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Need help. I have a 2000 vert and haven't had any issues for a couple of years with the fob till recently when it would not work. I reprogrammed on the dic and it would work for a few days then quit so I put a new battery in it, same thing. I have read that the car changes codes every 5 minutes, that is about as long as the fob works. I have to either resync from outside the car or reprog w/ the ign on thru the dic. I bought a 3rd battery for the fob just for the hell of it, no help. My car bat is in good shape and has not been disconnected for a while. How do I tell if my car receiver or fob is bad? I have heard 2000 had some troubles and there is a dedicated fob just for that year. I don't want to spend about $100 for a new fob just to troubleshoot this problem. Any ideas would be appreciated.
That's the same symptom of multiple 2000 fob failures. You can try resoldering the contacts on the internal board, which has fixed some, but the sure fix is a new fob. gmpartshouse.com has new ones for the 2000 for around $60. Don't buy used or you'll end up in the same position you are now.
Thanks for the help and the link to the fix. I have a fine tip gun at work but won't go back till after xmas, I'll give it a shot and report back. Merry Christmas!
I could not wait so I bought a fine point soldering iron. I did not find any of the components on the printed circuit board loose but I resoldered all 6 joints as shown in the post above and my fob held the code overnight whereas before it could not remember it 1 minute after I programmed or synched it. Thanks again for all the support.
I just tried this on mine, and it didn't help at all.
I may have a different deal though... On my car, I have three remotes as I tried replacing one of them a couple years back. What I had for the first 3 or 4 years I owned the car is that the remotes would only stay sync'd for 2 or 3 days. re-sync, and it would be good for a couple days, rinse and repeat. This was the case, equally, for all three fobs.
Well, for some unknown reason, the fobs now will only remain sync'd for about 10 seconds. Tried the re-soldering, and it made zero difference. I can even sit there and hit lock, unlock, lock, unlock... and it works perfect for about 10 seconds, and then dead. Have to re-sync. Then, I get another 10 seconds. All three fobs have the same symptom, and that leads me to believe that it's the receiver in the car, or maybe a bad ground.
I just tried this on mine, and it didn't help at all.
I may have a different deal though... On my car, I have three remotes as I tried replacing one of them a couple years back. What I had for the first 3 or 4 years I owned the car is that the remotes would only stay sync'd for 2 or 3 days. re-sync, and it would be good for a couple days, rinse and repeat. This was the case, equally, for all three fobs.
Well, for some unknown reason, the fobs now will only remain sync'd for about 10 seconds. Tried the re-soldering, and it made zero difference. I can even sit there and hit lock, unlock, lock, unlock... and it works perfect for about 10 seconds, and then dead. Have to re-sync. Then, I get another 10 seconds. All three fobs have the same symptom, and that leads me to believe that it's the receiver in the car, or maybe a bad ground.
Ideas?
It really does seem to be a symptom of the 2000 fob. If your tire pressure is reading, the receiver is probably ok. If you have a friend with a 97-99 or 2000 that will let you try, that will tell you for sure.
Well, the tire pressure reads fine. I guess I'll need to get a magnifying glass and inspect teh solder joints better....
Don't inspect, just resolder the joints indicated in the pictures and try it again. There have been cases where members said they looked fine, but resoldering fixed the problem. You may have a bad fob, but if so soldering can't make it any worse.
I'm mainly perplexed by the fact that all the fobs act the same. So according to prevailing logic, they are all bad, even the one I bought new.... Hard one to swallow.