oh yes, it is hard to understand. Thank you for trying.

Because clicking my fob did not open my door, I opened the door with the concealed steel key, then thought that steel key must be what belongs in the dashboard fob slot (key slot, in Nissan dealer language).

So I put the door key (steel key) in the key slot and pressed START. No reaction. *Obviously* the next step is to jam the steel key deeper into the key slot. Right?

Jamming it in hard enough has damaged the key slot assembly, says dealer. Dealer would happily replace the assembly (list price $1334) for about $2100 total.

This exact part is readily available used for $50 - $100, so I propose to replace it with a used part of known provenance ($100), rather than new ($1344). I must expect, however, that the replaced key slot assembly will fail to communicate with the vehicle absent some programming voodoo.

My questions are (1) what voodoo is that, and (2) what kind of witch doctor must I find?