Key Fob Battery - Surely not ?

[snuffy]

I've just read in my owner's manual that if you change the battery in the key fob, and if you press any buttons whilst doing this, the fob will have to be reprogrammed by your AM dealer.

Surely that can't be right ?

Because if it is then :

a) It's been designed by a total electronics cretin

or

b) It's been designed by an account to extort money from owners

[SLacKer]

Bit confused how the electronics can work with no battery (maybe some capacitance in the circuit leaving a small residual charge) in them but I wouldn't want to find out that the manual is correct either.

[snuffy]

SLacKer said:

Bit confused how the electronics can work with no battery (maybe some capacitance in the circuit leaving a small residual charge) in them but I wouldn't want to find out that the manual is correct either.

That's what I thought. Plus, I opened up my spare remote, expecting to find a dead battery, and what did I find ? A battery shaped hole ! I've changed dead batteries in fobs before and it just carries on.

I know these alarm change the code each time they send an lock/unlock command so you can't scan or capture the codes. But that does not mean the car and fob have to be in sync, otherwise the first time you pressed the button on the fob and were out of range of your car then the sequence would then be out of sync. Clearly the car and fob resync the next time your press the button. So it sounds like a load of bks to me.

[v8woollie]

Go on, try it. You know you want to

[snuffy]

v8woollie said:

Go on, try it. You know you want to

I've order two batteries from Amazon - 60p (and no postage). I've nothing to lose on the spare since there is no battery in it anyway. I shall report in due course.

[snuffy]

My batteries finally came yesterday ( just the 3 weeks ! ).

I popped a nice new one in my spare remote ( the only that came with no battery in it), pressed it once; nothing. Pressed it again and away it went. Works fine.

Hmm, looks like all the stuff in the owner's manual is designed to scare you into taking your car to the dealer so they can charge you to change a 30p battery in the remote.

[v8woollie]

Result!! A victory for the consumer.

Now about the price of oil

[Jockman]

Adrian.......u......is......a.......

Geeeeeeennnnnyyyyyyyyuuuuuuuusssssssss !!!!

Any tips on changing light bulbs ???

[snuffy]

30p to fix my dead fob, £8.50 for ODBII Bluetooth.

Your Uncle Adrian will make sure you're not ripped off !!!

[drofnavi]

Please, can you give us the battery number and a few pictures in how to dismantle it.

[snuffy]

drofnavi said:

Please, can you give us the battery number and a few pictures in how to dismantle it.

You need a CR2032 battery (called a button battery). A 2mm allen key and a Philips screwdriver. The allen key undoes the grub screw you can see in the silver top bit, and then unscrew the screw at the other end. Then you can pop it apart and put the new battery in.

This is battery :

[drofnavi]

Thanks, for the information, good to know for future reference.

[GTDB7]

I purchase these batteries in bulk as I use them for many things.

CR2016
CR2025
CR2032

The last two digits are the thickness measures in MM, so a 32 is 3.2mm

You can interchange them if the holder/socket allows for this, however the thicker batteries do have a higher capacity.

[snuffy]

GTDB7 said:

I purchase these batteries in bulk as I use them for many things.

CR2016
CR2025
CR2032

The last two digits are the thickness measures in MM, so a 32 is 3.2mm

You can interchange them if the holder/socket allows for this, however the thicker batteries do have a higher capacity.

I never knew that !

The CR2032 fits snuggly in the fob, being held in place by a couple of bits of plastic, so it "snaps" in. A thinner would might rattle around a bit.

[M@H]

..just to drag a thread back from the grave.

This just worked perfectly for my DB7 Vantage as well - it uses 2x CR2016 batteries and having swapped them into the dead fob did nothing at all for a couple of clicks, so then on unlocking the car with the other fob that worked and pressing the button on the fob that just had the new batteries, it then started to work perfectly.

Superb.

[Jon1967x]

I'd have had a go myself as I've changed batteries in watches for years.

Although my Brietling Aerospace ended up looking like this...



Some you win, some you lose :-(

[snuffy]

I've got an Aerospace as well, but I let Breitling change the battery for me !

[Jon1967x]

snuffy said:

I've got an Aerospace as well, but I let Breitling change the battery for me !

I might do the same in future. I was initially quoted close to £100 for a battery which given they're a quid seemed steep. They repaired the watch along the lines of triggers broom where I'm not sure which bit was original and given I'd changed the battery 4 times before the problem the repair worked out quite ressonably.

[snuffy]

I paid about £120 I think. Not cheap I agree, but then I paid the thick end of £2k for it so I suppose it's like a car; servicing costs go with the car !