Key Fob / Alarm

[Rossington]

Hi Guys,

I went to the car today after 2 weeks of it sitting dormant and the key fob does absolutely nothing.
I've tried replacing batteries in both the original and spare fobs (both brand new batteries) and had no luck so i'm convinced its something on the car.

Can anybody suggest anything i can do? Where is the remote / sensor / module which receives the signal when you press your fob?

Also in checking my spare key, it would appear one of the previous owners decided to glue the battery in as the clip holding it in has broken so whilst i'm at it...i might aswell replace the spare fob too. Does anybody know the part number for a new fob (just the alarm button bit, not the key section) for a phase 1?

All i wanted to do was start the car up and leave it for 20 minutes
Might be worth me noting, i did manually unlock the drivers side, quickly get in and start the car but the alarm is constantly going crazy....there appears to be no way to turn it off inside the car....but atleast its only the alarm and not something more i suppose.

Thanks
Ross

 

[Jamesv6]

Might be something useful here link

 

[Rossington]

Thanks James,
That's put the fear of god in me!

 

[Mark]

Worth trying a Chinese reset, disconnect the battery for 15mins and see if it resets itself?

 

[dal.a]

Any joy with yours [mention=4880,#000000]Rossington[/mention] ?

I took mine out for the 1st time in ages and using the key to lock mine really bugs me but heaving something not working and not being able to fix it does my head in.

 

[Rossington]

Hmm odd solution...sort of.
Sifting through the forums i found a thread some kind person put up about the little switchbox / bridge thingy on the alarm...motherboard i suppose you call it. They detailed how it had come off and they basically soldered it back on.
When i put my key against my ear and shook it, i could hear a small rattle. Funnily enough upon taking the fob apart...i found exactly the same had happened to my main key. A quick visit to B&Q and £20 later i returned with the smallest soldering iron i could find and some wire to use. The piece is tiny, really need steady hands for it to be honest. Anyway 15 minutes later and my main key works again perfectly.

I can only assume my spare key has never worked as that's still not working. I decided to re-solder that too whilst i was at it. When i blip the spare key, you can see the alarm light on the fob does come on so i assume it just needs re-programming to the car again. Main thing i atleast don't need to spend masses of money on new ones.

Whilst i was in the mood for all this key stuff, i got on ebay and purchased two new fob's for £2.50 plus postage, just the plastic cases so eventually i can swap the guts over to the new cases and have a shiny new key set.
As always thanks for the suggestions guys.

Quick side note to anybody reading this in many years time wondering what on earth im talking about...get your fob (the blip side without the key) and slide the front and back in opposite directions. You''ll find a small motherboard inside that has a tiny tiny little button on top thats soldered to the board. This is the switch which flics when you blip the fob everytime. It is somewhat small and weak so i suppose its inevitable that after so many presses, it comes off. You basically line it up over the two metal pieces and re-solder either side very carefully.

As for my spare...no idea where youd start but a friend from the Megane forums knows somebody who specializes in car alarms for a living so he's probably a good start rather than Renault. As people from this site have said many times, most garages wouldnt even know what a V6 was let alone how to fix one.

 

[Lankan]

Interesting to know the root cause, and solution.

Glad that you managed to get it sorted..........

 

[rustedandrotten]

A couple of photos might help and then ask [mention=2296,#2b2b2b]Ben[/mention] to put it in the knowledge base :approve: :bow:

 

[Rossington]

At work at this second in time, when I get home tonight, I shall do a little step by step guide with photo's etc.

 

[dal.a]

Cheers for that detailed post. I fear mines something terminal as my light on the fob flashes so it's not talking to the car.

 

[Scou5er]

Do these keys require a resync? Had to do it on the missus vauxhall last night as it had been pressed too many times away from the car.

 

[dal.a]

I did try all the usual stuff I found on the net regarding re programming but still no luck.

 

[Rossington]

Hi Guys.

As said, here is a little step by step guide on what i did to fix my key-fob.
Quick note at this point, i had already fixed it before photo's taken hence i can't actually show you the soldering process but it will still give you an idea for a potential issue/fix.
The give-away for you will be the noise, put your fob against your ear and give it a little shake. If there is a very slight rattle then this will more than likely be your problem. Even if there is no rattle however, your solder may have worn free at once side removing the micro-switch function.

1- Head to B&Q if you have no soldering iron and wire, i spend £16.30 total for both. Link can be found here :
http://www.diy.com/departments/bq-corde ... 569_BQ.prd
http://www.diy.com/departments/bq-solde ... 575_BQ.prd

2- Your key should look like this (please could somebody with a phase 2 kindly confirm the keys are the same as i have a phase 1).

3- Today we are interested in this little part, place your thumb under the circled sticky-out-bit and push the upper and lower cases apart. You'll actually see an embossed set of arrows on the plastic fob case showing you the correct direction so you can't go wrong really.

4- When they click out of place, you'll be left with something like this. If your struggling and the fob is really stiff. I do have some sound advice for you, don't worry about the skin on your fingers...it'll grow back in a week or so. Simply commit to the task at hand. The main thing above all else...do not take the "hulk-smash" approach as yes they can be fragile and i imagine its not difficult to break it beyond repair so keep your cool.

5- Lift the circuit board out of the case and place it down the opposite way up so we can see all the interesting looking parts. I was that paranoid at this part i even grounded myself although im fairly certain you won't need to, we dont have any electrical engineers do we on here?

6- This is what we're looking at, this is the micro-switch which is triggered by the outer case every time you blip the key fob. For those of you who've not seen this yet, they're extremely small so be careful not to loose it and be gentle when handling it.

7- At the side of this, there are two tiny parts of solder holding it against the mating metal connectors actually on the board. Its fairly obvious at this point. Have some tweezers and hold the micro-switch in the correct position and solder either side. As with any soldering, its far easier if you've a steady hand. If you are nervous about getting it wrong, get on youtube and have a look at some of the videos available. They will show you the basics so you'll hopefully do a nice clean job. Your effectively melting the wire with the iron and forming the small blobs in the right places. Famous last words, if i can do it..anybody can. I've never soldered in my whole life and i struggle to build a crappy chair from ikea so i'm sure anybody can manage it.

8- Last but not least, put everything back together by following the above dis-assembly guide in reverse and give your keys a blip. The little red light shown should now flash red once more.

I do hope this is of use to somebody in many years to come.
Ross

 

[dal.a]

Thanks for doing that Ross.

Can I ask when you press and hold your fob does it stay lit up as in the photo?

Mine flashes randomly, I think 3 flashes or something from memory.

 

[Rossington]

funnily enough that's me pressing the fob for a second...took me like 4 attempts to get that photo with the light on [smilie=yay.gif]
I've not tried simply holding the button, don't want to incase i somehow de-tune it from the car.

 

[dal.a]

funnily enough that's me pressing the fob for a second...took me like 4 attempts to get that photo with the light on [smilie=yay.gif]
I've not tried simply holding the button, don't want to incase i somehow de-tune it from the car.

Good point, well I just pressed mine for 1-2 seconds and it flashes really fast, not a steady light.

It doesn't seem right to me for some reason.

 

[slowly sideways]

funnily enough that's me pressing the fob for a second...took me like 4 attempts to get that photo with the light on [smilie=yay.gif]
I've not tried simply holding the button, don't want to incase i somehow de-tune it from the car.

Good point, well I just pressed mine for 1-2 seconds and it flashes really fast, not a steady light.

It doesn't seem right to me for some reason.

Did you ever get to the bottom of this? Mine has seemingly done the exact same and it's now sitting in a fucking car park....

 

[dal.a]

funnily enough that's me pressing the fob for a second...took me like 4 attempts to get that photo with the light on [smilie=yay.gif]
I've not tried simply holding the button, don't want to incase i somehow de-tune it from the car.

Good point, well I just pressed mine for 1-2 seconds and it flashes really fast, not a steady light.

It doesn't seem right to me for some reason.

Did you ever get to the bottom of this? Mine has seemingly done the exact same and it's now sitting in a fucking car park....

No mate, it flashes but doesn't do anything. Although when I hold down the central locking button by the ashtray for 5 seconds until it clicks, I can press the fob and it locks and unlocks the doors like its pairing but that's it, it won't talk to the car again.

 

[slowly sideways]

Not so good

My problems a bit simpler. Car battery is buggered. Went flat as soon as I took it off charge......