Hello I'm sure this has been asked a million or so times but here goes.
I have a 96 corvette hard top and of coarse I have no keyless entry clicker thing is there any other fobs that can be made to work on this car other then the factory type seem those years for a 96 are the most expensive on the market.in other words can you take say a camaro fob and reprogram it to the 96 corvette or any other year fob for that matter.
I have seen the one I need for around $100.00 and more and all the others seem to be much less in price.
all I really want is to be able to lock and unlock the doors I'm not real concerned with the hatch or having it open when I walk up to the car I just want to be able to push the button to lock and unlock the doors
thanks
Clayton

 

Bump same question here to, only on a 95

 

As far as I know, the Corvette PKE (Passive Keyless Entry) system was not like any others. It does not work like the other fobs, meaning you don't push the buttons to lock or unlock the door. It is a "passive" system, in that the doors just lock and/or unlock as you approach and/or leave the car.

With that said, I am not sure any other FOB would work with it. That is probably why the FOB's you have found are more expensive. But if you look long enough, you can find them reasonable on the auction site. Any C4 FOB (1993-1996) will work. The only difference between the coupe and verts was the extra button for the hatch.

Of course, you can have an after market keyless entry system installed. Most auto stereo shops do this sort of thing, but I would make sure they understand the Corvette security system before letting them try to do the install. Not sure what might be involved with all that, but others have went that route.

 

Ouch, I was going to recommend ebay, but just checked and they're going for a $100+ there. Of course this time of year ebay prices for car parts are the highest since more people are on the roads with their cars. Usually late August I notice bid prices start to drop with the best time to buy car parts being thru November-March.

 

that's what I mean I think I'm going to have a aftermarket set up installed its cheaper and if you lose or break the fob its a easy cheap replacement
I checked with the dealer way out of site and eBay and GM parts direct. the cheapest it $124.00 up to $170.00.
an after market set complete with remote start installed can be had for about $150.00 with 2 fobs and cheap replacement parts

 

I would think long and hard before going the route above.

1st of all, you'll be paying more than for one FOB on eBAY, and if cost is such an issue, remember the key in the door lock still works, so in reality no need to spend any money to operate the car.

2nd of all, the wiring and computer interaction on our Vettes were (and still is) pretty state-of-the-art. As such, trying to tie an outside system into them requires exceptional skill. Finding that level of expertise in a local shop that installs stereos and alarms systems is iffy at best, and most likey will be problematic.

And the cost of the problems which can occur (alarm system may not work, problem starting the car, etc, 'check engine' light issues), will far out run the cost of the correct FOBs (e.g. just do a search for when someone changes over their radio).

 

While I do agree somewhat with the above.........I can understand what you are wanting to do. Have 2 or 3 fobs fail and the price of retaining the original pke system could get EXPENSIVE real quick.

I installed a remote system on my fathers van about 3 years ago. He liked it so much that he made made me install one in my mothers van.
They convinced me to put a system in my dd (yup, another van ).

Two weeks after I brought my vette home.........took it in and had a keyless system installed. At that time I didn't trust myself enough (even with 3 prior installs) to do it right with the vette. Mine is a '86 so no pke system. The guy at the install shop assured me that he could do it properly (which he did (at almost the same amount I paid for the system I put in my van)). When he pointed out that my vette didn't have the pke system "so it would be a quicker, easier install"...........I was sold on him pretty quick. Was just letting me know he knew something about vettes.

I don't know if you have tried doing a search on it yet........but......the information is here. You CAN do an aftermarket install. A year or so ago a pretty good thread ran about disabling the pke system and installing aftermarket keyless (because replacing the original fobs gets so expensive) I'm not saying it is easy (from what I understand it is rather time consuming), but it can be done.

FWIW.......I will NEVER have another vehicle without remote locks.
What started the whole mess was to be blamed on my wife! She bought a car with factory remote and I bragged enough to my father that he wanted it in his.

 

I agree with Theadrmiral94. My brother is a tech at a Cadillac dealership and was stunned that my 96 had PKE, Cadillac did not get that until 2004! He also has had to remove many aftermarket systems because they interferred with the operations on the cars they were installed in. Of course, by using your lock buttons in the car, you set your alarm, you just have to use the key to open the door.

But I do like the PKE. IMHO it is worth the price to buy the fob. Note, however, stock up on the 2450 lithium batteries. They're supposed to last 18 months but my experience is 8 weeks tops.

 

Simple fix!!!! Throw PKE fob in drawer and forget about it!!!! Use the key to access the car. You know the old motto "If it ain't broke...don't fix it!". If you mess with the electric system you are just asking for trouble. I guess you need to ask yourself how badly do you want to push that button to avaoid having to put the key into the door. IMHO it is just not worth the chance of messing up the car. The door key works great...

 

but i've always wanted one of those key fob things to unlock the door.

 

PKE works just fine in my '96. I replaced the FOB battery a little over a year ago and it's till going strong. So, if your only getting 8 weeks out of a battery I would think something is wrong.

 

Untrue, I remember collecting Key Fobs from '92...maybe earlier. I know all the '93s and up came with two key fobs that are early editions of the latest PKE 1000....

Well let's look at that for a moment, I've read more than one thread where the door Key linkage fell apart....no way to unlock that particular door. I even read one thread about three weeks ago where a guy had broken both door linkages and couldn't get into the car at all.

The Electronic system is easy to activate with a simple "grounding" switch to the solenoid. The linkage can break all it wants after you have a key less system

The one thing that I will say about the PKE 1000. You cannot access the locks just anywhere. You have to access the system with the drivers door lock button. This will set and disable the alarm system.

 

[QUOTE=jhammons01;1565405872]Untrue, I remember collecting Key Fobs from '92...maybe earlier. I know all the '93s and up came with two key fobs that are early editions of the latest PKE 1000....

Considering my brother has worked at that dealership for nearly 30 years...I think I'll take his word for it.

 

Clay60 I hope you don't mind if I ask aquestion on your thread about these PKE systems.

A friend has a '96. The PKE didn't work and the dealer replaced the box under the dash. Her PKE still doesn't unlock when you walk up to the car. If you press the hatch button, it pops. So it must recocognise the fob in that respect. I checked the fuse for her and we went through the programming following the owners manual. When the PKE flashes, I walked up to the car but it doesn't stop flashing like it's not recognising the fob. But why would it still pop the hatch?

Is there anything we are overlooking. Robin would be most greatful to have her PKE working.

 

hi
I had a similiar problem with 95 LT 1 .Owned car 1 1/2 yrs no problems. Prior to that someone tried to breakin to it - only damages were cover plate for tilt gone, switch for high beam broken. Rest of everything worked...There are 6 or 8 switches to make the VAT system work properly. The gentlemen that mentioned the hatch works is correct that is one of the switches, several in each door, ingition key system, I may have missed a few -- well I am here to tell ya one goes wrong and there is a chain reaction. Our club sponsored Gordon Kellbrew spend a day with us. We found most of the bad switches - he had to help others -- Long story short - truck lid was the culpert even though it worked, weak wire. I had a bad driver door switch, took the passenger switch put on driver side.... unplugged passenger switch - wrapped electical parts. zipped tied parts as there is a screw plate,in side door to hold switch - easy to work on with when door is off
Well all worked well for a about 3 weeks the all H___ broke loose. Dead Battery, trickler would change start and run. Interior light door lights blinked when driving - sometimes, security horn went off....
Electrical is tough for an ole gear head - welll $800 all works well. Glad I purchased an extended warranty for my 01
I can do nuts and bolts but this new electonic stuff great as it is woooooooow it can cost

 

[QUOTE=lt4obsesses;1565408214]http://myweb.accessus.net/~090/cad94rke.html
Yeah alright,
Funny they got a procedure for something your Brother claims does not exist....but no one noticed that part.

 

[QUOTE=jhammons01;1565416723]That's a great write up for REMOTE keyless entry. Which is different from PASSIVE keyless entry. The remote entry requires you to push a button to lock/unlock the car whereas passive does not, hence the word passive.

 

http://www.prnewswire.se/cgi-bin/sto...1158374&EDATE=

I will correct myself, he did say 2002. Sorry about the mix up:o

 

Ryan59,

There are two features of the C4 PKE system and its FOB which often contribute to confusion and trouble.

Further, if the door switches are not operating correctly the PKE and FOB will appear to not work or to work intermittenly. So first order of business is to verify that when the door is opened, the door switch 'close' the circuit to tell the CCM to turn on interior lights (at night), turn off radio (assuming key is removed from ignition), and to prepare the alarm system for arming by blinking the 'security' light on the dash). Further, that when the door is closed, the door switch 'opens' the circuit, which can be verified by the interior lights going off.

The two features which contribute to confusion and trouble are:

1. The FOB has a feature built in to conserve battery life by putting the FOB's keyless entry transmitter to sleep when the FOB is sitting still for a period of time.

It does this via a small gold ball-bearing housed inside a small metal housing, within which are metal contacts. When the ball-bearing moves around, it makes contact with the metal contacts, and the transmitter then will 'wake-up' within the FOB.

However, over time and usage, dirt will enter the ball bearing housing and cause it to become stuck and not move around.

Once this happens, the FOB never wakes-up its keyless entry transmitter, so approaching the car will never unlock the car, regardless of the PKE program settings.

Foturnately, the ball bearing can be easily cleaned (I did ours by taking it apart), but could probably be done with an electrical contact cleaner spray (NOT WD40), but something specifically designed to clean electrical contacts and not leave any film. Obviously do this only with the battery removed.

2. The PKE system can be programmed to have the automatic door unlock feature as the FOB approaches turned off. Often this is done when working on/around the car to prevent the door locks from cycling or when dropping the car off for repairs.

Review the owners manual for how to turn this feature on/off. Obviously, the door switches must be operating correctly and the FOB transmitter sleep/awake functioning must be working correctly, otherwise, any attempts to program this feature will not work.

 

Oh, I am sorry, I thought you were saying that there was no Keyless entries at all.....