I have a 955 Turbo that I am having an issue with. The truck recently sat for a few weeks without being used. Battery was very low, so I charged it up. However, my key fob does not work. I can manually unlock the door with the key blade, but the buttons are not working. The driver side door button unlocks/locks all doors no problem. And the vehicle is sitting on a trickle charger but has good voltage otherwise now. I replaced the key fob battery and tried some of the various tricks to resynchronize it that I read here with no success. After replacing the battery in the remote, one of the headlights on the remote lit up after a button push, but it is not doing that now.

Any thoughts? I'd really rather not take it to a dealership for a new remote.

 

Can you confirm it's sending out the signal? I'm assuming the "various tricks" are from searching for resynch ops with KESSY?

 

I don't know how to confirm it's sending a signal. Various tricks being things like - put the key in the ignition and hold the lock/unlock button, put the key in the door lock barrel and hold the lock/unlock button. Nothing with KESSY.

 

Alot of lock smithing places will can test if it is "transmitting". Even some autoparts stores have a (is it transmitting) thing. It still starts the car just fine, just no lock/unlock with the buttons?

 

Ah, good thought. I'll try the O'reilly's after work today.

Yep, the key starts the car fine, just the remote functions of it do not work. No Lock/unlock or rear tail gate.

 

Ok... I think I figured it out. Took the key to the autostore during lunch. Didn't work with the RF tester. Got home and thought I'd try resynchronizing one more time. Put the key in the ignition and held the lock/unlock button for a full 30 seconds. It worked! I also took the car for a quick drive before hand, which maybe it needed that to exit the low voltage/power saver mode or something. I don't know... One of the things, or all of the things made it work.

 

I have had the same problem for the last year (and still have it). 2003 turbo.
Car can sit for weeks and then work fine. Or, I can go to the shops, lock car, go in shop and when I go back to it, the remote will not work.
I have replaced the battery on the car, new good quality battery in the remote, done all the wiring splices under the carpet etc.
Every time it happens, I just put key in ignition, turn on, hold the lock/unlock button for 10 or so seconds (never 30) and it is back to working again.
No idea of the actual cause, but I live with it as it is a minor irritant only.

 

I could be wrong (and someone please tell me if so) but ...

If the green LED headlight (just one of the two) on the key fob does not illuminate when pressing the button, I think that is a problem right there, before you start worrying about the car-side of things. The button switch, battery contacts, ??? could be causing intermittent issues in the fob, as I have found with my 2004 S with the infamous 2-button remote.

I do see similarities in your whole story fitting with my experience over the years. Such as the car being much more receptive to button presses once it has a fully charged battery, such as following a drive. And it's hardly ever a problem to use the fob to lock, vs. to unlock (and on my fobs, that's the exact same button).

Glad you got it fixed, but if it's like my car + fobs, you might have an ongoing relationship with this problem.

As an example, the fob seems to stop working once the CR2032 batteries (nominally 3.0V as engraved on them, but about 3.35V when new, as I measure them) seem to stop getting the job done once they drop to around 3.05V. If I were designing the fob, I'd have made it work a little lower than that.