hi all, not sure if you can help but, my both key fobs drain the batteries very quickly, usually within a week or two. the fobs work for a short time and then they won't open the doors, the fob will lock the doors and open the boot, but not the doors. we have bought a few different make batteries, from duracel to panasonic and ones we bought from local car part retailer. this is very frustrating as we have to constantly carry a load of spare batteries with us. thanks in advance for any help.

I can't really offer much help, but I hate to see "orphan" messages! So I'll throw my two pennies' worth in.

 

It's not a problem I've come across before, but I wonder if you are misdiagnosing it? You say the batteries drain quickly, but still open the boot and lock the doors. So are you diagnosing the battery drain by the fact that the key fob doesn't open the central locking at this point (even though it does close the central locking and open / close the boot)? Apologies if I've read that wrong, but it seems to be that that is what you're saying. If it is, then it doesn't sound like a battery draining problem. It sounds more like a malfunctioning key fob or central locking module / controller. The fact that it is happening with both fobs (from what you say) would very strongly suggest that it is a central locking problem (it would be rare for a key fob problem to occur across both fobs at the same time).

 

Three questions (and then some things to look at):

 

1. Do the fobs work perfectly, every time, when you replace the batteries, or is there still an intermittent problem with fresh batteries?

2. Have you noticed any other electrical gremlins such as problems with the electric windows?

3. Do the doors lock / unlock every time if you use the central locking switch on the driver or passenger door (when inside the car)?

 

Things to look at / consider:

 

1. There is a common problem with broken wiring in the driver's door that can affect central locking funtions as well as other things. You can do a quick visual inspection easily enough by opening the driver's door and unclipping the wiring cover that runs from the door to the body of the car (looks like rumpled rubber basically). Once you unclip it, pull it back gently and see if you can spot any broken / fraying wires. The broken or frayed wires can also be located inside the door, but removing the door card / trim is probably a bigger job that you want to do right now. If you do spot any problems with the wires, you can decide how you want to move on from there

2. Assuming that there aren't any obvious problems with the wiring, you really need to look at getting a scan done by someone with VCDS (a diagnostic tool). You can obviously pay a garage to do it, but usually you can find a member on here that will do it for free / very cheaply. Use this map to see if there is anyone close to you. If there is, send them a private message and hopefully someone will come to your rescue. Depending on what the scan shows, you can decide what you want to do.

3. Rather than carry lots of spare batteries, did you know that you can open and lock the doors with the key through the driver's door? It's a well hidden feature, but you can actually insert the key into a lock on the driver's door. There's a little flap that hides the lock, so just pick that off and you'll see the lock (it's on the underside of the door handle). Not the easiest thing to do at night, but it might be an option for you (at the very least you could leave the batteries inside the car!).

4. If the problem is solely related to the fobs, you can obviously pay for new ones. But it's expensive and you'd want to know for certain that that is where the problem lies.

 

Anyways, that's as much as I can suggest right now. Like I say, I no it isn't of much help, but something there might help. If you do find a confirmed problem and solution, please do post on here again for other users to see in the future.

Edited 11 July, 20205 yr by Declan O'Shaughnessy

hi Declan. 

thank you so much for your reply. really appreciate you taking time to respond. both key fobs don't go flat at the same time, but if you use the other key fob it goes flat after a week or two. in answer to your questions,

1.  the fobs work perfectly once i change the batteries until after a week or two they go flat again.

2. no other electrical issues at all.

3. the doors open fine when we use the switches on the driver/passenger doors.

my husband bought a vcds tool and it shows no faults at all. we only found out about the hidden door lock when we searched you tube for some answers. my husband will check the wiring on the door and see if he can see anything. if not we will invest in a new fob and see if that works for us. we love the car and plan on keeping it for a while, so maybe a new fob will work out as cheap as constantly buying the replacement batteries. as you can imagine it is frustrating to be paying out a few pound every week or two and getting nowhere with solving the problem. if we find a solution i will definitely post it on here to help others.