Waterproof sport key - battery low

[Lexman8]

Originally Posted by Paulj1

it worse than that.... the fob replacement is £160 and you have to pay £100 workshop charge to pair it.... !!!

£100 for something that probably takes 5 minutes.

It makes Ryanair charges seem reasonable.

[Driver Dave]

My Sports key stopped working altogether last June at just 2 years old. It had had very little use prior to it dying.

I had been told at the time of original sale it should last 5 years, so it was replaced under warranty.

[dleahy]

Originally Posted by Lexman8

The battery inside is just a standard CR2032. The tag will always consume power 'listening' for a signal from the car at which point it will transmit and use more power, albeit briefly. My guess is that using it every day will decrease the battery life but it's gonna expire anyway even if you never use it.

If you intend keeping the car beyond 3 years you might as well use it now because it'll probably be dead in 4 or 5 years regardless.

Attached pic shows the insides.
_

After cutting open the key, were you able to successfully replace the battery? Did they key still work?

[Lexman8]

I didn't do this myself but see post #16 here: https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showt...96#post2476796

[nu11eaf]

Re #16, update: My fob is still working perfectly and It should last indefinately with a new battery every few years.

[elotro]

That´s very usefull guys. I just bought mine so hopefully I won´t need it in a while.
I have a 3D printer so it might be quicker for me to print a new housing but I would prefer to keep the original housing as it will allways look better.

[S60Chris]

I've only ever used this key for ours since the car was new on March 1st 2017 so just approaching 2 years of continuous use.... and no low battery warning.......... yet!!

I find it incredibly useful to keep this in my wallet and not have to carry a bulky key.

[nu11eaf]

Mine lasted just short of 2.5 years of exclusive constant use before the low fob battery light came on the dash.

[elotro]

so it looks like the battery lasts about 2-3 years and it does not depend on wheter you use it or not.

[yeeguy]

Originally Posted by tonged

My waterproof sport key tag thing (the small third key, that's in the bottom of the box of keys the car comes with) seems to be low on battery. I've had it almost three years.



According to this page it's a sealed unit and you can't replace the battery!

Has anybody else had this happen? My local dealer has quoted £160 for a new key tag. That seems rather punchy...

Yeah, it's sealed up pretty good, but you can use a X-acto blade or some other sharp tool to pry up the sides. High likelihood you'll crack the case, but hey, since we're breaking warranties, might as well go all the way, right?

A standard CR2032 replacement battery fits.

A few tricky bits:

1) the case is glued shut, so you'll need to work an edge into the sides and pry. There's also a fair amount of double sided tape holding everything in place inside the case, so you'll need to work a blade through the tape to cut the internals loose from the case.
Photo: case opened

2) the contacts for the original battery are SPOT-WELDED onto the surface of the battery. Pain in the a** to remove! Pry the contacts off slowly and carefully with a small flathead screwdriver. The contacts will not remain pristinely flat in this destructive process, but that's OK.
Photo: contacts freed

3) when you put the replacement battery in, make sure to wrap a little bit of nonconductive film around the edge of the battery that faces the contacts. You don't want both the edge and back face of the battery to touch a contact at the same time and short!
Photo: battery replaced

After it's all put back together again, should work just like the original. Until the next time you need to replace that battery... :-P
Video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqBV...ature=youtu.be