Are you driving around town trying to replace a keyless entry fob or batteries? This article may help.
Pete is a car guy and knows all things cars. The first thing he will always tell you is stay away from the dealership parts counter unless you absolutely have to because the part you need is only available there. Otherwise you will usually pay 100-300 percent more for the part than necessary. How do you think they can afford that big beautiful showroom and great commercial location?
Whether your fob is lost, stolen, or fell overboard, you will need to know the Year, Make and Model of your car, truck or SUV to replace it. Once you have that information you can go to Pete’s Keyless Entry Key Fob Remotes for Cars Trucks and SUVs discover the one you need.
If your keyless entry fob is not lost but just doesn’t work, follow this process. First open it up and see what size Key Fob Batteries are in it. Pete recommends first trying to replace the batteries (just a few dollars) as opposed to buying a new more expensive remote.
Worst case scenario
You will now have an extra set of new key fob batteries for your new remote. Since they are all lithium type batteries they have a 10 year shelf life so you don’t have to worry about them going bad before you get around to using them.
Best case scenario
It was the key fob batteries that where bad or dead and now you are up and running again for just a few bucks. It pays to do a little research and learn about something vs just throwing money at a problem.
Buying a New Fob
First, there are a few ways to determine the year, make and model of your vehicle.
You can look inside the drivers side door jamb and it should have a little sticker there with vehicle specifics. The older the car, the less likely it is still there
Look in the glove box or wherever you would keep the vehicles insurance and registration papers. Almost 100% of the time you can pull the correct vehicle information off these papers.
Write down or take a picture of your cars vin number (VIN = Vehicle Identification Number). Then go to a very well known car insurance website like Hagerty.com , stick your vin number into the vehicle search database, and you will get the specifics of your car, truck or SUV.
Armed with this information, you can check out all the different keyless entry remotes available for your vehicle make and model online. Most will even have pictures to use as a reference. You should be able to find what you need for far less than the quote the dealership gave you!
Once you receive the Key Fob Remote you will need to put the new batteries in it. Some companies offer the remote with new batteries others do not. Pete always throws in a new set of Energizer Key Fob Batteries with every remote.
Finally, you will need to contact the dealer of your vehicle for instructions on how to re-program the car to use the new remote. Usually a good lock smith also knows the procedure which will vary from car to car and manufacturer. You may even be able to find a YouTube video with this information.
Hopefully this short article will help you to fix or replace your keyless entry fob.
