For the past year or so my fobs have been flaky, sometimes they would lock/unlock the car, sometimes they did nothing. I have replaced the batteries on them. Just today I think whatever remote sensor is on the car itself finally died. I press both fobs (with new batteries) and nothing at all happens. The central locking works just fine, and turning the key in the doorlock works perfectly. Fobs are programmed since they did work for years.

Is there some kind of receiving unit I should be looking at? Thanks it's for a 1997 A8.

You need a VAG COM to check for codes, without that, your just shooting in the breeze.