Technical Help - key been in washer, cant unlock car

[dtimmins1985]

Morning,

My key went through the washer this morning and I am unable to get in the car.

Can anyone help?

I cant manually unlock the door as thats not worked for a while and I was meant to get round to fixing it but not had time and the weather has been bad.

The LED was blinking on the key when i took it out of the washer, i removed battery and blasted the fob with the hairdryer for about 20secs, put the battery back in and it appears to work as it should but is not unlocking the car.

Fiat have quoted me £96 + vat to reprogramme this key but have advised that it might be stuffed.

Can anyone help? the car is also deadlocked so even if i break the glass im still going to be stuck for opening the doors.

Help!

 

[varesecrazy]

can you climb through from tailgate/ boot..??
minirib can repair the key..,

BUT - TBH you might be better getting AA out or claiming on household KEY cover

 

[portland_bill]

You will need to carefully take the key fob to pieces, to dry it thoroughly. Be very careful with the circuit board and especially the little glass phial that contains the immobiliser chip.

Hopefully once completely dry, it will work again.

The fob sends a slightly different signal each time, and the car is expecting any of the next 6 or so. Whilst drying, the battery will be out for some time. When you next point it at the car and press, it may send a signal outside of teh range the car expects. Normally the way to realign this is to press the same button several times, a second or two apart, until the car recognises the sequence.

 

[dtimmins1985]

You will need to carefully take the key fob to pieces, to dry it thoroughly. Be very careful with the circuit board and especially the little glass phial that contains the immobiliser chip.

Hopefully once completely dry, it will work again.

The fob sends a slightly different signal each time, and the car is expecting any of the next 6 or so. Whilst drying, the battery will be out for some time. When you next point it at the car and press, it may send a signal outside of teh range the car expects. Normally the way to realign this is to press the same button several times, a second or two apart, until the car recognises the sequence.

Panic over! Its now fixed... for how long i dont know tho.

I couldnt get in via the boot as the tailgate lock is jammed (rusted beyond repair) tried spraying WD40 in it and grease over the past few months but it wont budge and the key only goes in half way...

Anyhow - my understanding was that the key looses it partnership with the ECU when the battery has been removed for some time and then you need to fully reprogramme it to unlock the doors remotley (starting not an issue as the transponder, glass thingy does that bit)...

I stripped the key down using the refirb guide on here and blasted the PCB with a red hot hair dryer - 3 times for 15 seconds at a time, then put the board back on the battery... went outstide and pressed the button and the interior light lit up and doors unlocked, i kept the button pressed in to put the windows down incase it stopped working again, at least i can get into the car now...

I went back in, give it another hot blast to help re-flow / re-work any contacts that might have had ingress starting to build up on and then re-assembled the key, took me a min or so to figure out how the spring went back in etc but its now fixed.

Once i've dropped the misses off at her mums, im going to strip down the drivers and look at fixing the manual door lock as they key will go in and turn etc but it does nothing, when opening drivers window i can hear it hitting something inside the door so im suspecting that someone might have been in there before and unclipped something or unplugged something... we will see and hopefully fix that, Fiat told me to put grease in the lock as there is a notch at the back of the lock that engages the electronic switch that sends a signal to the lock actuators which then pop up the locks... well that never worked so i will have to try the above, hopefully my theory will be right and ill have it fixed in around an hour so...

Thanks guys...

P.S = Dont leave your keys in arms reach of the kids!!!
Lesson learnt!!

 

[dtimmins1985]

Also,

Spoke to Fiat Clemo about my keys and they quoted £96+vat to recode the key and said there is no guarantees...

They said id be best trying an auto locksmith as they can Jailbreak the car and get into it without my key... hmmm sounds like they are referring to the technology that thieving sods use to pinch new fords, bmw's and range rovers etc.

Didnt think the older Fiats where that accessible... am i wrong??