The Miracle of a Working Key Fob

If you own an older Saab, you know the miracle of a working key fob.
By the time the keys have been turned over to you, your 15-20-year-old car may have been through a number of owners. At least one of them likely left the thing to die when the CR2032 battery died.
You know the kind.

The batteries that look like lozenges

Problem is, if you let the battery die — and fail to replace it quickly — the whole system goes kaput. And then you know the true agony of living with a beautiful, classic Saab automobile with a failed key fob.

The joys of having a key fob and door entry system that actually works are many. They include door locks that go up and down with the press of a button. A rear gate that can be opened with pulling out your key. And a beautiful "tweet" sound that accompanies all this magic.

My Saab key fob works intermittently

With a yard full of Saabs, I've already lived the agony of failed key fobs. With the 1999 9-3 SE I've got now, I'm living the dream — at least intermittently — of a working fob. The glorious tweets! The ease of use! The sense of a Swedish luxury car working to its maximum potential!

But, then it goes out on me and I suffer — deeply. The first time this happened, just after I purchased the vehicle, I opened the device and checked it out. Some of that white corrosion film was apparent on the lozenge, so I replaced it.

Since then I live through the intermittency.

Until the failure seemed more permanent . .

. . and I put the proper (tiny) screwdriver in my car so I could take the fob apart again and have a look. It hadn't been long enough, it seemed, for the battery to have run down that far.

I really didn't wake up to the danger I was running until a couple weeks later. What if the battery had run down and the system fails? I rushed down to Rite Aid, and pulled out the manual to check the battery size. There in big letters it said that if the key fob battery did fail I'd get a warning notice on the dash.

I'd received no such warning.

Looking down the racks for the proper battery I noticed they were sold in two-packs — for $7.49 each. Since I'd purchased the last battery at that same store that would mean that I have another one somewhere.

I checked the glove compartment for an extra battery . .

. . but no dice. I stopped at the Chinese for lunch, bringing the special screwdriver in with me to effect the special operation on the failing key fob. Reviewing Twitter instead, I sat waiting impatiently for the waitress to come for my money.

When I got up to bring the tray to her, my key fob fell out of my pocket and onto the floor with a "SMACK". As I leaned down to retrieve it, I thought, "Could this have fixed it?"

I'm living the miracle of a working key fob again!