1999 Yaris key remote doesn't work at

[KonyaB]

Hello guys,

I recently bought a Yaris as first car, the seller told me the remote control doesn't work for a while now. Opening doors with key works, also starting the car.
But pushing the buttons on the fob doesn't do anything. The led flashed up on the fob when i pressed any buttons, but now even that doesn't work since i took out the Battery to test it. It turns out by my Tronic Battery Tester that the Battery is full. I'm still gonna buy new one though. 

What could be the problem? Is it all battery related, or did the fob "forget" the programming and i have to re-program it? 
How do i do that?

Cheers,
Ben

[Anthony Poli]

Hi Ben,

Sometimes that Battery holder breaks, or there are dry solder joints on the circuit board. Fiddly job, but if you have a good soldering skills you can easily fix the fob.

 

[Cyker]

Firstly, kudos for checking the Battery first!!! So many people don't check the simple common-sense things before screaming that something is broken!

Any hoo, the most common problem (Still rare tho') with these remotes is the buttons get snapped off over time and it's most common with the studded button; My theory is people tend to slide their finger over the button rather than just pressing down and after a while the tiny solder bond cracks.

This happened recently to the 'eBay-special frankenkey' that I made some years back; I cracked it open and it turned out the button had sheared completely off the board; Annoyingly it had also ripped/gouged out some traces with it so I ended up having to buy a new key :(

(Well, actually I just bought the module, sans key, and programmed it myself!)

If it is the button you might be able to resolder it, but it's a little tricky and you'll need a fine/pointy solder-tip. Being quite short-sighted or having magnifying spectacles will also help a lot! Some auto-locksmiths do offer repair services, and there are a few eBay sellers that also do it, but you need to send the key to them. They usually charge £10-30

A new module or key from Toyota is a little under £100, and the programming can vary quite wildly between £30 and £70 depending on how arsy your local franchise is.

(You can also try to program it yourself too - Instructions differ depending on the key type, but the instructions are floating around in this forum)