e39 remote question...no red LED on remote

[Maverick740]

Picked up an 11/97 528i a few months ago with a single key and the remote not working on any buttons. It's the older square style. With a good battery, but no red LED lighting up on the remote, can I assume the remote is broken and needs to be replaced? Fuses all test good and car starts and runs fine.

[Mless5]

Check to make sure that the battery holder is still attached to the PCB as solder cracks often.

[DennisCooper]

Hi,

Also check/search the E39 section and then post if needed. There's some online sellers for refurbished fobs and/or spare parts for them on ebay etc which are relatively cheap so you could try those as well.

Cheers, Dennis!

[shogun]

moved to E39 forum

[edjack]

Your model has a replaceable battery inside the key. Have you verified that it's good? S/b 3V.

Some key makers have an instrument that can detect the presence of the transmitter signal.

[MParallel]

You can check its status by pressing the trunk release and lock button simultaneously. If OK the led will light up for a second.

[Qsilver7]

Picked up an 11/97 528i a few months ago with a single key and the remote not working on any buttons. It's the older square style. With a good battery, but no red LED lighting up on the remote, can I assume the remote is broken and needs to be replaced? Fuses all test good and car starts and runs fine.

Does this mean you have the older (old style) remote that DOES NOT have the red LED (it uses TWO 1220 batteries)...or the old style remote with the red status LED uses a single 2016CR battery? I can't tell if you're saying the red LED is there but isn't lighting up when you press the buttons on the remote...or if you don't have a red LED on the remote at all. :dunno:


http://bimmerboard.com/members/q/original/Old%20Style%20Rubber%20Key%20Battery%20Types%20122 0%202016.jpg

It's also not clear if you've tried to reinitialize the key. You wrote "remote not working on any buttons"...is the IC board inside the remote damaged & causing none of the button actions to perform...or is the remote just not initialized to the car?

Below are the instructions on how to reinitialize the remote key. You must follow the instructions exactly as written or initialization will fail. Also take note of the tips which can also cause programming failure:

TIPS:

KL R = ignition position 1 (not position 2 or engine running)
All doors MUST be CLOSED
All doors MUST be UNLOCKED




http://bimmerboard.com/members/q/original/How%20To%20Initialize%20Old%20and%20New%20Style%20 Remote%20Keys.jpg