FiberglassFan

Both my original fobs have now failed. They 'rattle' quietly when you shake them. If split apart to get a view of the inside, there is a small metal cylinder with a rounded end, wire on each end...seems to be what is making the rattle sound. The part looks like it might be a crystal for setting the frequency the fob runs at, but I have never seen a crystal just like this one....Any of the EE types our here ever run into this failure and been able to fix it? I would sure like to buy just the bad part for a few bucks and solder it in place, rather than buy a set of new overpriced fobs.

Yes, the obvious...batteries are fine. Failure to function started exactly when they started to rattle.

fendermender

I just had a set repaired for an 05 Grand Prix. One had a broken battery clip and the other would only open the trunk. Got them back and they work perfect. He even replaced the worn touch pads and installed new batteries. $15.98 each free shipping back. On ebay as Stu's Remotes. I have his info in the garage and will post as soon as I get out there.

Still having coffee but here's a link to the ebay listing. It's for Grand Prix Saturn ect but he claims he fixes em all.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Repair-Fix-B...sories&vxp=mtr

65GGvert

You should put the year of your car in your question for better answers. Your car uses the older fob with motion detector for passive unlock. The device you describe is supposed to rattle, it's what activates the passive mode. You also can't buy them on ebay or anywhere else for 15.98 as above. Those are the newer fobs for 01-04. You can try soldering the connections on the board inside the fob. If that doesn't work, and you've already tried relearning them via the DIC as described in the owner's manual, you'll have to replace them. The best price I've seen is gmpartshouse.com. The 97-99 with passive sells for about $80. You can buy and use the 2000 fob for about 10 bucks less, but they won't have the passive feature.

Ninety-Nine FRC

If your fobs are hosed it is a great time to do the upgrade to 01-04 fobs and tpms.

fendermender

If you re-read my post, you will see that I didn't say you could buy them for 15.98. That price is for a repair. I would contact the dude and ask if he can fix the passive ones.

Bill Curlee

Have you tried to RE LEARN your FOBs??


The procedure is in the owners manual.. Give that a shot first.

BC

Vicarious.

I noticed my 98's do this as well.

I've got the constant rattling...and all I have to do is barely touch the remote and it repeatedly unlocks / locks my vette over and over and over again........

So annoying. Passive is both set to OFF...on the remotes and the IPC. Both fobs do this for some odd reason. I've taken them both apart and couldn't find any noticeable circuit board damage or anything wrong with the keypad.

LoneStarFRC

If you've already taken the pc board out and cleaned it and the slide switch with alcohol to no avail, if you want to, you can snip a lead on either end of the round, silver colored, motion switch to permanently disable that function. Push the wire to one side a little to prevent future contact.

FiberglassFan

I know your heart was in the right place suggesting the relearn procedure, but alas, that was the first thing I did...I have had to do it from time to time because for some reason every so often it would just plain need to be done... So I did the whole procedure several times....unfortunately still no go..

I exchanged a few emails with a guy on eBay that does fob repair. He said that sometimes they can have the rattle and still work fine, as was noted by one of the posters above ...He states that sometimes the failure is in the joint between the PC board and the battery holding metal parts. Either the solder fails [ just like in the surface mount parts in the dual climate controls, turns to grey rough ukky mess] or the PC board develops a microcrack in the metal layer. My first attempt will be to follow his advice and look closely at them under magnification, and then reflow the solder joints. This could be an ussue for a lot of people but we have SMD rework tools as part of ourt busienss, so for me its a no-brainer, just a huge nusance.

Before the second one failed, it was acting like one of them mentioned above...repeating the lock-unlock once or twice at each buttton press, or if ever so slighty bumped...ARRGGGG!!!!:smash : Then it just died

Sadly the fob guy said he had no boards for our fobs left....I dont need the 'approach' function, so we may try sending one to him to see if he can get it going if I can't find an obvious solder fault on the battery....and then he will try to substitute a board with out the "approach" feature.

Jennifer

Blown 346

Mine did the same thing. I soldered the metal tab back since the contact was lost at this point. Fixed the problem.

Vicarious.

Can anyone else verify clipping the leads on the 1998 fob? I want to be 100% sure it won't permanently destroy my fob...

dgrant3830

The fobs appear to have a lifetime for whatever unknown reason. They will fail eventually and just replacing the battery doesn't fix them. Some were lucky to resolder a lose connection of one component but others like me, nothing is wrong with them that's visible. The early ones with the passive mode, have a small spring like thing that rattles and is normal. There's a tiny hole in the rear of the circuit board where you can see the rattling device. Its for the passive mode only.

The probably best and easiest thing to do is to upgrade the older systems with the newer one which a whole set of everything needed is available from Gene Culley for a decent price at www.gmpartshouse.com

absolutscharf

Took my 2000 remote apart recently to clean the contacts (preventative maintenance, everything was still working). Noticed a blank spot where the "rattle can" sits on the 98-99 models, and also traces and contacts for the (I guess) passive enable switch but no switch. So it seems to me that the 2000 remotes were just 98-99 remotes without those components, and therefore should work with them removed.
Depending on how handy you are with a soldering iron, you can either unsolder one leg of the rattle can and see if that helps, or snip one leg - in both cases, it's pretty easy to connect it back up. But the way I understand how this feature works, I think it's unlikely that a failure would simply disable the whole remote.
I would clean the contacts on the rear side of the board with alcohol, clean the connections to the battery, make sure the spring contacts between the battery holder and the board make good contact, and if all that doesn't help try and resolder all the solder joints on the board. With the exception of switches, contacts, the rattle can and solder joints, there's very little on there that should just die on its own...

robert21122

the thing inside is the little bead is for the passive, or at least mine was. i did have to relearn it.

c7pilot

First my FOB kept needing to be reprogrammed, then it stopped working altogether. Have reflowed circuit boards with cracked solder in the oven with past success, I popped the board in the oven at 500 degrees for 1 minute, and its working great now!

Too bad lost my plastic passive switch somehow when I had it apart... errr. Anyone know where I can get a new case with passive button?

FiberglassFan

I reflowed the board.parts carefully on all the fobs...and that only worked on on of them for a while..and then it failed again for the umpteenth time, never to function again. I have gotten used to fobless use of the Corvette for a fw years now...Just like every other vehicle I own....I gave up on replacing the tire pressire sensors too... Next step will be to outright remove the radio receiver that listens to the fobs and tires...it has no useful function remaining for me, and is just a source of battery drain when the car is sitting, and a potential hack for easy entry, given that it talks to all the computerised functions of the car. Happy Holidays, Holy Days, or Holi-Daze, as appropriate for you Jennifer

c7pilot

You reflowed in the kitchen OVEN? Or, with a soldering gun/iron?

FiberglassFan

I used a professional temperature controled soldering iron, fine point tip, with a slight dab of non-activatd rosin flux..I have different hot air wands available as well, but they lend themselves to SMD parts removal and replacement, not so much a solder joint reflow. As an EE, and owner of an audio electronics company, I have made millions upon millions of solder joints in my lifetime using just about every tool in the industry. I can't imaging putting these things in a home oven....not enough controls for the simple task at hand, which is simply to re-melt to molecularly re-configure the crap solder they use that has turned into broken crystal structures over time. Proper eutectic alloy solders are stable FOREVER and will not fail like the crap that gets used in "lowest quote wins the job" kind of fabrication like we see in these fobs and elswhere in the GM electronics...Reliable solder eutectic alloy types might raise the cost of a cars systems about a dollar, but over several million cars a year, the cheap wins, and we end up dealing with it later. Also the removal of lead from solder causes reliability problems due the limited range of materials that can be blended to a crystal-stable eutectic alloy.

c7pilot

You are right. I just used the oven because it was a quick way to reflow ALL of the solder on the thing and fix all the bad connections with minimal effort. Also, a quick google search for solder reflowing with oven brings up a lot of positive results. If my remote stays working I will post back in a few months. Also, from my googling, 350-400 degrees for a few minutes might have been more appropriate than my 500 for 1 minute.. If you have nothing else to lose (as did I), then it really can't hurt anything, particularly if you are not good at soldering small parts, cannot identify all of the bad solder joints, and happen have an oven in your kitchen.

FiberglassFan

You got some good advice for doing the oven thing.....quick high heat, in and out, not a long "bake"....I DO hope that your fobs contine to function for a while longer...All of mine eventually stopped responding.so I reverted to use of the key the old fashioned way. Oh by the way, I keep 3 of the climate control heads in circulation, repalce and repair as needed.They fail with some regularity ...Now in addition to the crappy solder, I am finally dealing with blown light bulbs...going to shotgun all the bulbs in one of them soon!
Cheers