apeirologue
New member
- Location
- Arizona
- Car(s)
- 2007 GTI
Recently I had my own problem of this sort where after my battery died (left the car at home for 2wks while traveling and forgot to unplug my OBDEleven) and upon recharging the thing my key fob was extremely spotty. Sometimes the light would come on and sometimes it wouldn't, having to hold it up to my chin, lock worked but the others didn't, etc.
After doing some digging online I found a few forum posts related to a similar issue. All of them recommended either replacing the battery and trying again, testing the spare to see if it's that specific key, taking it to a VW dealer for reprogramming/replacement, or trying to re-synchronize it to the car.
https://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=109188.0
https://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=43747.0
https://www.golfmkv.com/forums/index.php?threads/key-fob-not-working.4020/
to name a few.
I tried all of these aside from the dealership option, and to no avail, the issue was still going on.
What I finally decided to do was take the key apart and look at the PCB itself to see if I could see any issues with the buttons or anything else. Sure enough there was corrosion on the solder points of the unlock button and around a few other places.
The materials you'll need for this fix are as follows:
A cotton swab/Q-tip
Isopropyl alcohol (I recommend 91% for electronics, 50 will do but let it dry for a bit before putting it back on the battery)
Just get one end of the qtip wet with the alcohol and scrub down both sides of the PCB, making sure to get all of the corroded spots, let it dry for a few minutes and then reassemble the key.
After doing this my key now works good as new and I have no problems with any of the buttons. Hope this helps someone out there so they don't have to go to the dealer and buy a whole new key. Cheers!
After doing some digging online I found a few forum posts related to a similar issue. All of them recommended either replacing the battery and trying again, testing the spare to see if it's that specific key, taking it to a VW dealer for reprogramming/replacement, or trying to re-synchronize it to the car.
https://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=109188.0
https://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=43747.0
https://www.golfmkv.com/forums/index.php?threads/key-fob-not-working.4020/
to name a few.
I tried all of these aside from the dealership option, and to no avail, the issue was still going on.
What I finally decided to do was take the key apart and look at the PCB itself to see if I could see any issues with the buttons or anything else. Sure enough there was corrosion on the solder points of the unlock button and around a few other places.
The materials you'll need for this fix are as follows:
A cotton swab/Q-tip
Isopropyl alcohol (I recommend 91% for electronics, 50 will do but let it dry for a bit before putting it back on the battery)
Just get one end of the qtip wet with the alcohol and scrub down both sides of the PCB, making sure to get all of the corroded spots, let it dry for a few minutes and then reassemble the key.
After doing this my key now works good as new and I have no problems with any of the buttons. Hope this helps someone out there so they don't have to go to the dealer and buy a whole new key. Cheers!