'05 Scenic keycard not recognised

[mrtwisty]

Hi folks, my friends Scenic has developed a fault whereby the keycard won't disable the immobiliser. It will work eventually after lots of jiggling and swearing - obviously not ideal!

We've found a chap on the web who will repair the cards for £25. We can't be sure that is is just the card, but I thought it was probably a good first step. A new reprogrammed card is £150 and takes 7-10 days as it has to come from France!

Anybody in the PH collective have any experience with this problem? Any (pertinent) advice welcome.

[Arthur Daley]

It will either be the card or the card reader both common problems, if you have the same issue with the spare it's probably the card reader.

[jumpingloci]

Just had the same problem with a friend's Megane key card. A bit of research suggested it was a common problem and almost always stemmed from one of the legs of one of the bits on the circuit board coming lose, and so, depending on how you wiggled it, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

The advice was to carefully cut the card open and re-solder (sp?) the loose leg, which is what the chap charging 25 quid would have done.

In the end, through wayward confidence in our craftsmanship, the friend decided it best to just order a new one from Renault, which as you say costs about 140 pounds.

Almost always in none of the cases is it the card reader. Only the card. A design fault and something Renault should have addressed over the years but no doubt is enjoying the fruits of its faulty cards far too much.

Bullst either way.

[the_stoat]

Replace the battery before trying anything else. My megane did this with both cards and it was the battery.

[mrtwisty]

Thanks for the replies guys.

He's already tried changing the battery - wasn't that unfortunately. We were hoping to hear that it is more likely a card problem rather than the reader, special that's a bit of good news.

Any more for any more.