13 captured repliesDiscussion pagination complete · Source accounts, not a confirmed diagnosis
THIS DISCUSSION / SOURCE-DERIVED OVERVIEW
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YOUR RESEARCHKey fab stopped working..
Reported or suspected cause
me (and it's a whole lot easier
Suggestion or failed attempt
No successful repair reported for this finding.
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1
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0
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Read evidence and context
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Suspected cause
Sometimes the solder joints on the PCB inside the key head can crack and cause issues - but the battery would be the prime suspect for me (and it's a whole lot easier for me to buy and install a new battery than make and keep an appointment with the dealership...).
Leading evidence: 'me (and it's a whole lot easier' (no explicit attributable resolution; this is a reported action or suggestion). Across 1 matching discussions, the most frequently mentioned possible cause is 'me (and it's a whole lot easier' (1 discussions; 0 report identifying it and 1 suggest it). The most frequently discussed action is 'Replace battery' (1 discussions). For that action, 0 discussions report a resolution and 0 report an unsuccessful attempt. No action has an explicit, attributable resolution report under the current rules. These are forum reports and suggestions, not a confirmed diagnosis.
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Explicit resolution reports before identified causes, performed actions and suggestions. Within each level, matching component labels precede direct query mentions and inherited thread context; successful versus unsuccessful discussion counts, owner confirmations and independent discussion support determine order. This is not a probability of success.
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me (and it's a whole lot easier
No successful repair reported for this finding.
0
Identified cause
1
Suspected cause
0
Reported fixes
Read evidence and context
Discussions that suspect a cause
1
0 original-poster resolution reports. Counts can overlap; they are not unique people or a success rate.
0 discussions have direct query context; 0 report a fix in that context. Other evidence may inherit the discussion’s subject.
Suspected cause
Sometimes the solder joints on the PCB inside the key head can crack and cause issues - but the battery would be the prime suspect for me (and it's a whole lot easier for me to buy and install a new battery than make and keep an appointment with the dealership...).
Counts describe captured discussions, not unique people or a diagnosis. Author identities are not reliably stored. Exact duplicate evidence is counted once across matching discussions; one discussion counts at most once per action/state. Multiple repairs reported together remain a combination. Suggestions and failed attempts do not establish a fix. Matches cover whole discussions and can include related faults, model variants and incomplete threads.
13 eligible posts · 0 unverified posts · 1 discussions match the subject in their title or opening post.
Rennlist: 1 discussions
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4 acknowledgements have no verified action link; they do not establish a repair result.
I bought a new fab back in January from Porsche of Austin. It was scanned and worked perfectly fine locking and unlocking my 996 until a couple days ago. The key still has a two year warranty but I was checking to see if there's something simple that I can do to get it working or do I just need to take it back to Porsche for them to rescan it. Battery is perfectly fine and my key blinks just like it should.
The simple fix for a fob that's not working is a new battery - you can get one at Radio Shack, Best Buy, or similar. Have you tried a new one? (You mentioned that it's perfectly fine - did you already try this)?
Do you have a second fob you can use to verify that the alarm is working properly?
It doesn't take much power to make an LED blink (only 15-20 milliamps) - but the radio signal strength will degrade significantly if the battery is nearly flat.
There shouldn't be any situation where the car will "forget" the paired remotes. Sometimes the solder joints on the PCB inside the key head can crack and cause issues - but the battery would be the prime suspect for me (and it's a whole lot easier for me to buy and install a new battery than make and keep an appointment with the dealership...).
I have heard for a key that doesn't work but the LED blinks/flashes to insert the key into the door lock and turn the key twice to unlock (?) or lock (?) the doors.
I tried this a while back with my 996 Turbo and it "worked".
However I have no way of knowing if it was the turning the key or if the key would have worked the next time I tried without the turning trick. That is to say once in a while with no real warning a key that was working fine when I push the button either doesn't unlock the doors or doesn't lock them.
I try again making sure the LED flashes/blinks and sometimes it works, sometimes not. Usually I'm too impatient to try a 3rd time so I just insert the key and unlock the door and go. Then when I park the car and go to lock the key works fine.
In the case of if the doors don't lock I try again moving closer to the car or moving to a different location sometimes holding the key up and over the car to I guess ensure the RF signal is more direct.
Had the same thing happen to the key fob (with brand new battery) for my '02 recently. Red light flashed but the door locks did nothing. I inserted the key into the key hole, turned it clockwise to "lock" and pushed the remote button. Restored function. Weird, but it works.
When on vacation last week, I locked and armed my 996 while I was away. When we returned a week later, I tried to unlock/disarm the car via the keyfob, but the keyfob would just blink and have NO affect on the car. I then put the laser cut key in the door's keyhole and unlock it ol' fashioned style, and of course, the car started blinking and I knew I had about 20 seconds or so to put the key in the ignition and start the car. Once I put the key in the ignition and start it up, all was reset and the keyfob started working again properly.
Putting the key in the door and unlocking the car then re-locking it reactivates the alarm system receiver after it goes to sleep. It goes to sleep if you do not use the remote for more than 5 days (roughly) or certain other conditions like more than 256 failed transmissions receipts (could happen in a very busy mall parking lot at Christmas time). The alarm receiver shuts off to conserve battery in the first instance and shuts off to avoid tampering in the second (like a bad-guy remote scanner randomly trying codes.
It is very possible to have the little light blink and still have a remote key battery without enough juice to transmit a strong enough signal for the receiver to recognize it.
Just ran into the no red led confirmation of a button push. I tried a new battery and same result, still didn't work. I remember hearing about the safety coatings on the batteries so kids don't swallow them and I scratched up the new battery and viola, it worked!. Just in case anyone else runs into this
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