Remote barely working

[ohhh my]

In the recent month, my remote to lock and unlock the door on my 03 boxster s barely seems to work. It works maybe 50% of the time. I literally have to stand right next to the door for it to work. And sometimes standing right next to the door it doesn't even work and I would have to manually unlock the door.

I've replaced the battery twice now and the light on the key flashes when I press any button. I live in california and it hasn't rained in weeks and i've reached under the driver seat to see if there is any moisture and there is not.

Any thoughts or ideas on what may be causing this?

I really do not want to have to shell out money to purchase a new remote...

[Nimbus117]

Mine was the same, I would be standing right next to the car and it still wouldn't open. Sorted now, have a look at this:

Procedure - Boxster Tech

Took about 20 minutes.

[ohhh my]

I saw that same link last week. That's my weekend project, hoping it'll sort out this annoying problem. Thanks.

[Mark_T]

That's awesome! I've had the same problem for a while now. I'm going to try this when I pull the car out of winter storage. Thanks Nimbus!

[ohhh my]

I'm starting to think it has more to do with my remote. It seems new batteries only lasts about 2 weeks tops before I get a solid red light on the remote and then it also becomes dimmer than usual. Any idea if it could be a bad resistor or something on the remote board that's causing the quiick battery drain?

[Ckrikos]

I can't believe he got 60' of range. Mine only works from a few feet away from the car.

[Nimbus117]

Originally Posted by Ckrikos

I can't believe he got 60' of range. Mine only works from a few feet away from the car.

Not measured it accurately but my car will now lock/unlock from 50' or so.

[keysguy]

Ohhh my,

I had the same issue with the key fob. My was getting so bad I had to be about 6 inches from the windshield for it to work. Sometimes things just wear out and don't work any more. I ended up going to the dealer and getting a new fob. It was $300 and I have about 30-50 ft of range without having to make any modifications to the car.

Keysguy

[Nimbus117]

Both my keys had a similar range before (right next to the car to unlock) and after (50 foot or so) so this mod was worth it for me.

[Speedster986]

Cool... I have a newly found purpose for my day!

I will conduct the repair in question ( my current range is 15' max. ) and report my findings.

Thanks for the tip!

[ohhh my]

Originally Posted by keysguy

Ohhh my,

I had the same issue with the key fob. My was getting so bad I had to be about 6 inches from the windshield for it to work. Sometimes things just wear out and don't work any more. I ended up going to the dealer and getting a new fob. It was $300 and I have about 30-50 ft of range without having to make any modifications to the car.

Keysguy

So I tried the mod this weekend and it did increase my range until my new battery died again, after only 5 days.

It's for sure my remote, it's eating up brand new batteries in 5-7 days. Looks like i'm going to need to order 2 new remotes for my key...

[Nimbus117]

Originally Posted by ohhh my

So I tried the mod this weekend and it did increase my range until my new battery died again, after only 5 days.

It's for sure my remote, it's eating up brand new batteries in 5-7 days. Looks like i'm going to need to order 2 new remotes for my key...

Before you do that I would try a couple of things. Get a different brand of battery from a store that has a high turnover, sometimes these batteries are years old, I have had a few that lasted no time at all. Ideally test the voltage so you know the battery is good. I find it difficult to believe both fobs have the same problem.

Also check to see if there is any corrosion in the keyfobs in case there is high resistance.

[Robsducati]

These guys repaired my key fob for £30.00. They replaced the micro switches and check the board. The fault was diagnosed as a short that made the new battery drain within days.
Since the repair all is good with a range of at least 20 feet.

eBay My World - vmk-autolocksmith

[ohhh my]

Originally Posted by Robsducati

These guys repaired my key fob for £30.00. They replaced the micro switches and check the board. The fault was diagnosed as a short that made the new battery drain within days.
Since the repair all is good with a range of at least 20 feet.

eBay My World - vmk-autolocksmith

Do you know where the short may be? I want to attempt to find my short on my own.

[ohhh my]

Originally Posted by Robsducati

These guys repaired my key fob for £30.00. They replaced the micro switches and check the board. The fault was diagnosed as a short that made the new battery drain within days.
Since the repair all is good with a range of at least 20 feet.

eBay My World - vmk-autolocksmith

Do you know where the short may be? I want to attempt to find my short on my own.

[Robsducati]

No, I don't know where the short occurred on the pcb. Out of my depth when it comes to electronics.
Was very pleased that they managed to fix it though.