dead fob ?? - Page 2 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

heeeellp, the boxster has been sat in the garage for a few weeks, and this afternoon i've some time to go for a little drive. Try to open the door with the key fob and ... nothing. the door's won't unlock. The fob has a newish battery and the led flashes when pressed but no activity. Unlock the car manually using the key and the windows don't drop, try to start the key and the alarm goes off. Tried both fobs and nothing. the manual is in the boot so can't get to it. and a quick search of the net seems to imply this is normal behavior but unlocking manually should sort it ??? It's a Y plate Boxster so nice and early ?

Does the main car battery have any charge? Could be flat?

hmm well i thought that, but the alarm is sounding, when i try to start the car nothing lights up at all but no clicking as if it's immobilised ?

Place the key in the door barrel then press the unlock button on the key. Turn the barrel to unlock. It should not alarm that way. If it does, get in, place the key in the ignition and turn to position one. Press the unlock button on the key again if it continues to alarm. It sounds as if you have a flat battery on the car. Plug in a charger/maintainer such as the CTEK unit and wait until the light goes green.

paul_y3k said: hmm well i thought that, but the alarm is sounding, when i try to start the car nothing lights up at all but no clicking as if it's immobilised ? Doesn't the alarm siren have it's own battery?

CTEK IS the ever ready answer.Always waiting for you to decide,When to go for a drive.

unclepezza said: Doesn't the alarm siren have it's own battery? No, it has its own battery.

No solution but I have exactly the same issue (same year of car) and my car is kept in a garage on trickle charge, no flat battery so that may be a red herring. I have changed the key battery, pressed buttons in sequences, stood on one leg facing west etc etc, still no cure. I will get it fixed by my local guys when it goes in next, its not a huge issue as I can open the door with the key and shut the alarm off by starting the car (if it goes off). One lead may be that my fuel filler cap solenoid was stuck, I have cleaned and freed this off so it now works perfectly but it may have put the central locking into a weird state that has to be reset by the correct computer. My basic code reader doesn't show anything. Again this may be a red herring. Please post if you solve it, best of luck

I've a 2001 S, which I barely used since buying last november. It's keys and lack of proper working seem similar to these issues. New batteries and refurbed fobs and yet the car will not sync properly with either key despite trying every method from the manual or found online. The car starts and works fine so the tranponders are correct and match, but the plippers just don't... plip! Well, I say that, sometime it seems to be able to randomly open either the boot or bonnet , but very rarely the doors! I've given up worrying about it now as it's only a weekend car. More irritatingly I recently bought my son his first car, a Corsa. It's keys seem to have gone the same way. They just don't make plippers like they used to!

I have two boxsters 2000 and 2001 986s,, both have EXACTLY the same problem with the key fobs and there are two fobs for each car. I use the cars every day and have finally solved the issue! The PCB, overtime, moves down inside the body of the key fob, you will notice wear or small splits in the rubber key buttons. Take the fob apart and place a piece of card, about the thickness of a beer mat (I know this because I used a beer mat!) under the battery itself. Make sure you roughly shape the card to fit in the space underneath the battery, in the bottom of the fob itself. Did mine a week ago and trust me could not open the door at all with the fob and now.......well happy days. Try it, takes 1 minute and costs nothing, just spent a year with this problem and now completely solved!

Tried the bit of cardboard in the key fob as described above ^^^. Worked a fecking treat! Thanks for the top tip, very much appreciated. Working plipper!

Porsche made in Stuttgart, key fob modified by Blue Peter! Glad to have been of assistance. If your suspension ever starts creaking, which they all do eventually, I'll tell you how to save a grand with my special fix!!

No creaking suspension yet. A stiff gear change, which I may have a look at greasing this weekend. And an engine which so far has managed to cough out a truly spectacular smoke screen a few times. But the jury is out on that one, I've replaced the AOS with no effect and no one seems to be able to offer any rational for the smoke explosion other than maybe the oil has been a bit overfilled. Will have to use the car a bit more often to suss out a pattern. And with a working plipper I feel re-enthused! Thanks.

Yep an overfill of just a couple of hundred milli litres will cause the smoke. I serviced mine last month and took it to the top of the dip stick. Ran it up to 6k a few days later and it properly smoked! Wasn't enough over the limit to warrant dropping some oil, drove it 3-4k max for a week and no problems since, even at 6k. Also check the connectors on the AOS, if not fitted properly can cause an air leak.

Do you guys have a picture of this repair please? Worth a try

Ro55a, good sir, I am blessed with the aforementioned squeaking suspension so your words of wisdom will fall on fertile soil if you would care to share Kind regards

ro55a said: Yep an overfill of just a couple of hundred milli litres will cause the smoke. I serviced mine last month and took it to the top of the dip stick. Ran it up to 6k a few days later and it properly smoked! Wasn't enough over the limit to warrant dropping some oil, drove it 3-4k max for a week and no problems since, even at 6k. Also check the connectors on the AOS, if not fitted properly can cause an air leak. I can back this up. My Boxster S used to produce a small cloud of oil smoke on start up but since it's service last week, it doesn't. My drive has a gentle slop, about 5 degrees, but the automatic oil check before start up if facing uphill indicates the oil is only half full. On the flat, it indicates it full. It would be easy for the previous owner to have put too much in. Dipstick is actually more accurate but many people never check theirs! Back to the OP. I too have an apparently dead fob / key. One works fine, the other has a good battery and flashes the light when you press the buttons but nothing. It has the chip in it and will start the car, but it looks like a Porsche visit if I want 2 working remote keys. No procedure of key in / out, start with alarm going or holding down of buttons has worked. Edited by ianwayne on Wednesday 2nd April 09:57

Just tried the cardboard under the battery repair, didn't work for me unfortunately. Thanks anyway

ianwayne said: I can back this up. My Boxster S used to produce a small cloud of oil smoke on start up but since it's service last week, it doesn't. My drive has a gentle slop, about 5 degrees, but the automatic oil check before start up if facing uphill indicates the oil is only half full. On the flat, it indicates it full. It would be easy for the previous owner to have put too much in. Dipstick is actually more accurate but many people never check theirs! Back to the OP. I too have an apparently dead fob / key. One works fine, the other has a good battery and flashes the light when you press the buttons but nothing. It has the chip in it and will start the car, but it looks like a Porsche visit if I want 2 working remote keys. No procedure of key in / out, start with alarm going or holding down of buttons has worked. Edited by ianwayne on Wednesday 2nd April 09:57 Yep mine appeared to be working fine, flashing lights and all. But it just wouldn't open the doors, and if I held the button down long enough, several seconds, the boot or bonnet would click open rather than the doors. I suspect a bad contact between battery and PCB prongs meant it wasn't able to generate a cohesive signal for the car receiver. The cardboard trick must press the battery against the prongs more firmly giving a better contact and a sensible signal can be produced. Even if it doesn't work for everyone.

ianwayne said: I can back this up. My Boxster S used to produce a small cloud of oil smoke on start up but since it's service last week, it doesn't. My drive has a gentle slop, about 5 degrees, but the automatic oil check before start up if facing uphill indicates the oil is only half full. On the flat, it indicates it full. It would be easy for the previous owner to have put too much in. Dipstick is actually more accurate but many people never check theirs! Edited by ianwayne on Wednesday 2nd April 09:57 Oh, and the small bit of smoke on start up is quite normal apparently due to the boxster engine configuration; the AOS will give decent blue puffs of smoke particularly at start up for a few minutes possibly a bit more if the diaphragm has popped. But what I had was an instant, humongous smokescreen that would have made James Bond escaping from the baddies proud. And I mean a smokescreen big enough to totally obscure a dual carriageway in about 2 seconds flat with smoke so dense everyone behind had to slow down as they approached this wall of white impenetrable smoke. Never seen the like!

medieval said: Ro55a, good sir, I am blessed with the aforementioned squeaking suspension so your words of wisdom will fall on fertile soil if you would care to share Kind regards No problem. So it's basically your drop links, on all four corners. Now each link has a small rubber boot/casing and inside a bushing, one would assume nylon. These bushing would have been greased before the outer boot/casing was fitted. Overtime the grease degrades/dries out and you end up with a rather annoying and sometimes embarrassing squeeking. Mine was so loud you could hear the car coming from the squeeking before you heard the engine. No play, just noise. So on eBay I bought a pack of hyperdermic needles with the syringes, about three in total, posted for a couple of pounds. I bought a small tin of three in one oil. Filled a syringe and applied the needle to the rubber boot of each drop link. I injected a syringe full of oil at the highest point on each boot, twelve o'clock basically, so as not to let gravity drain the oil. I did this about a year ago now, took 20 mins of driving for the oil to find the gaps and lubricate and since then nothing......not a single squeek. I costed the whole job of replacing the drop links in both £ and time for me to do and decided I had nothing to lose. I am lucky enough to own two 986s, so when the other one starts squeeking the needle is coming back out again. If you do try it, tell us how you get on. Cheers

noone986s said: Just tried the cardboard under the battery repair, didn't work for me unfortunately. Thanks anyway No problem. Just to check though, the card needs to be thick enough that its just possible to push the key body back together again. The best way to see if its going to work is to pop the pcb out of the key and put it between your forefinger and thumb and push the button whilst exerting pressure on the battery, essentially squeezing it together. If that works then there's a chance that a thicker card may help.

Piersman2 said: But what I had was an instant, humongous smokescreen that would have made James Bond escaping from the baddies proud. And I mean a smokescreen big enough to totally obscure a dual carriageway in about 2 seconds flat with smoke so dense everyone behind had to slow down as they approached this wall of white impenetrable smoke. Never seen the like! Yep exactly the same with mine, A21 from Sevenoaks, quite dangerous, lucky no one was following as it fogged the whole dual carriageway. But as stated it burnt off and not seen a whisp again, apart from the early morning smoke out on start up!!

ro55a said: Piersman2 said: But what I had was an instant, humongous smokescreen that would have made James Bond escaping from the baddies proud. And I mean a smokescreen big enough to totally obscure a dual carriageway in about 2 seconds flat with smoke so dense everyone behind had to slow down as they approached this wall of white impenetrable smoke. Never seen the like! Yep exactly the same with mine, A21 from Sevenoaks, quite dangerous, lucky no one was following as it fogged the whole dual carriageway. But as stated it burnt off and not seen a whisp again, apart from the early morning smoke out on start up!! Yep, mine's done it twice, both times when hitting about 6K revs. But the last time I used the car and hit 6K it was fine, so fingers crossed!

Ro55a - you are a gentleman sir and that is now on the weekends to do list Kind regards