Poolie520

Will you keep us informed,

Mine seems to be getting worse by the day, I now need to go towards the back of the car to get it to work.
I thought it was down to the aerial or reciever in the car, but Im not sure now, I tried the 'putting the fob to your forehead trick' the other day and the car opened from further away than if I just held it normally.
This seems to suggest that the battery in my fob is not charging properly?
Most of my driving is fairly low mileage, its only about 5 miles to work which takes around 15 minutes, is this long enough to give the rechargable battery in the fob a boost of power?
Is there a way of charging the battery without leaving the engine running? or charge it external to the car?

Cheers,

Poolie

wees75

I have the same problem. I have replaced the battery and took it once to the dealership with no luck.... they did not agree that this is a problem... pls Let us know if you find a solution

Poolie520

Just took mine for a decent run out after work to see if it made a difference (give the remote fob a bit of a charge).
Not even a tiny bit better.
Getting very frustrated with it.
Poolie

monacobmw

Have any of you tinted your windows?
The metallic materials within the tinting has been known to greatly affect the radio waves.
I just had ceramic tinting installed, and I am already finding that my Florida SunPass (used to pay tolls) is not working.

I know that this sounds obvious, but sometimes it is not if you are not thinking about it.

tooltec

That's reminded me of another example of non-operation of a remote control on a GM car I owned a few years ago.There was one particular area in a large supermarket car park which was a "dead" zone for remote control locking/unlocking ,you just had to revert to manual operation with the key in the doorlock.
I could park 25 metres away and the remote was fine!

Poolie520

My windows are tinted but its the original BMW tint, my keys worked fine a couple of weeks ago but now they are really struggling, the tint hasnt changed over the last couple of weeks so Im fairly comfortable that the tint isnt an issue for me.
I also tried to lock/unlock the car with the windows rolled down, this didnt have any affect.
I think it must be the aeriel or receiver in the car but Im not sure how to fix it.
Poolie

Poolie520

Thats got me thinking!
I work at a power station and we obviously have plenty of cables carrying lots of high voltage electricity to the national grid.
I wonder if this could have any affect on the operation of the remote?
It doesnt explain why it doesnt work in front of my house though!
Poolie

PRIMETIME

My car is doing the same thing. I have to be right by the car for it to open and it's kinda slow too.

I don't have ANY tint either, so that is not the issue.

I'm getting some service done next month and will have BMW look at it.

Poolie520

I've just read on another forum that an electric toothbrush base can be used to charge the remote fob.
Apparently it uses the same technology, anyone have any experience of using this method to charge their key?
I'd give it a go myself but I don't have an electric toothbrush handy.
Poolie

Poolie520

I managed to get my hands on an electric toothbrush, I modified the base slightly so that the fob would fit in.
Left the key in the base overnight with absolutely no change in working range of the remote.
Ive also charged the battery in the car, the indicator on the battery was showing it to be under charged, its now fully charged and the indicator is green again, however still no change in the working radius of the fob.

Poolie