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Key Fob button fix

The buttons on my car's remote entry key fob were not working right, some worked fine, some kinda worked if you hit it and rubbed around, some didn't work at all.

FIX:

1. Make sure the battery is good/new.

2. clean the contact points. With a red #2 pencil eraser gently polish the contacts on the circuit card and the conductive paint on the back of the buttons. be gentle, the paint on the back of the buttons is onion-skin thin. then clean with 90% alcohol on a q-tip. If the fob is only a few years old this will probably fix it. The seals are not perfect and humidity or other such can get inside and gunk up the buttons.

3. If the fob is old, the conductive paint on the back of the rubber buttons may have worn away. Test this by using a little tab of aluminum foil and touch each contact on the circuit card and see if the car reacts. If so, a little superglue and tiny squares of aluminum foil can fix it. I used toothpicks to apply the superglue so as to not put too much in, then burnished each tiny bit of foil with a dry q-tip to make sure they laid flat and the edged didn't curl up. Works like new (at least till the replacement button pad arrives...)

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Permalink Reply by Lane Martin on August 19, 2016 at 3:58am

Be sure and video the next time you do that and post it here so we can all share in the fun.

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Permalink Reply by Lane Martin on August 19, 2016 at 4:11pm

Reading the first link off the YouTube page, they mention it's the oral cavity that helps. That makes sense...sort of a horn for the radio signal.

Two comments along this line: 1) don't fall for the "unlock you car through the phone" garbage, 2) water most definitely attenuates the heck out of radio waves. That's why we search for subs with sonar instead of radar.

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Permalink Reply by JL on August 22, 2016 at 12:46am

Did you hold the key fob at the same height/position for both attempts to eliminate the variable of the transmitter's line of sight? i.e. keep it in the same spot and moved your knoggin to the keyfob?

sorry, I'm a big fan of mythbusters, lol

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Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on August 19, 2016 at 10:59am

Luckily my car came with two of them. One stopped working after I ran it over with the car.........

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