Does anyone's fob (I have a 99 w/ passive) make a rattle? I took it completely apart and cannot get to the rattle (apparently in the black box).

My original rattled, and did not hold the memory overnight. Bought one off ebay about a year ago, worked great until recently, but now same thing: won't work overnight after a few hours. I now notice the rattle that I don't believe was there before. Have made sure it's making good connection, new battery of course, but still no worky.
I don't want to get one every freakin year. Any other ideas? Anyone repair these things?

 

Yes, I have that too in the 98's passive fob's, like something is in there moving around. One fob I know started to rattle after it was bumped against a wall
They work fine though.....knock on wood

 

Well I have 2 rattlers and neither are working correctly. Maybe I can use them as fishing lures.

 

Mine for my 99 w/passive also rattles. I just got the car last week and put new batteries in it. It works, to a degree. Cant be too far away, seems pretty weak to me.

 

I have a 99 with passive FOB and I have not noticed a rattle. take the small key ring off of it and see if it rattles and try reprograming them in the car at the DIC instructions are in the owners manual mine was acting up reprogramed it and it works fine also you may have gotten a bad (new) battery had that has happened to me also hope this helps

 

I have seen this in three recent fobs. I think it is the negative contact plate under the battery. If these are not correctly placed it will short out the battery overnight. I went through 3 batteries in 3 days trying to get it right.
I also found that 2 of the "new batteries" were dead right out of the bubble pack......have the store test them before you leave.
I did finally get 1 fob to work, still is, but I am fed up
and ordered a brand new one from Fred Beans:
10253839 $85.84

99 Cpe

 

I tried both programming methods - no luck after the first few hours.
When I bought a new battery, I had the old one tested and it was still fine. So I have 2 fobs, 2 batteries, 0 keylees entry.

 

I have a 97 with passive lock feature as well and both of my fobs rattle and both work. I believe the rattlling you hear is the mechanism that, when passive lock is enable, allows the fob to send out a signal to lock or unlock. What I mean by this is, if you have the fob in your hand as you walk up to the car, and passive lock is enabled, the fob is transmitting a signal to unlock your doors. When you walk away, the fob transmits a lock signal. If the fob is stationary, and rattling isnt occuring, the fob stops transmitting a signal to save battery. An example is once you set the fob down at home, the rattle mechanism comes to rest and tells the fob to stop transmitting.

Im sure most of you guys have heard, if you lock your keys in your car, with passive lock enabled, wait for a few minutes, and then shake your car. The doors should unlock. The reason is, the rattle mechanism comes to rest with the keys in the ignition, and the car thinks you have walked away because the car is locked. Once you get that rattle mechanism moving again, the car thinks you have returned, and unlocks the doors. This only works with the passive feature enabled. The newer models dont have passive lock so they shouldnt have this specific rattle mechanism...this isnt to say that those dont have something rattling in them though.

The feature isnt supposed to work from far away, only when you get close enough (within 10 feet or so) to open the doors. Imagine having the fob in your house and everytime you move it the car either locks or unlocks. If you have the horn honk upon lock, the damn horn would be going off all the time. Also, dont use passive lock if you are working on your car (assuming you keep the keys in your pocket). Everytime you go to get a new tool, the car will lock and then when you come back it will unlock (again with the horn sounding everytime)...been there, done that, finally turned the feature off and do it manually. I dont mind...

everyone

 

If anyone has dead Fobs they don't want, PM me and I will take them.
IF I can get them working, and that is a BIG IF, I will send them back for the shipping cost USP. No guarantees

 

I just bought a new Fob from Chevrolet $130.00 and 2 new keys. Total for this endeavour was $230.00 with tax. I statred looking on ebay yesterday and wish I had waited. There are some decent delas on used ones, just make sure the part numbers are the same before purchasing.

 

You have to be real careful with ebay ones. I have heard on this forum, that many that were bought on Ebay were broken as well. The sells either dont know much about vettes and just sell them not knowing, or they realize they are broke, and sell them to cut the cost of the new one to them....