My keys fell into a bucket of diesel -- now key fob dead

mrrhtuner

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Location
London Ont Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon TDI, 2015 Passat TDI, 2015 Touareg TDI
Long story short, I was cleaning bearings for my bike so I had a small bucket of diesel. A few days later, I was reaching over and somehow the keys fell into that small bucket. Great.

So I quickly removed the battery and let the key fob air out.

Now the key fob will not respond. No red light on it. I did put in a new battery and nothing changed.

I'm unsure what I can do now. I have two key fobs, both don't work/no red lights on them. I looked at both circuit boards but didn't see any damage on them.

Would I need new circuit boards for the key fobs?

Thank you
 

mrrhtuner

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Location
London Ont Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon TDI, 2015 Passat TDI, 2015 Touareg TDI
Does your car start using the damaged key fob?

The key fob(lower part) has no impact on the car's ability to start. The immobilizer is part of the upper part of the key fob, where the key resides.

Yes the car still starts fine.
 

OlyTDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Location
Olympia, WA
TDI
'04 Golf
Just get a new fob with circuit board from this forum sponsor:

http://www.fixmyvw.com/keys/

Just plugged my switchblade key onto a new fob with circuit board. Programmed with my VCDS though there apparently is a way to program program the new fob without VCDS (though that method didn't work for me!). I think I paid around $25 for the new parts and just attached them to my existing blade key. Took 15 minutes.
 

mrrhtuner

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Location
London Ont Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon TDI, 2015 Passat TDI, 2015 Touareg TDI
Just get a new fob with circuit board from this forum sponsor:

http://www.fixmyvw.com/keys/

Just plugged my switchblade key onto a new fob with circuit board. Programmed with my VCDS though there apparently is a way to program program the new fob without VCDS (though that method didn't work for me!). I think I paid around $25 for the new parts and just attached them to my existing blade key. Took 15 minutes.

I did that last night, ordered the circuit board.


The key fob that fell into diesel, I did resurrect it. I gave it a good cleaning with alcohol wipes and it seems to have started working again.

My second key fob, it never worked and there is no red light on when any buttons are pressed.

I ordered the circuit board for that. I did call the local VW dealer with the same part number that fixmyvw has shown. They wanted $100.00 for the same item.

Placed order with fixmyvw
 
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