Just got my car back from the dealer after it's 75K mile service. Along with the car, we brought in one of the remote clickers because one of the four buttons (door-open) didn't work while the other three were fine. "No way to repair", the service manager says, "we'll have to order you a replacement."
"How much, we ask?"
"$300!" he replied with a smirk on his face.
I'm definitely in the wrong business and I suspect most of us are as well. I think I'll open a car clicker refurbishing shop when I retire later this year.
You can try to open a refurbishing for car remotes. You will have the problem that there are no parts. The cost of analysis equipment required to service the wireless part of them would make the whole business not worth the setup costs.
These may not be expensive to manufacture, but there is a complete structure of administration, and operating costs to keep these in inventory, keep track of them, and to be selling them. This is the reason for the high cost. In the end, I doubt very much if the dealer is making more than about 15% on it at the very most. It is the same for all these spare parts.
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Jerry G. ======
"How much, we ask?"
"$300!" he replied with a smirk on his face.
I'm definitely in the wrong business and I suspect most of us are as well. I think I'll open a car clicker refurbishing shop when I retire later this year.
Does anything fail in them aside from batteries, solder joints and maybe the pushbutton? I would expect 90% of them would be simple to repair with off the shelf parts.
What off the shelf parts? Almost all use a rubber remote control type of membrane and it is not available as a part. Most use melted plastic rivets to hold the pcb to the front half of the case. To take it apart to where you can even get at the button part of it makes it impossible to reassemble as the board will no longer be mounted to the front case.
There are much less expensive places to get those than the dealer.
Norm-I agree, $300 is nuts. It's impossible to imagine any plausible combination of "inventory factors" that can justify this, they're just screwing you. Another one of those "got ya by the short hairs" things like that earlier HP battery cover post. Check here
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I've never used them, just found them googling. Out of curiosity, I looked up the 2 button remote for my own car (2003 Mitsu) they have the OEM unit for $59, they claim the MSRP is $151.
The local AutoZone has a poster advertising that they can get factory keyless remotes. You might try there. Also, Google up "cadillac parts" (or whatever make your car is). You should be able to find a few dealers who have an online parts department and are willing to discount. I recently needed a part for my Toyota. Local dealer wanted list price, $95. A dealer three states away sold it to me for $70 plus $5 shipping.
One caveat: you may have to do a certain procedure to "marry" the new remote to the car. Typically, it's something like "put the key in, turn the ignition on and off seven times, operate the old remote, then operate the new remote twice, then turn the dome light off and on, then you're done". There might be directions with the new remote, or it might only be in the factory service manual. You might ask at the place you buy the replacement remote if they can advise you of the correct procedure.
I don't know how well that will work...when one of the remotes on my '03 S-10 quit working and would set the alarm off randomly, I just pulled the battery and threw the remote in the glove box.
It seemed silly (even the vehicle is under warranty) to fiddle around with replacing it. I can turn a key in a lock and if I don't want to, there is always the one remaining remote.
And just think how many of those "non-repairable" computers could have been fixed by resoldering a few joints, I've fixed a couple injection computers by doing just that, and one that had a blown power transistor.
Ooh, the big scary computer in the car! They've only been putting electronic computers in every car on the road for about 20 years now. I wonder when people will stop being afraid of them.
The rebuilt computer for my '89 Chevy was $100 exchange in about 1998 and was in stock on the shelf at the chain parts store. I drove up to the store with my intermittently failing computer, went in and got the new part, and went back out to the parking lot. I unplugged the old one, swapped the PROM from the old one to the new one, and did some resistance and voltage checks as specified on the sheet that came with the new computer to make sure I wasn't about to fry the new one. I plugged in the new one, drove around the block a couple of times, and came back to the parts store to turn in my old one for the core credit. I put about
30,000 more miles on that car before selling it, with the replacement computer still running fine. Yes, it was probably $10 worth of electronics, but having to spend $100 and an hour on a car with over 120,000 miles on it seems like a reasonable deal to me.
Interestingly, the link I posted earlier to the place that specializes in these door openers sells REFURBISHED examples, so it would appear SOMEONE is already IN that business.
$300 is insane for a keyless remote. For the entire system I'd understand, but just a simple keyless remote!?! I have a 2003 Grand Prix and I think the dealer wants around $30. They also sell on Ebay for well under $20.
I've gotten the black boxes for Fords for much less than that.(NOT at the Dealer of course!) Last one I replaced was for a F150 and cost me around 20 bucks at my local parts house.
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