Hi guys,

I went to unlock my car with my girlfriend's key fob today and it didn't work. Naturally I assumed the batteries were dead, since mine had to be replaced recently.

I had her go get new batteries and I reprogrammed the fob - the correct way - the same way the owner's manual suggests, which also worked on my fob when I reprogrammed it (so I know the method is good).

The reprogramming failed over and over. Finally I tried my fob and it didn't work either. Just to be safe, I reprogrammed it as well. No luck.

The odd thing is: The central locking system is still working properly. If you lock/unlock from the inside, all doors lock/unlock as they should, If you lock/unlock from the trunk, everything works fine. same with the driver's door.

When I use either fob, I can hear a slight clicking under the dash, but nothing happens. I have no DTC codes either.

I think it's important to mention that I installed a new car battery this past week as well as drove through some pretty decent flood waters on my way home from the store a few days ago (typical Fl. surprise severe thunderstorm).

Even so: The fobs have been working fine after both events. The problem began today.

I've searched all over the internet and I can't find anything. Can someone help here please?

Thanks

 

Update: I noticed that water had recently run down underneath my passenger side floor mat (from somewhere under the dash), so I opened up the trunk and accessed the central locking system and the well was indeed filled with water. It wasn't high enough to breach the line where the 2 protective pieces of foam meet, but it was almost that high.

I vacuumed out all of the water and pulled out the central locking system and it seems fine. Like I said: As far as the entire locking system goes, everything is fine, except for the fobs inability to operate.

I found out that my 2001.5 has a no separate receiver for the fobs, it's all incorporated into the CLS itself.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Thanks

 

When I bought my car (off CL) my key fob didn't work. The central locking pump worked because when I pressed the button inside the driver door it unlocked all the doors. When I pressed the lock or unlock on the fob it just failed to register with the central locking unit. I ended up replacing the whole unit (not cheap, like $150 on ebay), programed the fob and everything worked fine.
What I'm saying is, just because the pump works, it doesn't necessarily mean the receiver on the unit is working as well.

Let me also say that after I replaced the whole unit and the fob was working it rained once or twice (in seattle... it does that from time to time) and it stopped working. I checked the well the unit sat in and it was full of water. I had taken precaution by wrapping the whole unit w/ foam in a plastic bag, but it was obviously humid and the unit was essentially soaked. LSS, it had to be replaced AGAIN.

I'm not telling you to go spend $150 on a new locking unit, but I will say that they will EASILY get ruined with water. And ruined in the fact that they will still lock and unlock doors, but the fob won't work.

Good luck!



(and fwiw, I realized there was a small plastic cap that could be poked out to stop the well from collecting water. It provides safety from water coming UP from underneath so if you were driving through deep water or have water often spraying up from your tires or underneath your car somehow, you may want to keep it in. The tube that drains from the sunroof into a pipe near there was also loose and draining water directly into that well... those poor locking units stood no chance.)

 

Thank you!

That was the perfect response. I needed to hear that, because I knew that's what's going on, but I couldn't leave it alone.

Hearing your story explains everything for me and confirms my suspicions.

Thanks again for your help! ...and FWIW: I used to live up there too, so I know the Pacific NW weather quite well

.

 

Though you may know this already, make sure to get the exact same model of Central Locking Pump. There's a ton of different models that all look identical. It should say somewhere on the side of your current, non-working one. Or else it'll be somewhere in the repair manual, or online of course.

 

Yeah, I have the part number.

Thanks for the reminder!