scrounga
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2012
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Location
- Canberra, Australia
- Members Ride
- VE Omega ute. VZ Monaro (Sting Red)
I haven't seen this on the forum so I hope I'm not doubling up. Note: this whole job requires care and patience but can be tackled by anyone that can solder well.
My Monaro key went flat. I unlocked the car manually with the dead key and the alarm went off. I searched google for answers and I couldn't believe I had to replace the whole fob because of a flat battery but it's true.
Now, there is a lot of info floating around about this and a LOT of it is bullsh*t but amongst all the BS I repeatedly saw brief references of people saying you could replace the battery yourself. I figured that if I had to buy a new fob I had nothing to loose trying it myself.
First I unscrewed the metal key from the fob. Now rather than try to break the two halves of the shell open with a screw driver and leave pry marks I mounted the fob sideways in a vice with padded jaws and started carefully applying the squeeze. I have used this technique before to separate bonded plastic shells.
With a crack the shell halves started to separate and I was able to finish parting the shells apart with a screwdriver. No pry marks - Bonus.
Now the battery. There are two tags on the top and two tags on the bottom of the battery which are spot welded to the battery with two welds on each tag so that's eight welds. I used a razor blade to pry up the end of the tag and then a pair of long nose pliers to roll the tag around the end of the pliers which gave me enough purchase to break the spot welds. I repeated this for all the tags. Now I flattened out the tags and tinned them with solder. I happened to have a spare lithium battery but they are only a couple of bucks and are a very common size. Tricky Dicky or Jcar will have them. Next I tinned a spot on both sides of the battery. I used an 80 watt soldering iron with a flat tip. An 80 watt iron may seem overkill but it allowed me to get the heat where I needed it with in a second or two. It was so quick that it wasn't there long enough to allow the whole battery to heat up and become U/S.
With this all done I put the two halves back together again with a drop of super glue and went to the Monaro to test it. Nothing. None of the buttons worked!!
I thought it had failed but then I tried the locks with the spare key. I unlocked the doors turned the ignition on and started the car. All good. Now I tried the repaired key and BINGO everything worked as it should and has been ever since. This whole exercise took about an hour and cost me nothing.
Some of the crap I read about replacing the battery:
If you remove the old battery the fob will loose it's program - Bullsh*t.
Soldering the battery will destroy it. It may even explode! - Bullsh*t but you do need to be quick. ie good at soldering.
You have to get the fob re-programmed by a locksmith or Holden - Bullsh*t.
You can't replace the battery, you HAVE to buy a new fob - Bullsh*t.
I hope this helps for those brave enough to have a go. Sorry there are no pictures as I wrote this afterwards. I have written this as a guide only and cannot say that it will work for every VZ key but it worked for me and at the price Mr Minit and Holden want I'm glad I tried. You must decide if the info is right for you.
Cheers Stu.
My Monaro key went flat. I unlocked the car manually with the dead key and the alarm went off. I searched google for answers and I couldn't believe I had to replace the whole fob because of a flat battery but it's true.
Now, there is a lot of info floating around about this and a LOT of it is bullsh*t but amongst all the BS I repeatedly saw brief references of people saying you could replace the battery yourself. I figured that if I had to buy a new fob I had nothing to loose trying it myself.
First I unscrewed the metal key from the fob. Now rather than try to break the two halves of the shell open with a screw driver and leave pry marks I mounted the fob sideways in a vice with padded jaws and started carefully applying the squeeze. I have used this technique before to separate bonded plastic shells.
With a crack the shell halves started to separate and I was able to finish parting the shells apart with a screwdriver. No pry marks - Bonus.
Now the battery. There are two tags on the top and two tags on the bottom of the battery which are spot welded to the battery with two welds on each tag so that's eight welds. I used a razor blade to pry up the end of the tag and then a pair of long nose pliers to roll the tag around the end of the pliers which gave me enough purchase to break the spot welds. I repeated this for all the tags. Now I flattened out the tags and tinned them with solder. I happened to have a spare lithium battery but they are only a couple of bucks and are a very common size. Tricky Dicky or Jcar will have them. Next I tinned a spot on both sides of the battery. I used an 80 watt soldering iron with a flat tip. An 80 watt iron may seem overkill but it allowed me to get the heat where I needed it with in a second or two. It was so quick that it wasn't there long enough to allow the whole battery to heat up and become U/S.
With this all done I put the two halves back together again with a drop of super glue and went to the Monaro to test it. Nothing. None of the buttons worked!!
I thought it had failed but then I tried the locks with the spare key. I unlocked the doors turned the ignition on and started the car. All good. Now I tried the repaired key and BINGO everything worked as it should and has been ever since. This whole exercise took about an hour and cost me nothing.
Some of the crap I read about replacing the battery:
If you remove the old battery the fob will loose it's program - Bullsh*t.
Soldering the battery will destroy it. It may even explode! - Bullsh*t but you do need to be quick. ie good at soldering.
You have to get the fob re-programmed by a locksmith or Holden - Bullsh*t.
You can't replace the battery, you HAVE to buy a new fob - Bullsh*t.
I hope this helps for those brave enough to have a go. Sorry there are no pictures as I wrote this afterwards. I have written this as a guide only and cannot say that it will work for every VZ key but it worked for me and at the price Mr Minit and Holden want I'm glad I tried. You must decide if the info is right for you.
Cheers Stu.
