Key fob battery issue - warning

[kabre]

I've just had a strange / annoying issue with the key fob battery - bit of a warning to everyone else with it as it very nearly left me stranded!

Just had to pop out in the car - fortunately only local journey!  I have the setting turned on to auto unlock the car on approach - but when I walked up to the car it didn't unlock.  Not the first time that has happened - so I pressed the button on the fob, unlocked the car, and drove off.

5 mins later, getting back to the car to drive home the car didn't unlock again.  Again, pressed the button again, car unlocked.  However, this time, on trying to drive off the car would not go into drive via the gear selector.  Then a message popped up on the display to say it couldn't detect the digital key!  Sat in the car, I pressed the button to lock, then unlock it again, tried again, and again, and again, but still car kept telling me it didn't recognise the digital key and to try moving it around and trying to select a gear again after 5 seconds.  Eventually, after getting out of car, locking, unlocking for about the 5th time, it decided to recognise the key fob and I was able to drive home.

When I collected the car back in December, I remember the dealer mentioned that it might not be a bad idea to replace the battery straight away because they don't last long.  So I figured this might again be an issue with the fob battery, so I've just swapped the battery again (CR2032 - fortunately have spares) and that fixed it.  Old battery reads 2.3V, now one 3.3V, I tried swapping back to old battery, and again car would not detect the fob to unlock on walking up to it - but the fob button still working to unlock.  However, very strange that the key fob battery can drain to a state to have enough power to unlock the doors, but not enough to be recognised to allow you to drive it!

Considering the last new battery only lasted a few months, and the fact that this happening can seemingly leave you stranded, I am now going to carry a spare CR2032 and a SIM card tool in the car!

 

[bancho]

If not allowed feel free to delete..

This is a common issue, one of the reasons I developed this giftbox design for my keyfob covers, which includes a sim ejector tool and 2 slots for batteries:

https://banc-tech.myshopify.com/products/leather-keycover-compatible-with-lotus-eletre-and-emeya-pebble-key