Remote Keys Not Working
 

Hi everyone

Firstly thank you so much to all you legends out there willing to take the time to share your wisdom and experience for absolute clueless amateurs like me:)

I have recently bought a 2005 530i e61 Wagon we call them in Australia. I got two keys, and pretty sure they were both working. One is almost brand new and the other is obviously the one used for daily driving. About a week ago they both stopped working.

I have had both keys checked and the bloke told me they are both putting out a signal at 315 megahertz (does that sound right). Which to me sounds like the battery and signs coming from the actual keys is fine.

Afrer trawling this site it mentioned the Diversity Antenna a lot. I took the Diversity Antenna out and it was absolutely spotless, no corrosion or wear anywhere on it. I got some contact cleaner anyway and gave it a good clean as well as the plugs and wires. It looked like all the wires and looms were intact and not broken or frayed.

The AM reception is terrible and has never worked but my FM reception is excellent.

Anyway, bottom line is the remote central locking from the key is still not working. The keys both open the car and drive it perfectly but for those rainy days with shopping I’d love to be able to open the trunk and go.

Advice, thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much in advance for your help:)

Have you tried using the remote when you are less than a foot away from the car? Has the batteries been changed in the fob before?

I had problems sort of similar and it was my antenna amplifier. Someone on here gave me sage advice that the amp from the 6 Series is the same, but different part number and significantly cheaper than the E61 version. That said, if you have INPA available to you there is a page you can go to that shows radio stations signal strength. Perhaps not super useful but can give you an idea if things are happening when you plug/unplug the antenna amplifier and the antenna wire above it in the rear spoiler.

Did you check with a voltmeter that you are getting power to the amplifier? I have seen (perhaps on YouTube, forget where) someone hook up an oscilloscope to the amplifier to check the output. That is way beyond me and I admire their skills.

When my central locking stopped working it turned out to be an issue with the tailgate wiring, which is notorious for failing on these cars. On mine you could shine a flashlight into the tailgate hinge and see some of the frayed wiring, but it may not necessarily be visible from there.

I spliced in a couple of patches and mine has been fine since. With a little searching you should be able to find plenty of resources on this issue.

Best of luck!

I had the same issue.
 

My problem was frayed wires in the hinges