2004 Mini Cooper Fob Battery dead

[atraain]

Hello sorry if this has already been posted...

i purchased a 2004 Mini Cooper S today and the key battery seems to be dead it only works when i hold it by the antena on the roof or through manual entry. I called the dealership and they charge somewhere around $400$ to replace and reprogram the key....NO THANKS!

Is there any way i can open the key fob (what does fob mean?) and replace the battery myself, or how do i fix this problem?

Thanks in advanced!

[fleck]

My mini is a 2007 cooper D and the battery (actually its a cell, multiple cells are called batteries) in the key is spot welded in so the stealership can whack you for a new key. When my other key dies I'm going to try and put a new rechargeable battery in.

[atraain]

Quote: Originally Posted by fleck (original)

My mini is a 2007 cooper D and the battery (actually its a cell, multiple cells are called batteries) in the key is spot welded in so the stealership can whack you for a new key. When my other key dies I'm going to try and put a new rechargeable battery in.

that doesn't help me but thanks for the info i need to know what to do in my situation

[ging]

There are 2 types of key remotes with first gen minis
the early ones have a replaceable battery, the later ones are sealed and charge while you drive

[James burbidge]

Myn is a 2003 preface lift and it does look like it comes apart. Yours may be a facelift maybe they've changed the key after this. If you can't see a seal or anyway of opening it, then your gona be shafted by BMW. With a older car if myn ( chavy corsa ) I went to one of them stores pioneer I duno how it is spelt. Were they do your car radios and them subs and all. They do your car batteries in there and he will be able to open it if it can be opened.

[James burbidge]

Quote: Originally Posted by James burbidge (original)

Myn is a 2003 preface lift and it does look like it comes apart. Yours may be a facelift maybe they've changed the key after this. If you can't see a seal or anyway of opening it, then your gona be shafted by BMW. With a older car if myn ( chavy corsa ) I went to one of them stores pioneer I duno how it is spelt. Were they do your car radios and them subs and all. They do your car batteries in there and he will be able to open it if it can be opened.

Key batteries**

[The Nun]

FOB, apart from saying dont let them fob you off at the dealers.
A key fob, is the keyring and mainly leather bit that used to have the garage or car makers logo on it.
Its idea was to prevent the keys rattling and scratching the dashboard as you drove

[Andrew-JCW]

One of my 2005 JCW keys was not working when I collected my car. The key was sealed shut so no option for replacing the internal, rechargeable battery.

A replacement key is very expensive, which seemed like the only option!

Reading up about how the keys charge when in the ignition I found out that there is an inductive charging circuit (a pair of coils, one in the key and one in near the ignition switch).

The problem being that I couldn't keep the key in the ignition long enough to charge the key up fully!

So thinking laterally I realised that my electric toothbrush uses an inductive charging base so I simply laid my key on the base for 24 hours and it charged up the key's internal battery.

The next stage is to program BOTH keys to the cars central locking system, you must do both keys or one will be out of coding sequence and will appear not to work. Details of key programming are the handbook.

If you can't find the instructions I can type them up in this thread for you...

Good luck, it might work you too...