FOB Remote Problem

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notrickz

New member
Joined
Oct 21, 2018
Messages
2
Hello all,

First time poster!

I just bought a used loaded 2014 i3 Rex. It works as promised. Smells like a new car - drives like a new car. Happy new owner so far.

I have only one issue: One of the FOB's does not fully work. The car came with 2 FOB's. One of them works like a charm. The other one - not so much. The buttons on it do not cause anything to happen when pressed. When I unlock the car with the working FOB though, and I get into the car (without the working FOB) with the non-working FOB, I can get the car started by holding the FOB against the steering column. Just the same way a FOB with a dead battery would function. The thing is I tried two different brand new batteries (tested their charge also) in it, and it still behaves the same way. :cry:

At this point, I have a feeling that something with the wireless transmission is not working or that the FOB is completely broke. Has anyone experienced this issue before?

Any help is much appreciated!!! TIA :D
 
Probably just a dead battery. We bought a used 2015 a few months ago, and one of the fobs had a dead battery immediately, with the exact same symptoms you list. We bought ours as Certified Preowned form a dealership, so just brought it back to the dealership, they threw in a new battery, and it worked fine.
 
notrickz said:
Hello all,

First time poster!

I just bought a used loaded 2014 i3 Rex. It works as promised. Smells like a new car - drives like a new car. Happy new owner so far.

I have only one issue: One of the FOB's does not fully work. The car came with 2 FOB's. One of them works like a charm. The other one - not so much. The buttons on it do not cause anything to happen when pressed. When I unlock the car with the working FOB though, and I get into the car (without the working FOB) with the non-working FOB, I can get the car started by holding the FOB against the steering column. Just the same way a FOB with a dead battery would function. The thing is I tried two different brand new batteries (tested their charge also) in it, and it still behaves the same way. :cry:

At this point, I have a feeling that something with the wireless transmission is not working or that the FOB is completely broke. Has anyone experienced this issue before?

Any help is much appreciated!!! TIA :D

I too recently purchased 2014 i3 although mine is BEV!! I had the same problem when I went to pick the car up at the dealer. Both remotes were showing battery problems on the iDrive screen. One of the service techs was nice enough to replace both batteries and all was rectified.
 
Thank you for all the feedback!

Update: FOB is working now! Not sure what I did. I just tested the charge of the battery 1. while inserted into the FOB and 2. pressing the buttons to see if there is a fluctuation in the voltage (which there was). So the RF part seemed to work. Somehow after that testing, the remote started to work like it should. Maybe the contacts got "cleaned" while fiddling around. Not sure - but mainly I'm just excited to have two working keys!!!

Thanks again. Enjoying the car so far like no other I ever owned! :D
 
Had this same exact issue with one of the two FOBs on my 2014 REX I purchased from a used dealership. Swapped the battery with one I had at home that I thought was good, but it didn't fix the issue. With one working FOB, and only one driver using the car, I haven't bothered to go looking for a brand new battery to keep testing it.
 
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