Trouble with your remote? This may help

BathTDI · July 26th, 2008, 13:25

I thought my remote had gone south as it seemed to work for a while after new batteries were put in, but soon failed.

Since my wife's remote also was bad about the same time, I thought it was just their age. I was going to buy a new remote but decided to give it one more try with new batteries. I had difficulty resetting it, a problem I had before and occasionally it would not reset at all. But this time it took, but only after I pushed other buttons when resetting it.

When I was testing it after the reset, I noticed the lock door button worked fine the first time but seemed to do nothing when pushed again. But if I pushed either the trunk or unlock button, it worked again. Eventually I found that the plastic button had deformed so much that when it was pushed, it stayed down, but would move slightly when another button was pushed and release the circuit board interior lock button. In normal operation, I would never notice it, since I normally lock the door, unlock it and that would release the lock button.

So the cause of the quickly dying battery was the close button was always engaged. As was my problems when I tried to reset the key remote. When pushed, the lock button stayed on.

The remote section is easily opened and the circuit board pries off. By pushing the plungers on the plastic push buttons, you can separate the plastic button assembly from the remote. I put a small piece of foam in the lock button cavity, reassembled it, and now get correct button action with the lock button. So if your remote battery is failing quickly or you cannot reset it to the car, it may be the age of the plastic, that it deforms over time, and needs to be pushed back away from being always on.

Nice to have a working remote again.

BathTDI · July 26th, 2008, 14:44

Add my wife's remote to the stuck button problem. I thought her's was totally gone as I could never reset it. In fact, it screwed up my remote so it would not work.

Her's was a stuck unlock button, so it causes more problems than a stuck lock button. Added foam under the buttons of her remote and now works fine.

Next test will be to see if the plastic has memory. If it is heated it might revert to its original shape and I can eliminate the foam. Have to wait until I can get some batteries for my remote since I gave her mine.