I grew up in a house where my parents encouraged me to learn how to do things for myself. When I moved out on my own, I was so appreciative that I had some basic handy skills (and a tool box from my dad), which has served me well over the years. I would absolutely get outside help if I thought I needed it, but when I can do something myself, I always try that first (or call my parents for advice).
I recently had the key remote for my car die and instead of taking it into a dealership, I researched how to fix it myself. My car is older, so it was an easy switch, but when in doubt you can take it to a dealership and they will usually do it for just the cost of the battery.
When I switched out that battery myself and heard my car door lock on it’s own for the first time in weeks, I had a huge sense of accomplishment. I did it!
The first thing I did was pop open the remote to see what kind of battery I needed. For most remotes, you’ll need to remove it from the key ring to do this, but mine is already broken off on one side so I didn’t need to. Using a flathead screw driver, you can wedge it between the seam of the remote and pop it open.
I took my battery with me into the store just to make sure I got the right one – a flat CR/DL 2032 that looks about the size of a nickel.
It was as simple as popping out the old battery and pushing the new one into the remote, making sure to put the + or – side where it is indicated on the remote casing. Snap the casing back in place and then attach it back to the key ring.
Take your remote out to the car and give it a test run. Mine was working just like new again!
I had the battery die in two remotes to the same car years ago. The dealership was going to charge us $50 per remote because they claim they’d have to rekey the remote. So, we opted to not get them done and just go manual (using the key itself to unlock doors).
Thanks for such a helpful blog, it was need for me. Without battery a remote has no value. A battery is the life of a remote key. A battery has certain period of life span, after this period a battery stop to work. In such situation we need to replace this with a new one. If we don’t know how to replace a batter in a remote key, the key is dead. Now we can it. All remote used have to read this. Keep your car remote always active through these step.