Help! 99 Keyfob Issue

[henryweston157]

Hello, this is my first post so be gentle.... I just bought my first vette, a 99 White Convertible a couple days ago. The car runs good, has minor issues that I am sure you all will be hearing about, and questions I will need answered. My first dilemma is the keyfob. The car came with only one FOB, and it does not work. I did the owners manual run through, and the DIC never says FOB learned, but the FOB does work. But it only works for 5 minutes tops. During the 5 minutes doors will unlock/lock, trunk will open, passive system works great... Then after 5 or so minutes, FOB goes back to just being a dangling piece of art... I don't believe this FOB has ever been trained to the car, and I was told by the previous owner that I had to go to the dealer to program the initial FOB, then all subsequent FOBS I can program on my own. Any ideas, Folks?

 

[jj2k]

There have been several of us having FOB problems recently. There is a section in the user manual for how to train them. (It does not have to be done by the dealer) I had to replace my FOB with a new one. Apparently it went bad. First time I've had that happend. But it was doing the exact same thing that you mention. There is a user on the board selling a new pair of FOBs for a real good price. You may want to do that.

 

[henryweston157]

99 Key FOB Issue

Thank you for reply. Is there a difference between "training" a FOB and adding a FOB to the car. I found the 6+ steps in the manual, ran through those, and I never get the FOB learned message. The FOB will work however, after 5 minutes Nada.... I do not have a working FOB for the car, so maybe this is why I cannot add any additional FOBS? Thanks for info on the FOBs for sale, however I have a 99 and kinda would like to keep the passive system feature if I could.

 

[FLIR_man]

Training and learning are the same. During the "process you should be asked for the second fob to train. Is the battery new? You should try to hold both the lock and unlock buttons at the same time standing near the car after replacing the battery if needed.

 

[Eric]

Thank you for reply. Is there a difference between "training" a FOB and adding a FOB to the car. I found the 6+ steps in the manual, ran through those, and I never get the FOB learned message. The FOB will work however, after 5 minutes Nada.... I do not have a working FOB for the car, so maybe this is why I cannot add any additional FOBS? Thanks for info on the FOBs for sale, however I have a 99 and kinda would like to keep the passive system feature if I could.

First off, welcome aboard! I'm sure we can figure this out for you. There aren't many things where there isn't someone here who's been there, done that.:eyerole

Like the post above says, try a fresh battery first. They're dirt cheap.

Are you getting tire pressure monitor errors on you DIC? If not, chances are you have a bad fob. Both systems share one receiver and and usually both systems will fail if the receiver is bad. I had nearly exactly the situation you describe when I bought my 98, only difference is I had two fobs and one was failing like you describe. Even if you can't train the fob, the car will remember it if it had been prevoiusly trained for it - that's what mine did.

This may sound crazy but do you have a local friend who has a C5 that could let you try to train his fob on your car and vice versa? If so, you'd know pretty quickly if it's the fob or the receiver. If your fob is good on other cars and other fobs don't work on your car then you probably need a receiver, otherwise you need a fob. The receiver is located in the rear cargo area up against the left quarter panel and is an easy replace if it comes to that. I had a similar problem on my 98 and c4c5specialist was able to test my system with his GM Tech1 tool and my problem ended up being fob related.

Also, regarding your question, the training process will work regardless of whether there are fobs trained previously or not. When mine was looked at, the tech1 was used to clear mine and start over.

Good luck and keep us updated.