copello

Well, well , well, finally a clue....
I remembered the distance range dropped after my car has been washed at the dealer.... 6 weeks ago.....
Well, maybe I don't clean my car often enough !
Thanks to Rudy , I decided to clean the rear window (on the outside). Apparently, some kind of wax residue must have dropped on the corners of the rear window exactly where the antenna is embedded: since then, well my car opens again from a pretty wide distance....
Maybe that's a coincidence, but I fell somewhat relieved that afterall its not a big deal !

Scandic24

Suddenly this happened to me too... (E61)
I have always been able to lock or unlock my car from inside my house...20-30 meters no problem.
Yesterday I took my spare keyfob (I change from time to time, as the battery gets charged when used in the car) and went outside to go downtown.
This time the car didn't unlock!!
I kept pushing and pushing the button but it seemed dead as a dodo!?
So tried holding the button down standing right beside the drivers door and suddenly it unlocked!

My thought was that my spare fob had a bad battery so I switched back but it behaved exactly the same...
So I guess the receiving unit or the antenna has gone bad. I'll pop by my dealer tomorrow and let them have a look!
I suspect water/moist is the reason...I did wash my car yesterday so...

snkpkp

my 02/05 car had the problem from day one, a friend of mine has a 10/05 with same issue and his is the new fob, i did some findings and its the transmitter radio which is defective. But I just never bothered looking at it as I never really unlock from far away.....

wees75

snkpkp

clarkson is a dum ass , he pressed the media change button to change volume while testing the M5 and he didnt stop bitching about it even though he was pressing the wrong button LOL but back to the topic I have tried holding it hard to my skull it only works when I am very near to the car,carry cousins e39 has no problem unlocking his car across a foot ball field size distance but mines messed up....

tbal

i have the same problem. and the SA's blamed the 'window tint" for the distance, and not opening

Sahil

This problem is really driving me crazy. I often find myself standing right outside the door and the car just won't lock ... i then have to walk behind the car and press the key aimlessly against the rear window for it to lock or unlock.

Any solution for this?! Would the dealer be able to replace the sensor in the car without changing the entire glass ?As I have V-cool tints and its gonna land up costing me more to replace them on it again.

Also can someone post an image marked where exactly the sensor is located on the rear glass.

Rudy

Did you look at the image I posted in reply #19 of this thread?

The remote antenna is labeled "FBD" and is located in the top right corner of the glass (as you're looking at it from the rear of the car.)

southgate

lol but it does really work

V70Cat

I have a E61 and have the same problem, the car will not respond unless you are standing next to it, the car is less than a month old, any ideas on how to fix it?