# Car Central Locking Key Fob Stops Working



## yabbadoo

My electronic ignition key fob suddenly stopped working and I then had to manually lock and unlock my car doors. Everything was working perfect up to that point. My car is a Vauxhall Astra Club, 5 door hatchback.

I had the key to pieces and could not see anything wrong. The battery checked out at just over 3 volts. I then went to synchronizing. Tried what my manual said and it never worked. I then surfed the web for guidance and found this :-

1.Insert key in ignition and pull out 
2. Within 5 seconds, insert the key in the ignition and pull out again. 
3. Within 40 seconds, close and open the driver's door twice, then insert and remove the key from the ignition again. 
4. Within 40 more seconds, close and open the driver's door twice, then insert the key in the ignition and close the driver's door. 
5. Turn ignition switch from LOCK to ON to OFF three times, leaving the key on for one second and off for one second each time. 
6. Remove the key from the ignition lock.

The doors will lock and unlock themselves at about 2 second intervals. The number of times that the doors lock is the number of remotes that are programmed into the car. If the car locks/unlocks 5 times, there are no codes registered.

It worked well and my key fob was working OK again, back to remote locking, BUT although my 4 car doors now work OK, the 5th rear hatch door does not. It stays locked and I have to manually open it. On closing the hatch door, it self locks.

Can anybody please advise the procedure for correctly synchronizing these keys and offer some information on why the main 4 car doors are now OK, but the rear hatch door seems to have escaped the synchronizing process.


----------



## yabbadoo

No answers, but OK, perhaps somebody found it of interest.

Latest is that my hatch door is now working. I do not know why, it suddenly started to work without me doing anything and seems back to normal now. So all 5 doors are now central locking as they should be.

A good site for this problem acclaimed by many users on the web is this :-
Program and Reprogram Your Car Remote Key Fob Control Transponder - Program Your Keys Free Instructions - Home Page

Don`t be conned by garages about all the complexity of synchronizing, microchips going wrong and reprogramming, then charging a fortune. it only takes a 3-4 minutes or even less to cure the problem.

In cases of electronic key fobs not working, it is 99% sure that they have simply run out of synchronizing due to a number of quite ordinary reasons - fiddling with the buttons, kids doing the same, but mostly using the key when out of distance. Normal distance is about 2 metres and continuous operation outside that distance will eventually de-sychronize the key.

These keys only have a limited number of outside distance presses before they fail. It varies up to around 250 times, as low as 50 for some.


----------

