Everything has been working fine since I reprogrammed my CLS after replacing the batteries in both fobs. Then, today both fobs lost almost all range (5 feet if I'm lucky). It's obviously not the fobs.

I checked the CLS and (as usual) there was water in the well (I check periodically). I popped out the grommet and drained everything. Unplugged the CLS and re-installed it. Also checked for and CEL codes. No help.

Does anyone know what's going on here?

Also: Does anyone know about the facelift range boost mod?

Thanks!

 

My 99 has a range that can be 10 feet or can be 3 feet. It varies. I've changed the batteries and the central locking unit a couple of times.

No I don't know why it is, but I'm just saying you aren't alone.

 

After a full day of research, trials and dead ends (trying to follow other people's old DIY posts), I am pretty sure I found the fix.

I began it last night, but as soon as i rolled under the car, I started getting drenched in a typical Florida "surprise" thunderstorm, but I've confirmed the fact that there is a wire there.

Check this out, this guy does a great job on explaining the DIY:

.

 

Same here. Mine has seem to have gotten shorter but I don't see the benefit on having it reach far distances anyways. Probably a security feature.

 

I tried that wire thing but it ended up only extending the range by a metre or two. From the back I get probably 15-ish metres, but from the front I could be touching the hood and still have to click the remote twice for it to respond. It's ridiculous.

 

I increased the antenna length quite a bit and (to my surprise) it didn't help at all.

I have a new - to me - CLS sitting in front of me right now.

I'll post up once I have a chance to install and program it tonight.

.

 

What we need is an electrical engineer here to chime in and calculate the ideal size antenna for this frequency. I tried once but didn't get much further than wikipedia before I couldn't understand anything I was reading. Just adding wire is a crapshoot, you might get lucky and end up with the perfect length fully by chance, but most likely it will barely help.

 

It should work for everyone the same. It's just copper wire. Nothing more. It picks up RF signal the same way your radio does. Have you ever attached a wire coat hanger to your garage radio antenna? Same thing.

I think the problem is that the RF receivers on our boards are slowly going bad.

I got my new CLS yesterday, but of course, it has a bad ******* pump - and the seller wants me to pay for return shipping, when they sold me a broken part in the first place.

SMH!

 

I wish it were easy to remove only the pumps on those things. I have 2 spare sitting in my "car parts box" (I don't have a garage). I kept getting water in the well so it would destroy the electrical stuff but the pumps were always fine.

 

Read up a bit on antennas, it's not as simple as just connecting a longer length of anything contuctive. Different frequencies and antenna designs require different lengths/configurations of wire. Like I said before, you might get lucky and end up with the ideal wire length purely by chance, but it's much more likely you won't and then you'll wonder why it worked so well for someone else but not at all for you.

Where is the RF circuitry located anyway? Is it inside the CLP?