Post by CampKohler (Sacramento CA) on Apr 10, 2018 12:20:10 GMT -5
My next door neighbor bought a used Chevy SUV that was a big improvement over his previous rattletrap. For example it has OnStar that is in effect a $35/year cellphone with unlimited minutes. Hard to beat.
His remote started acting intermittent, which he, not being an electronics type, still was able to attribute to goo on the rubber button contacts. Over the last few decades I experienced this on relatives' remotes of all types, and it was due to silicone oil leaching out of the rubber and interfering with good contact. Cleaning with isopropyl only fixed it for a few months, and then you needed to rinse and repeat. A relative of mine came to the identical conclusion. So after a certain age, you either clean often or buy a replacement.
My neighbor cleaned his, but was confronted with several buttons that no longer worked. He attributed it to something electronic, so went to the Chevy dealer. They wanted $165 for the remote and $85 to program it for his car. He declined the honor.
Back home, I cleaned it with isopropyl, but no joy. I then did some testing by touching the PCB pads with a matchstick-size roll of aluminum foil. All the functions worked. He was amazed. Now he is going to stick tiny pieces of foil tape on the buttons, thus no longer relying upon the conductive bits of the buttons. Hopefully the silicone oil leaching out in the future won't cause the foil to lose adhesion. At the very least, in an emergency, he can open up the remote and use a key to operate the PCB button pads by shorting them out as needed.
There is a very expensive carbon re-coating liquid you can buy to renew the button contacts. However the downside is that once you open the bottle, you have to use it all up right away, else it is ruined. So you'd better have a dozen office phones all laid out ready for treatment to make the stuff worth while. Another option is to solder wires to the PCB traces and attach miniature pushbuttons outboard.
His remote started acting intermittent, which he, not being an electronics type, still was able to attribute to goo on the rubber button contacts. Over the last few decades I experienced this on relatives' remotes of all types, and it was due to silicone oil leaching out of the rubber and interfering with good contact. Cleaning with isopropyl only fixed it for a few months, and then you needed to rinse and repeat. A relative of mine came to the identical conclusion. So after a certain age, you either clean often or buy a replacement.
My neighbor cleaned his, but was confronted with several buttons that no longer worked. He attributed it to something electronic, so went to the Chevy dealer. They wanted $165 for the remote and $85 to program it for his car. He declined the honor.
Back home, I cleaned it with isopropyl, but no joy. I then did some testing by touching the PCB pads with a matchstick-size roll of aluminum foil. All the functions worked. He was amazed. Now he is going to stick tiny pieces of foil tape on the buttons, thus no longer relying upon the conductive bits of the buttons. Hopefully the silicone oil leaching out in the future won't cause the foil to lose adhesion. At the very least, in an emergency, he can open up the remote and use a key to operate the PCB button pads by shorting them out as needed.
There is a very expensive carbon re-coating liquid you can buy to renew the button contacts. However the downside is that once you open the bottle, you have to use it all up right away, else it is ruined. So you'd better have a dozen office phones all laid out ready for treatment to make the stuff worth while. Another option is to solder wires to the PCB traces and attach miniature pushbuttons outboard.
