Problem With Remote Entry Key Fob?

[DESIREE]

Have you ever seen either of the above on your EVIC?

I have, twice. First about two years ago when what looked like the battery in my key was on its way out. I popped the key case apart to get the battery number and found that the battery holding clip had pulled out of its solder joints. I re-soldered the joints, and re-installed the original battery which is still working.

Recently I grabbed my wife’s key ring, with the second key for the “C”, to run an errand. This key has NEVER been used to unlock the car remotely. My wife has never driven our 2005 300C. First the key remote wouldn’t unlock the car, so I unlocked it the old-fashioned way by sticking the key in the lock and twisting. That unlocked the door, but also set off the alarm! Starting the engine stopped the alarm. But then the EVIC showed the RKE battery warning.

Subsequently I popped open her key’s case and, you guessed it, the battery holding clip had pulled out of its solder joints! This condition may have existed for nearly three years because we never used the key before.

This time around I decided to snap some pictures before and after repairing the dumb thing. After removing the little screw and popping the case open, the battery literally fell out. The battery holding clip had pulled off of two of its three solder joints. The third joint didn’t look too good either as it had been pulled too, but didn’t pop after the other two joints pulled and released the pull on the third.


As can be seen in the following pictures the battery holder clip is “C” shaped. There are two “into the board”-type connections (one each at the top and bottom of the “C”) and a surface-mounted tab at the left side of the “C”.


From the looks of it, all of the solder joints were “cold” joints, that is insufficient heat was used to allow the solder to properly bond to the metal of the clip. The spring pressure of that centrally located (battery positive +) tab exerts quite a bit of force as can be experienced when inserting the battery back into the clip after doing the repair.

The repair takes a bit of soldering expertise not to apply too much heat, and care not to dab solder all over everything.


First squeeze the “C” between thumb and index finger to reduce its size to
enable insertion of the little tab at the top of the “C” back into the hole in the board. Then apply a dab of solder to the tab at the left side of the “C” to establish a mechanical bond.


Then flip the board over and carefully apply a small amount of solder at the
points where the little tabs at the top and bottom of the “C” project into the
board. Use care to not use more solder than necessary.

Hopefully anyone who had such a failure didn’t have to pay a stealership for a replacement key because this type of failure simply should not occur!

[MikeHTally]

Excellent pictures and a great how-to. You're correct about soldering technique. Too much heat is not good. Too little is equally bad.

[Marilee]

Thank you much for these pictures. I've been having the same proublem! Now my husband understands how to fix it.

[moddog]

I had mine replaced under warranty

[dunsantos]

I had this same problem over the weekend. So I take out my soldering iron and go to town. After I was done I went outside and tried it out. No deal, still won't open my doors. Oh well...

So later that day I get in the car and try to start it up. The engine starts then immediately shuts off. I try it again and the alarm starts going off. I couldn't turn the damn alarm off so I went and grabbed my spare key and it turns right off.

So apparently, there's some unpowered circuitry that is necessary to even start the car or shut the alarm off and I burned it right the f**k off the board. Nice huh?

Just wanted to share this with you. I later soldered my spare key _carefully_ and had no problems. It's tiny so you gotta take your time. This is a great thread though and I was happy to find it when my key went bad, thanks DESIREE.

[joey]

I tried to fix mine with solder, but the solder didn't hold after I dropped my keys a couple more times. When I mentioned it to my dealer they replaced the key free under warranty.

[seabear70]

I just had this bite me big time...

Ok, I'm in Iowa, and in the middle of a snow storm.

I had both sets of keys handy today, so when one failed, I pulled out the other, which promptly failed.

My car was parked in the loading zone of a k12 school that was supposed to be getting out early due to the weather, and they were not happy to find out that I could not even get into my car let alone move it.

I suppose I should give some further info, you see after having the key punched in, twice, both times destroying the handle, I decided I didn't want to buy another set of Dub edition handles and another key cylinder, and get the cylinder rekeyed, so I put on one of the many spare handles I had, it works perfectly, or would if Chrysler would back up their products.

Ok, so I manage to borrow a car from the school and drive to the nearest Chrysler dealership, they told me it would be $400 to tow the car, then $200 to open it, then $135 for a new key, and then another $200 to program it because I didn't have a working key. Apparently the fact that this is a known problem caused by their failure to check for defects on the manufacturing line counts for nothing except them saying they feel my pain.

I don't think so.

Ok, so I call the customer service number, option 5 is the only one that actually connects you with a human being, I don't care what your problem is, choose option 5, or don't, you'll get the same results. First I have to listen to a woman literally tell me that she feels my pain, BS!!! Then listen to her tell me that I'm SOL, and that their extended warranty doesn't cover this problem or any other problem that they do not feel like covering.

Naturally i asked to talk to her Boss, After being on hold for several minutes, I was told by Mr. Scott Tippen that the final decision was that no, they would not help me, they didn't give a damn if I froze to death, and that I had not recourse, and that he would not provide me with any contact information for anyone else that might be able to countermand him.

I did happen to luck out because there was a tv repairman in town that was willing to give the repair a try, he did great work, and actually verified that every single solder on the battery clip was bad, a cold solder, it was amazing that the connections, which are under tension, lasted as long as they did.

Ok, who knows the contact information for someone with some authority at Chrysler?


I am PO'd like you wouldn't believe, I'm actually considering a lexus.

[joey]

Originally Posted by seabear70

I just had this bite me big time...

Ok, I'm in Iowa, and in the middle of a snow storm.

I had both sets of keys handy today, so when one failed, I pulled out the other, which promptly failed.

My car was parked in the loading zone of a k12 school that was supposed to be getting out early due to the weather, and they were not happy to find out that I could not even get into my car let alone move it.

I suppose I should give some further info, you see after having the key punched in, twice, both times destroying the handle, I decided I didn't want to buy another set of Dub edition handles and another key cylinder, and get the cylinder rekeyed, so I put on one of the many spare handles I had, it works perfectly, or would if Chrysler would back up their products.

Ok, so I manage to borrow a car from the school and drive to the nearest Chrysler dealership, they told me it would be $400 to tow the car, then $200 to open it, then $135 for a new key, and then another $200 to program it because I didn't have a working key. Apparently the fact that this is a known problem caused by their failure to check for defects on the manufacturing line counts for nothing except them saying they feel my pain.

I don't think so.

Ok, so I call the customer service number, option 5 is the only one that actually connects you with a human being, I don't care what your problem is, choose option 5, or don't, you'll get the same results. First I have to listen to a woman literally tell me that she feels my pain, BS!!! Then listen to her tell me that I'm SOL, and that their extended warranty doesn't cover this problem or any other problem that they do not feel like covering.

Naturally i asked to talk to her Boss, After being on hold for several minutes, I was told by Mr. Scott Tippen that the final decision was that no, they would not help me, they didn't give a damn if I froze to death, and that I had not recourse, and that he would not provide me with any contact information for anyone else that might be able to countermand him.

I did happen to luck out because there was a tv repairman in town that was willing to give the repair a try, he did great work, and actually verified that every single solder on the battery clip was bad, a cold solder, it was amazing that the connections, which are under tension, lasted as long as they did.

Ok, who knows the contact information for someone with some authority at Chrysler?


I am PO'd like you wouldn't believe, I'm actually considering a lexus.

If I understand correctly, you have different handles on the car.
And as a result, you couldn't use the key to manually open the door.
I don't see how that is Chrysler's fault.
If you had the stock door handles you could have used the key to manually open the door and start the car.