New FOB Battery, and Damn

[bookeem]

What a difference, no more hard starts in the morning, where it tuns over then conks right out, no more surging when i first take off, like the gas is being cut back..

i swore up and down it was some kind of fuel/throttle related problem, ran injector cleaner, cleaned the throttle body plate, still existed, then remebered some talk about fob batteries, and what happens when the fob battery gets low..searched the knowlege base, found the thread, said hmm that sounds like my symptoms, ran to cvs grabbed a new energizer battery for the fob, got home put it in, and said tomorrow morning will be the test, (this was friday btw) so saturday morning i go out to start the car with my fingers crossed, started right up, no hard start, didnt wan to conk back out, like it has been wanting to do the past month or 2..

so i put it in drive to take off as i normally do to see if it does the surging like i apply gas then let off apply and let off, nope thats gone also, so im like cool, car actually feels stronger or healthier too..

so sunday im anxious to see if its smooth starting and sailing again, and sure enough , nice smooth start first try no problem or roughness..

so yes a new fob battery made my car feel like it got a tune up, lol

thanks to this thread in The Knowledge Base

Information & How To - Ignition Key *

[HULK]

Very interesting! Thanks for posting up your results, Ill definitely keep this in mind.

-Pat

[bookeem]

no problem, thought it was worth a shot for 5 bucks to get a new fob battery..

ive seen several post on basicly the same thing lately (rough starts) so i thought ide give my experience with the new battery..

i actually just went out to my car now, lunchtime , just to start it, cause it used to do it after sitting 5 hours from morning to lunch time too, and it started right up, no problem, and i dont know if its placebo, but like i said the car feels like its stronger/healthier/smoother compared to having the older fob battery that was in the remote the 2 years i have had the car, and who knows how long before due to the car being purchased used..

[aries4life]

I'm overdue for replacing mine. The range is dismal now. I also have a surge problem. I might go ahead and change mine to see if it smoothes thing out a bit. If nothing else, I'll have a fully functioning RKE again. Thanks for the tidbit!

[bookeem]

anytime...

but im tellin u im still bugged out by the fact that the surge is gone as well as the hard starts..

please report back after u put the new batery in ...

[Shelby]

Wow- the FOB battery should not have such impacts. The RKE battery is just for the remote and not the security/anti-theft system.

You can test this by taking the battery out and then driving your car.

Try it out and let us know. If your battery makes everything work better that is very weird.

[Fargo59]

yeah, the battery only has to do with the RKE portion. thats it. SKIM gets its signal via the antenna ring. no batteries required for that. as for running better, cool, thats the cheapest tune up ever. i'll start selling those, lol.

[Ron380]

Okay... that's just weird...


But if it works, WTH- run with it!!

[fnkychkn]

hmmmm!
as Shelby said, try it tomorrow morning after you remove the battery from the FOB and post results.

[feros]

I'll have to check back and see what the results are.

[bookeem]

screw u all, >sarcasm< it worked for me, no more hard starts or surging when i first take off, im not messing with it lol...i"ll just be happy those lil annoyances are gone and it wasnt by coincidence...

[bookeem]

Okay... that's just weird...


But if it works, WTH- run with it!!

exactly my point of view, lol...im running with it, and the mag is running better with it..

[bookeem]

ok so i went and tried it with out the fob battery on my lunch hour anyway...and it was interesting...

started the car with the battery in, fired right up, drove around the parking garage, no surging or anything like its been since i put the new battery in..parked turned off the car, took the battery out of the fob, put the key in start it up,waiting for all the dings and dash lights to go off, first thing i noticed, was it took a longer crank to start it, meaning i had to hold the key in the start position a lil longer than i normally would have to,then it fired up..

then saw 2 orange lights ,not sure which two it was as it was literally a split second, show up very fast on the cluster, at that point i said ok, thats different, , put it in drive to drive around the parking garage to check if it was gonna surge, sure enough, the minute i tapped the gas pedal, it surged like it was going to cut off, then lurched forward like i gave it a lil gas,then surged like it wanted to cut off again, then lurched forawrd a lil bit again like i gave it gas, but didnt give it any gas other than the initial tap of the gas pedal after i first put it in drive..then it drove off as normal, same symptoms as before i put he new fob battery in, parked the car, put the battery back in, fired it up again, and it fired up soon as the key was turned to start..put it in drive,tapped the gas, no lurching , it just rolled like it will normally if u just tap the gas..

coincidence, placebo, call it what u want, but i still stand behind my original post, it made the car feel like it is healthy again..no hard starts and no lurching forward..

im ready to hear all your thoughts, opinions, etc...my only point is if its not true why would the article in the knowledge base been allowed if that info werent true, i know everyone hates false info, but it described my symptoms, and it worked for me...

[desquirrel]

There is no "opinion" about this.

[Todd RT]

Interesting, cause I've been chasing down a problem that I thought was in my PCM.

Sometimes when starting, I have to hold the key for a sec before starting. JUST LIKE when I pull fuse 11, the first time I start it takes a second or so before cranking. And until the PCM adjusts, the car surges bad. After a minute or two, the idle evens out. Hmmmm...

I'll try two different keyfobs and get a battery tomorrow.

My battery is old, but no RKE LOW message on evic yet.