So I’m leaving work and press the wings on my key and nothing. Thinking I may not be close enough I wait and only a few feet away, press again and nothing. No big deal I figure the battery is dead. And unlock the MCS manually.

I stop at the store on the way home, jump out and out of habit press the lock button and it locked right up. I press the wings and nothing, I hit the lock and lights flash and I hear everything click like it should.

Anyone ever had this happen and if so what was the fix.

I’m still thinking it’s just a battery that's on the way out and has only enough juice to lock, but not unlock.

Ideas, remedies, fixes, anyone have this happen?

BTW this is an 02 key, not the one that charges while driving.

 

This happened to me when I got home with my 2nd key fresh from the dealer. I drove around and only charging the key didn't help. Putting the key in the ignition and turning to positions 1 and 2 and hitting all the buttons numerous times. Then the key started fully functioning. Coincidence?

 

Is your car still under warranty?


My story:

One day we went to run a few errands in my wife's '02 MC. Upon returning from the store, the remote key would not open the doors but still was able to lock them. Hmmmm. I figured the original lithium battery was about to go out, so I opened the car manually and headed to Radio Shack. Bought the battery, head out to the parking lot, replaced it and nothing.... The damn thing would still not unlock the doors. The "wings" button felt OK, until....

We got home, got out my small screwdriver set, opened up the remote key fob and lo and behold the actual switch that lies beneath the "Wings" had come loose on one welding point in the actual circuit board So obviously it wasn't the battery, the actuating switch assembly was not making contact with the board, it was just loose in there. So I played with it a little and got it to work, but since I don't have circuit board welding equipment, I could not fix it. However the other switch for the "lock" function was tightly connected to the circuit board. This easily explains why one works but not the other.

Still, I think that was pretty lousy that the switch would come off like that from normal use, so I called the dealer. They immediately proceeded to order me a brand new key from the factory under warranty. I faxed a copy of both of our driver's licenses and a copy of the registration. 1 week later the key arrived and the dealer took the broken one in, no questions asked under warranty.

The Valeo key replacement itself (2002-2004 MINI)is around $130 plus half an hour labor to re-program it. Almost $175 for a new key! But we did not pay a penny for it

make sure to bring the other replacement key that way all keys can be re-programmed at the same time in one visit.


Hope this helps.

 

Thank you C4, this answer is awesome. This is why I love this board. When you need to ask a real question someone has come upon a problem and has an answer that may be the right one.

I’ll open the key and see if it’s the same thing that happened to yours. I’ll bet you’re right because the wings feel spongier than they should and was the first thing I noticed. I didn’t put that in the original post because I thought it might be my imagination.

The down side is I’m out of warranty.

The up side is I do micro soldering at work and just might be able to fix it.

 

Carefully remove the battery and then you can yank out the circuit board. Chances are the switch is loose on one or both weld connections. Interestingly, the circuit board has a small red LED light that turns on when you press the buttons, but some reason Valeo decided to leave hidden underneath the hard black plastic keyfob shell. Anyway if the switch is working properly, the LED light should come on on every press of the button.

If you have micro-soldering equipment handy you should be able to fix it failrly quickly and with better and stronger weld beads on each connection point.


Have fun with your key repair project

 

Thanks C4 - you're awsome.

I will look at it tomorrow and fix it if this is the problem Tuesday, the next day I go to work if this is it.

Please folks don't stop posting if you have a different answer because if I open the key tomorrow and this is not it I'll need more answers.

 

Same thing happened to me see this thread. What it ended up being was NOT the battery, but the actuator, the receiver of the signal which is in the car (I think its in the driver's side door). Check your other key first, before you open it up. Make sure only one key doesn't work before replacing the battery.

 

That's a possibility, but when it happened to me the remote keyfob would only lock the doors. The receiver in the car was fine, never had a problem with that.

The easiest thing to check, is to open up the keyfob and make sure the switch didn't come loose from the circuit board. If that checks fine, then another culprit could be the receiver in the car, but doubtful.

 

Thanks for the info. On the 02's only one key is a remote key. My other is only manual. My remote key works fine as a manual key or to auto lock my MCS. Only the unlock part of the key is the problem.

 

Well I’ve been absolutely swamped at work and have not had time to play with the key until this morning.

Just as you said C4 the micro switch had broken loose. After getting the key apart, I soldered the switch back in and it works like a champ.

Thanks again for the advice. It saved me $170 plus for a new key and a 600 mile trip to a dealer.

 

Sndwave, glad to hear your key is finally fixed!

 

The same thing just happened to me. My '02 MCS key stopped working to unlock the doors but locked them just fine so I knew it wasn't the battery or the receiver circuits.

After I got home I opened the key up and found the same thing, a loose actuator switch. A quick trip out to the garage and a little solding and everything is back in working order.

After that I searched out for similar problems and found this site. Guess they had a quality control problem with the '02 keys.

All better now, no worries!

 

I found this thread while doing a search for this problem. I have a 2002 Mini and my key is doing the same thing. I can lock the doors using the remote but can't unlock.

When I push the wings they feel mushy and don't feel like they're coming in contact with anything. I'm wondering if the switch was loose and when I opened the key up to replace the battery (thinking that was the problem) it actually fell off and I didn't notice. What does the switch look like on the opposite side of the board that holds the battery? Looking at that side of the board I don't see any kind of switch that the wings would be coming in contact with. It almost looks as if something broke off.

Ideas?