chicken george wrote:

see grey cars = no good

 2007 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Manual with Premium Pack & Moonroof.
Stornoway Grey with Ebony Black Pleather, Clear Indicators, Body Side Mouldings etc.

been to the dealer with it, didn't do any test to see if the fob was charged, said he would just book the car in

So I will find out the reason on the 8th July  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

More than 2 years late but any chance of letting me know what happened ? I am have key fob problems now... I was in Germany and luckily had my spare with us so no major drama but I wonder if they found a problem with yours or was it replaced. My car is still under warranty .... not that that means diddly squat in Belgium

My key fob stopped opening the car a few weeks ago but still worked in the slot. A quick look with some test gear at work showed that it was still transmitting but the signal was misbehaving. ( Squegging if you want to use the technical term). I left it until the car went in for its 3 year service last friday, just before the warrenty runs out. Stratstone were good as gold and replaced it without question. ( They really seem to be trying hard recently) He who dies with the most tools wins!

r055 wrote:

got mine reprogrammed on Friday at the stealers when it was in getting the towbar fixed...

dealer said to my wife that if you dont use the fob, then the programming will delete itself, so you have to alternate between keys

If thats true, then i need to do it on a less than 3 week cycle! F ckers

The coding of the fob will almost certainly be stored in non-volatile memory, which is not charge dependent. The battery will eventually lose charge through natural loss in the battery itself but this will take several months. Rotating fobs every few months is a very good idea but a flat fob should recharge when docked - but might need a few hours to charge fully. Non-volatile memory can become corrupted or simply fail to some degree but this is rare and unlikely to recover by itself.
I'm still waiting for someone to donate a totally dead fob for dissection so we can learn more about prolonging their life rather than pay the high costs for replacement.

hihi, i am currently facing the same problem where the key fob just dead but still can start the engine in the slot. may i know what's the main reason or it just requires a software upgrade? thanks. Fans of Land Rover

TODAY I final got around to fitting the new battery to my "spare" fob.

Desoldered the old one (which was totally dead - held charge for a couple of minutes!) and soldered in the new one.

Put it in the slot started engine (opened car with other working fob) and let it run for a little while.

After a few minutes I stopped exited and locked the car with new battery fob. OK.....

Wouldn't open - opened with other fob - wouldn't close - needs to be charged over a longer time period - so will do so over the next few days - and report further.

I guess the sensing for starting the car is not electronic - or else it's fine once it's in the dock and has the power applied to it for charging. I would summise that if the fob will start the car then it must be the ability of the battery to hold the charge that is the problem.

So here's hoping I've fixed it - the battery cost me about £10 from ebay (including postage)  2002 Honda VFR800
2002 Toyota Celica 140 Silver (mid life crisis - again!)
2007 FL2 GS Manual Army Reconnaissance Green + freel2.com sticker
2004 Toyota Celica 140 Black - Gone
2000 Toyota Celica 140 Silver - Gone
1998 Toyota Celica ST Pearl Green - Gone
1996 Nissan Primera 1.6 - Gone
1994 Rover Montego 1.6 Auto - Gone

Been watching this and other threads on this subject with interest [apart from the spoiler posts...why?]

My spare fob is the same and will start the car when in the slot, but not open it from remotely or take a charge when in use.

SimonT, well done for finding a fix. Very interested in how you get on with the new battery and how you got into the sealed fob housing to change the battery as it is obviously well glued together...did you by any chance take any pictures as it would be useful to know what is underneath that surface when cutting

Thanks - this is what the forum is all about

xtd5

xtd5 wrote:

Thanks - this is what the forum is all about

xtd5

Thanks

Not a good start today - drove to work 15 minutes drive (along the nice NE coast - sun shining etc) with repaired fob in the dock. Got out but the fob wouldn't lock the car - I had the other main one with me so locked.

Will just have to try charging for longer - might need a very long drive to give it enough charge - it's probably just a trickle charger which if my battery is totally flat could take a while to get enough charge!!!!

Sorry the only photos I've got of the inside are in my gallery. Yes breaking it open was just a case of knife, small chisel and quite a bit of brute force - it wasn't designed to be opened (ever!) Then I used super glue to seal it - decided I wouldn't need to open again as if this battery didn't work then that was probably it??:

I suppose it would be almost impossible to connect a non-rechargeable as it would probably end up destroyed by the charging circuit.

Which might mean the only option is to buy an official replacement (stealers!!!!)

More as and when I have anything to add..........  2002 Honda VFR800
2002 Toyota Celica 140 Silver (mid life crisis - again!)
2007 FL2 GS Manual Army Reconnaissance Green + freel2.com sticker
2004 Toyota Celica 140 Black - Gone
2000 Toyota Celica 140 Silver - Gone
1998 Toyota Celica ST Pearl Green - Gone
1996 Nissan Primera 1.6 - Gone
1994 Rover Montego 1.6 Auto - Gone

Thanks - I had not spotted the Pics in your gallery which are so useful to see inside the housing.
My battery now ordered too, as my engineering instinct is to take it apart and change the battery if nothing else is wrong (remembering that Lithium Ion batteries - even ones this small - are capable of generating surprisingly high currents and so I will be taking safety precautions and be extremely careful not to short the battery terminals when carrying out this quite specialist repair).
Now, I wonder if replacement housing mouldings can be sourced at all?...
Thanks again
xtd5

xtd5 wrote:

Now, I wonder if replacement housing mouldings can be sourced at all? xtd5

Now that would be a good solution - would take the need to be careful in opening away - as mine looks like it has been run over by CG's caravan  2002 Honda VFR800
2002 Toyota Celica 140 Silver (mid life crisis - again!)
2007 FL2 GS Manual Army Reconnaissance Green + freel2.com sticker
2004 Toyota Celica 140 Black - Gone
2000 Toyota Celica 140 Silver - Gone
1998 Toyota Celica ST Pearl Green - Gone
1996 Nissan Primera 1.6 - Gone
1994 Rover Montego 1.6 Auto - Gone

Well after a couple of days driving with the battery replaced fob in the dock - I took the brave step of trying to lock the car with it - IT WORKED - and opened again and locked again....

It was like watching a child with a new toy!!!!!!

I will still carry both fobs with me "just in case" but will continue to use it in the dock to keep charging it.

Wonder how long it needs to do a full charge (Alex - do you know???)

Anyway for those with "dead" fobs there is a solution.....if it is just a dead battery.....£10 and a bit of effort.... 2002 Honda VFR800
2002 Toyota Celica 140 Silver (mid life crisis - again!)
2007 FL2 GS Manual Army Reconnaissance Green + freel2.com sticker
2004 Toyota Celica 140 Black - Gone
2000 Toyota Celica 140 Silver - Gone
1998 Toyota Celica ST Pearl Green - Gone
1996 Nissan Primera 1.6 - Gone
1994 Rover Montego 1.6 Auto - Gone

Happy to report that the replaced battery is performing extremely well and I have moved onto only carrying the one fob - an plan to change on a 2 week basis for a while. then monthly as others have suggested elsewhere.

For those with dead fobs it's a definite fix and certainly worked for me.

To be honest a step-by-step guide isn't really needed (although)

1) buy a battery
2) break fob open
3) unsolder existing battery
4) solder in new battery
5) reseal fob
6) drive a lot with the fob in the dock (without using it to lock or unlock)
7) try and wait a few days before trying it

Battery is a VL2330 it is a rechargeable - I found it easily on ebay for less than £10 2002 Honda VFR800
2002 Toyota Celica 140 Silver (mid life crisis - again!)
2007 FL2 GS Manual Army Reconnaissance Green + freel2.com sticker
2004 Toyota Celica 140 Black - Gone
2000 Toyota Celica 140 Silver - Gone
1998 Toyota Celica ST Pearl Green - Gone
1996 Nissan Primera 1.6 - Gone
1994 Rover Montego 1.6 Auto - Gone

Last edited by simont on 30th Jun 2011 7:54 pm. Edited 1 time in total

SimonT,

What type of battery is it, do you have any info on it, i.e. Voltage and mAh? ______________________
2011 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8
2012 FL2 SD4 Auto HSE
2013 Kawasaki Versys 650