Hi All,

Another tale of woe regarding my skoda!

Battery was running down on the key fob, so I took it to a shop and showed him the fob and asked if he had the battery for it. He offered to fit it and I though he knew what I was doing so I let him!

Got home and cannot get into the car! It seems he had the battery out of the fob for too long and it's no longer in sync with the car. I can unlock the car via the door, but the alarm does not disengage so I cannot open the door without the alarm going off.

Battery has run down on the spare key, so I can't use that one to get in and have to wait for the shops to open in order to get a spare.

I've had a look and managed to find the procedure for reprogramming the key, but I cannot get the car to start (is the battery now flat, or has an immobiliser kicked in)?

Sorry for the dim questions. Is it worth calling the AA out on this one?

Was meant to be driving the car tomorrow and will have to get the train at a cost of £40!!! :(

The battery for the remote has nothing to with the immobiliser. The alarm should disarm when you turn the ignition on. Unfortunately without a working remote they will require programming by a dealer or someone with a suitable copy of VAG Com/VCDS. The procedure is to go into control unit 46, channel 00 and erase all the remotes, then channel 00 and enter the number of remotes to be programmed (2) and then press a button on each remote, VCDS prompts you when to do this. Each remote takes a single CR2032 battery. The AA might be worth a call, though I doubt that their equipment will do anything except read codes, an AA man who I spoke to last week was unaware of what can be done with regard to setting up control units.

You could look here to see if anyone near to you is willing help:

http://briskoda.net/diagnostics-vag-com/vag-com-owners-map/80992/

Your car battery may well need charging, at least the AA should be able to get you going in that respect.

Thank you for the reply Ford Fan!

I've just got back indoors from giving everything one last go - luckily (I don't know what exactly we did) with lots of button pressing and finding a spare battery and swapping them over etc, we managed to get into the car and start it up. I've taken it for a run so it's nice and charged and should be okay for tomorrow and the fob seems to be working as normal.

The spare key doesnt work at all, even with a new battery in it, but I'll save that battle for another day!

My mk3 Mondeo did this, then after a drive, seemed fine.

I had to endure the alarm going off until started too. Funny how no one in the busy retail car park battered an eyelid!