Key Fob Stopped Working?

[ross1147]

Hello everyone. Have a question about key fobs. I have an '03 LT and both the key fobs are not working. About 6 months ago my #2 fob stopped working. Thought it was the battery; so, I changed it and still didn't work. So, I just started using the other one. Well, last week it stopped working as well. I tested the fobs on one of those energizer testers and one of them works.(At least the green light on the tester lights up.) I tried to re-program the truck and it still doesn't work. Before I waste money on buying a new fob, does anyone have any ideas? Is it possible the receiver in truck is bad?

[richp]

Hi Ross,

The fob on my wife's '09 Malibu stopped working and the dealer re-soldered a loose connection inside, which fixed the problem. At the time, the service manager told me that this was an occasional problem with the GM key fobs.

Might be worth checking out...

FWIW.

[rapidoxidationman]

How did you try to reprogram the truck?

Just in case it IS a software issue and not a bad transmitter or receiver, here's the method I used to reprogram a fob for my '05:

http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/tdpforum/showthread.php?t=38302

[Spoolmak]

Sorry to come in so late - been away for the better part of a month.

My '04 key fobs stopped working as well some years ago, one after the other. What I learned when you take it apart is that the rubber plate that has the 'raised ridged push buttons' on it is the proble. The bottom of those buttons has a conductive coating on it, so when you push it, it touches two leads in the mother board and completes the circuit thus sending the signal.
You can try gently cleaning that area with methyl hydrate - it may or may not clean it enough to become conductive again. You could also try gluing ultra thin aluminum foil onto the bottom of the rubber push button. I tried the latter, and it actually worked for quite a while. I did end up replacing the key fobs finally.
An after market place had them for $45 - the dealer wanted $110. If you order, you can specify the number you want on the fob (1, 2 or 3) I believe they actually send a slightly different signal, identifying themselves. If you ordered two number 1 key fobs, the second one you program would become number 2, even though it had number 1 on it.
My replacements have worked fine.

Good luck.

Tor