Remote Key Question - Hard to Figure Out What';s Going On
 

Hi All:

Looking for some educated guesses.

My two keys work intermittently. Sometimes when they don't, I'll open the car using the door lock and then the keys work fine for a day or two. Problem with this theory is that the time between uses is too short for the car to switch modes from remote to you must put the key in the door lock.

Theory 2: The key are wearing out. Well that's fine for the key I use everyday. But I see the problem with the spare which has less than 50 clicks on the buttons.

Sometimes the key will work close to the car and other times the key will work from 50+ feet away. It could be a weak battery, but I've changed batteries several times and doing this didn't help.

So I am baffled. Can anyone suggest what else might be triggering this problem. The one other thing to know is I recently changed the radio to a Pioneer double DIN unit with GPS. Could the GPS antenna location be part of the issue. It's located under the hood at the far right side.

Or could there be a grounding problem that affects how the keys work.

At this point I'm at a loss

On my 2001 Boxster, I've had intermittent remote lock/unlock operation that was fixed by removing circuit board out of the key housing, desoldering the coin cell battery holder, and reflowing some solder connections to the board underneath the battery holder. I can't recall exactly which connection were to blame, but I believe the information is on the forum if you search, or alternatively, you can just reflow everything soldered to the board. This fixed the intermittent remote key operation where the light on the key would blink normally, but the doors or trunk would reliably not lock/unlock. Sometimes they would, sometimes they wouldn't. After the reflowing, it always works perfectly, and even from a pretty long distance away!

Thanks...I'll take a look. If it was one key and not the other, I'd have hope. The fact that it's happening with my daily key and a new one seems too coincidental to suggest its a key problem.

Are you sure it's just a day or two? Could it be 5 days?

If you don't drive the car for about 5 days it will disable the remote control feature to save power. You are then forced to open the car using the key in the lock, which will reset the 5 day timer...

1998 Boxster key- What is correct?
 

I only received one key with the car, and it is missing the button that activates the locks. I opened it up and there does not appear to be any 'electronics' in it, but the key works fine in the doors and the ignition. The car is old, but only 104,000 miles so I just can't believe this key set-up. Only two owners, and I contacted both. No extra keys. I don't even know which key type I need to buy, let alone get it programmed.
Any and all advice greatly appreciated.