Key fob battery life

[Ksnau]

So I'm coming up on almost exactly 2 years with my baby bronco about 41,000 mi and It seems like my key fob battery on the one that I always use is finally failing. It would rarely work even right up next to it so I swapped the battery but I just used the cheap Amazon brand. Which I'm assuming isn't going to last as long as the stock one. So I'm going to leave some spares in the car but I was wondering how long people's key fob batteries had lasted if anyone had had to change theirs?

Also the type to buy if you need to replace yours is CR2450 they're a little bit bigger than the one in the Honda that I had recently changed. They're I'm going to say about the size of a nickel instead of a dime. I got a five pack on Amazon for about $7.50

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[Dude]

So I'm coming up on almost exactly 2 years with my baby bronco about 41,000 mi and It seems like my key fob battery on the one that I always use is finally failing.

Did this message come up?

 

[cprcubed]

2-1/2 years for me and still working fine. Cheers!

 

[Jill]

So I'm coming up on almost exactly 2 years with my baby bronco about 41,000 mi and It seems like my key fob battery on the one that I always use is finally failing. It would rarely work even right up next to it so I swapped the battery but I just used the cheap Amazon brand. Which I'm assuming isn't going to last as long as the stock one. So I'm going to leave some spares in the car but I was wondering how long people's key fob batteries had lasted if anyone had had to change theirs?

Also the type to buy if you need to replace yours is CR2450 they're a little bit bigger than the one in the Honda that I had recently changed. They're I'm going to say about the size of a nickel instead of a dime. I got a five pack on Amazon for about $7.50

I’m over four years and have only used one fob. No issues with battery life.

 

[Escape2Bronco]

So I'm coming up on almost exactly 2 years with my baby bronco about 41,000 mi and It seems like my key fob battery on the one that I always use is finally failing. It would rarely work even right up next to it so I swapped the battery but I just used the cheap Amazon brand. Which I'm assuming isn't going to last as long as the stock one. So I'm going to leave some spares in the car but I was wondering how long people's key fob batteries had lasted if anyone had had to change theirs?

Also the type to buy if you need to replace yours is CR2450 they're a little bit bigger than the one in the Honda that I had recently changed. They're I'm going to say about the size of a nickel instead of a dime. I got a five pack on Amazon for about $7.50

I just hit three years. The Lexus is 12 years old and I’m still on the second battery. I think that was the thinner one which doesn’t make sense. The thicker one has almost 3x the capacity. I use those in the garage door sensors.

 

[Ksnau]

Interesting, well I swapped them I should have ch cked the voltage with my voltmeter but I'm more comfortable knowing I've got a full battery. So I guess I won't win the longest fob battery contest darn.

 

[sajohnson]

Did this message come up?

It did in our case. It'll be 3 years on the 25th.

 

[sajohnson]

I just checked the batteries in both remotes. Their voltage is *identical* -- 3.011V.

I searched but could not find the typical voltage when new. One chart seemed to indicate ~3.2V, but quickly dropping to ~3.0V.

It seems odd to be getting the "Key battery low" message for a 3V battery that's over 3V.

 

[Ksnau]

Oh that's cool that it tells you that I never got that message on my car it just seemed like when I was hitting the lock and unlock buttons it wasn't recognizing it so I assume the battery was low and when I changed the battery it seemed to work better

 

[sajohnson]

I ordered the batteries yesterday, along with some oil filters and a pair of TONDA Jack Stand Pads.

The filters and pads arrived 12 hours later(amazing!) but the batteries won't be here until Tuesday. I'm curious about their initial voltage.

 

[sajohnson]

I just realized I forgot to post the voltage of the new batteries -- they were both just over 3.2V.

The packaging says "Energizer" but the batteries are marked "Panasonic CR2450." Exp. date is 3/2034.

I'm still curious as to why the original batteries were considered low at over 3V?

 

[DesertRat19]

I'm typically around 2-3 years for my vehicles. 2 years on the BS without a change yet but would not be surprised by one within the next year.

 

[sajohnson]

I'm typically around 2-3 years for my vehicles. 2 years on the BS without a change yet but would not be surprised by one within the next year.

That sounds right.

Believe it or not, the fob for my 2002 WRX (purchased in the spring of 2001) has never had the battery replaced and still works! But I know it's an outlier.

 

[Ksnau]

So update I went to remote start my car today and the fob wouldn't work I used the spare set and worked fine so it looks like it's not the battery. Gonna ask dealer at next oil change I guess and use spare for now. Also it seemed like over past week or two the range wasn't there and it wouldn't work as consistently.

 

[Ksnau]

So I took a break from work just now and tried my old key fob. The one that was having issues and well I could press the buttons on the fob to lock and unlock the door. When I got in the car and tried to press the start button with the brake down, it wouldn't start the car. Basically the car was not recognizing the key fob. The intelligent access wouldn't work or anything. I tried some of the stuff it said online but then I just gave up and just put a new battery in it and all a sudden everything started working good. So I basically got a dud new battery that it looks like probably just didn't have enough power.

I pulled out my voltmeter And it read that it was generating 3.13 volts So I pulled the battery that I just put in my fob that was working and it read 3.26 volts. So I guess just that little bit of voltage off is enough to mess with stuff. And you know I've seen that with these newer cars, fluctuations in voltage and power affect it a lot more than the other ones.


Warning mindless rant ahead:

Which is yet another reason why this will be the last new/newer car I ever buy and probably the last car made after about 2010 and probably more likely into the '90s. I like the '90s cars cuz you got a lot of the luxuries that you actually use but they're still pretty simple but you still have fuel injection but it's not overly complicated and you can always add a lot of the stuff that newer cars have that you can't get like Parking sensors, cameras and navigation, DVD, etc... Whatever crap you want for the most part you can even add like heated and cooled seats or at least fan powered seats. So the way the economy is going right now I'm probably going to keep my bronco sport for a while and just try and save up money so the only.mods I'll do are the 360 camera that I wanted to do and then the better air suspension controller with height sensors and presets and then I'm just going to sit tight until I have everything paid off and the economy is back to normal. Assuming that ever happens. Yhen I'm probably going to go back to doing my '92-96 bronco project assuming I can find one that people aren't asking ridiculous prices for, with a 2010 Chevy Silverado drivetrain for the most part while deleting the displacement on demand and using a stand alone ECU, but I kind of want to keep the VCT because it is good and helps with power and efficiency and they do actually make upgraded cams for while keeping it. You just have to limit the VCT and the tuners that I've talked to about it said that you really only need about 15° of variation anyways and they make limiters and it's not hard to do And that way I get the better heads and an aluminum block. But I don't have to worry about the other dumb complexity crap that I don't want cuz I'd like to get another LC9 like I had my 2011 Silverado that was a great engine. Plenty of power but if you were conservative I could still average like 20 miles per gallon. That was also cuz it had the 6l80 but I think I'd be fine with a 4l80 But I'd rather have the 6l80 because it has a .67 6th gear ratio that kept the engine at about 1800 RPM. Going to 75 on the highway with stock tire size while the 4l80 only has a 75. So it's not quite as good with cruising speeds, but it might be enough depending on what my rear end final gear ratio ends up being as well as my tire size because even in a I never really had to worry about power, but it'll probably end up getting a turbo anyways so I can keep the gearing at a lower numerical value so it's better at high speeds and not have to worry about it not having enough power down low. I like the 6l80 but you can't deny the more simplistic 4L80 and it's also supported by a lot more stuff although the 6080 is getting to be supported a lot better. With the 4l80 you just don't have as many intermediate gears, but I'm not too worried about that cuz I'm either going 75 or about 40 to 50. And I still believe that you don't need more than six gears and there's not a benefit to these 8 and 10 speeds. And you're just adding so much more weight and so much more rotational weight as well as the complexity. Although I would love to get a manual transmission, but I don't think the stock manual transmissions from those years would be able to take the power. I probably have to get like a TKO or t56 Magnum or something and those are expensive and sometimes they need adapter plates or you have to do like a divorce transfer case or some crazy stuff that I don't want to deal with.

But anyways that has nothing to do with the baby bronco but I did figure out my fob so if you have problems where your fob will let you click the luck and unlock book and works but the car is not recognizing it. Maybe just change the battery a few times to make sure you didn't get a dud battery. Oh one thing that helped me figure this out was I did put it in the center console spot and it did recognize my key fob so that made me think that it was a low voltage issue where it just wasn't powerful enough to send out the transmissions for the car to see it. But it was letting the other stuff out the buttons work.

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