fob with a built in or pull away mechanical key, take over from here.
Camaro, later Corvette
Push button or keyless start is introduced to the Camaro in 2016. It also uses the cup holder as a back up slot, but to their credit, Chevrolet made this one simple. Make sure there is nothing, particularly coins, in the rear cup holder, and simply drop the fob into it. The car will recognize the key and a press of the brake pedal and Start / Stop ignition button will have you on your way. Corvettes (C8), 2020 – 2023, use this spot as well. In 2024, the Corvette spot is moved to the front cup holder.
Impala
The Impala uses a back up pocket located in the front of the center console (right). The model is using the flip key thus far through 2018. Drop transmitter into the pocket with the key ring up and the buttons facing out. With the vehicle in Park or Neutral, press the brake pedal and the Start / Stop ignition button as normal.
Look for video help here.
Volt
With the first generation Volt, open the instrument panel 
storage area located above the infotainment screen and remove the rubber mat. Extend the key blade and place the blade into the slot (right).
With the vehicle in Park or Neutral, press the brake pedal and the POWER button on the center stack to start the vehicle.
Starting with model year 2016, the back-up location for the Volt is 
moved to the center console, as shown. The rubber mat at the bottom of the console will need to be removed, and so anything actually in the console.
Bolt
This is also the location used by the new Bolt EV and Bolt EUV, which will be found beneath a pull-out tray.
The pocket for the fob or transmitter is beneath the pad or tray and to the front. It is also roughly the shape of the fob. Place the fob in the pocket and with the vehicle in Park or Neutral, press the brake pedal and the POWER button on the center stack to start the vehicle. We have a video of the process here.
Cruze
The last flip key back-up start option belongs to the Cruze. You must remove the plastic trim piece from the small storage area next to the accessory power outlet near the front of the console. Extend the key blade and insert it into the transmitter slot (right). With the vehicle in Park or Neutral, press the brake pedal and the Start / Stop ignition button as normal.
Check out the video here.
The 2017 Cruze gets the new key and a new back up location, which is the front cup holder, as seen to the right. Sonic, Equinox and Blazer models now use this spot as well.
Simply drop the key fob into the front cup holder, buttons up, and start the car as normal, stepping on the brake and pushing the Start / Stop ignition button.
Blazer EV
The 2024 Blazer Electric Vehicle (EV) is a different animal. Its back up spot is at the bottom of the center console storage area. Drop the key fob on the spot shown (right) with the buttons up.
And it starts differently as well. Once the key fob is in its spot, simply step on the brake. The instrument panel will tell you if you have been successful.
Trax
The Trax, which first saw push button start in 2017, also uses the front cup holder as its back up slot. However, there are three cup holders in the center console area, with the front one being separated from the two behind it. Be sure to use the one in the very front. See the image to right.
Drop the key fob into the front cup holder, buttons up, and start the car as normal, using the Start / Stop button while stepping on the brake pedal.
Check out a videos for all these models here.
Trailblazer
The new Trailblazer model has the back up pocket in front of the center console storage area and behind the the two cup holders on the console (image at right). Drop the key fob into the pocket or depression, The manual states that the buttons should be facing the front, but we don’t believe this is possible given the shape of the pocket. We also believe that it will not likely matter. With the vehicle in Park or Neutral, press the brake pedal and the Start / Stop ignition button as normal.
Tahoe, Suburban
Until 2021, the large SUV’s from GM, including the Tahoe and Suburban, feature a transmitter 
pocket also located in the face of the front of the inside of the center console. However, the pocket points down, as shown to the right. Slide the transmitter into the pocket with the key ring facing out, buttons forward (in the Suburban we had on hand, the engine started with the buttons facing either way). It is a loose fit, so don’t be concerned. With the vehicle in Park or Neutral, press the brake pedal and the Start / Stop ignition button as normal. Check out the video here.
Traverse
In the Chevrolet Traverse, through 2023, the transmitter pocket is at the bottom of the center console storage area, as seen in the image to the right. The outline of the transmitter will be visible to the front of the console. The 2024 Traverse uses the left or driver’s side cup holder, exactly like the Silverado EV below. Once the fob is in place, press the brake pedal and the Start / Stop ignition button as normal to start the vehicle.
Spark
Spark models also have what is called a transmitter pocket in the center console, but no image defining a location is 
shown in the manual. There are three storage spots in the console (see the red arrows), and one of them will be the “pocket” but none of them are actually marked. Drop the transmitter or key fob in the front storage spot first and attempt to start the car normally, with your foot on the brake and pressing the Start / Stop button.
If this does not work, move to the storage spot furthest back and try starting again. If the car again fails to start, try the longer storage spot alongside the emergency brake. If the starting problem is associated with a dead battery in the key fob, one of the three locations will work!
Silverado, Malibu
In the Silverado pick up (note that the electric version is discussed below) and the Malibu sedan, the pocket for the transmitter is located in the face of the rear of the inside of the center console. Silverado gets push button start for the first time in 2019. Slide the transmitter into the pocket with the key ring facing up, and the buttons out (or however it will fit!).
The Silverado’s pocket is larger, as is the center console, which is actually the center seat in the bench seat. With the vehicle in Park or Neutral, press the brake pedal and 
the Start / Stop ignition button as normal. The pocket in 2021 Tahoe and Suburban models with a bench seat is also moved to this location, at the back of the console.
Tahoe, Suburban, later Silverado
If the Silverado, Tahoe or Suburban models have bucket seats, the pocket is found in or near the the two cup holders. In the Silverado, slip the key fob or transmitter into the insert between the cup holders (first image to the right). In the Tahoe or Suburban, as well as the Silverado EV, drop the 
transmitter into the left side cup holder (second image below right).
Once again, with the vehicle in Park or Neutral, press the brake pedal and the Start / Stop ignition button as normal. The Silverado EV starts when the brake pedal is depressed.
And we have a video of the process here.
Note: If you have made an attempt to start the vehicle without success, there may be residual pressure in the brake system and a new warning light may appear (left) or text 
message to Step on the Brake. Press the brake pedal very, very hard when trying to start the vehicle again to be sure that the release switch behind the pedal is engaged. Or wait a few minutes and try again.
… Return to Part I, Getting In
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
fob (remote control or ‘clicker’) styles, and Chevrolet uses them all. To get in the vehicle when the key fob battery is dead, a mechanical key will have to retrieved from the fob and used to unlock the car.
In next style is a flip key, shown to the left, press the unmarked chrome button to extend the mechanical key. It remains attached to the key fob. Use the mechanical key to unlock the driver’s door.
The final rounded style key fob is similar to the rectangular fob, in that the mechanical key is removed from the fob for use getting into the vehicle. However, it is similar in appearance to Style 2. To remove the mechanical key, press the button on the side of the transmitter near the key ring, as shown, and pull the key out.
Chevrolet models with traditional door handles but no obvious key holes or lock cylinders, hide the key holes under a cap at the back of the driver’s door. They include the Impala, Tahoe, Suburban, Malibu, Cruze, Camaro and Volt as well as new Bolt model. To remove the cap, pull the door handle out to the open position. Insert the key into the slot on the bottom of the cap (“3”, right).
Blazer EV
To replace the cap, insert it back into the grooves on the door handle. Push down on the cap until it clicks into place.
Corvette models are a very different animals. The C6 through C8 models have non-traditional, all electronic locks, latches and door handles, if they can be called handles at all. The C8 does have a key cylinder, but it is found in the air inlet located on the body, behind and above the left door handle. See the image to the right. Insert the mechanical key and turn to open the car.
Older C6 and C7 Corvette models, also have flush door handles (right image) with no key holes at all. They have a very different trick up their sleeves. You must use the mechanical key to open the trunk. The key hole is under the lip of the trunk lid facing the ground.
Once the trunk is open, you will find a release handle. It is along the left wall of the trunk in the Corvette (right).
Automotive Culture Needs an Empathy Reboot
Automotive Culture
DashboardSymbols.com was founded on the basis that the industry was leaving its driver’s behind at crucial points in the driving experience – namely when something goes wrong. Recent events reinforce this basis.
First, General Motors and the ongoing saga surrounding very, very bad ignition switches. Evidence continues to point to GM treating the problem as a customer satisfaction issue early on and later to discover how to alter the behavior of their customers in order to rectify the problem of their cars shutting down unexpectedly. At first, the company warned against possibly hitting the ignition key with a knee or a bag, or some other foreign object and thus turning off the car. Later, drivers were instructed not hang heavy items on key chains, a warning that remains in force for cars not yet serviced in a recall.
Who Know?
Second, we got a call from a Kia Motors customer who tried to determine in advance of the battery in his key fob going dead just how to start a 2014 Optima. No one in sales or service at the dealership where he bought the car actually knew! They each pointed to a slot in the glove box, which had been removed for the 2014 model year. The customer called Kia’s California headquarters where he
was told that the start button is simply to be pushed by the key fob itself if the fob’s battery goes flat. He called us since we turned up in a search for the answer, and we had it wrong too! We had the procedure, but not for the 2014 Optima. (We had access only to the 2013 model year manual and have since confirmed his answer and updated this website posting.)
In both stories, one element of a car company serving the public got it wrong – at corporate in the first instance and at the dealership level in the second. The underlying issue to us at DashboardSymbols.com is a lack of empathy for customers. It is far too easy and convenient to look for where a customer is misusing the equipment or to leave them to their own devices rather than to expend energy looking for a possible problem or a real answer. Even as there was ample evidence that several parties at GM knew the ignition switches were bad, others at the company who were hearing complaints failed to go beyond looking for how the customer might have caused the problem. And anyone at the Kia store (who will remain nameless) could have opened the owner’s manual from a new Optima and supplied the correct answer.
Widespread Problems
These problems are not confined to GM or to Kia dealerships. They are part of a culture deeply entrenched with service and sales personnel who all too often quite frankly see their customers as stupid. “Not that question again!” And they are just as entrenched at the corporate level as evidenced by the growing number of tell tales thrown into cars with little regard for the average Joe who just needs to get the kids to school on time and get to work. The car culture puts a new system in a car, and makes a new tell tale. Over 270 of them on DashboardSymbols.com and growing.
A little empathy, a mile walk in their shoes, rather than the cynicism will go a long way at GM, and the industry as a whole, to change the current culture. Or at least soften it.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY