todthedod

2012 c63.

So my kid calls and says the car won't crank. I get home and push the push button start...nothing. Remove push button and insert key and turn...nothing. I replaced the battery on the fob but still can't get anything to happen. It wont' even lock and unlock the doors now. I think I remember a bmw I had way back, you could hold the fob up to an area on the column and get it to remarry or at least recognize the fob enough to crank. Do our cars have this? I'm at a loss and cannot find the spare fob of course. lol

I'm thinking I'm just going to have to order a new one and get it programmed if that's even the problem. Anyone know of a good place?

Cwagon

Have you tried charging or replacing the car battery.
When mine died the whole car went blank.
I had to use the physical key to open the car.

Mort

It does sound like a low battery voltage to me as well.

Driver507

Stupid question but same thing happened to me, it wasn't a low battery it was the actually battery connection. The Bolt on the negative terminal broke, it looked ok until I pulled it off. New bolt and perfect, no issues. Lot of times it's something dumb with these, they are overall very reliable machines.

todthedod

When I open the door and sit in the car, the display comes up normally. The battery voltage is 12.6. It’s just the key does nothing. It won’t unlock or lock the doors. It won’t work if I insert and turn the ignition. Wondering if there’s a way to test the key fob somehow to make sure that’s what it is. Maybe I’ll just bite the bullet and order another one from the stealership.

Diabolis

There is nothing to reset in the key itself. If it completely stopped working (including the opto-coupler when you remove the start button and fire the car by inserting the key itself) but your other key works fine, it is defective and has an electrical fault. You do have a second key, right? Does it work fine?

And, it's not the key that gets programmed - its the ECU on the car. Any dealership can do it. Bring ID and the car ownership as well as all keys (working or not).

todthedod

Ok so I get home from work a little while ago. I try the lock and unlock buttons on the fob again and no response from the car. I put the key in the ignition switch and turn and low and behold it fires up, but it's stumbling and cuts-off after a second or two. I guess this means the fob is working at least the start function and it's leaning towards a bad battery like was said. I'll get a battery tomorrow and try it out.

TonyD_AMG

Smells like ESL failure to me. What you describe is very similar to the symptoms i experienced leading up to my ESL failure. Almost exactly from an intermittent startup to replacing fob battery then car battery then the realization that I was screwed and had to go through the ESL process.

I hope this is not the case for you...it sucks!!

todthedod

I got home today and tried to start it and nothing. Wiggled the steering wheel back and forth and tried again and it started right up. Drove around the yard and ran perfectly. Don't know if moving the wheel was a coincidence or not. That makes it lean even more so towards the ESL doesn't it? May as well have both of my vehicles in the shop at the same time. Got a bad TCM in my F150 that's costing me $2000. Supposedly was a recall for it but Ford slithered out of paying for it. I'm driving around in a rental Challenger...lol

TonyD_AMG

Yeah that is a little more circumstantial evidence pointing to the ESL. You may want to get the car in a space to be worked on if you intend to fix yourself and disconnect the battery while the esl is the unlocked position which will make the repair a bit easier.

It's a PITA job either way but having it in unlocked position is easier. Assuming you go the emulator route...immediately send the eis and key to your choice of programmer to get the emulator. This is a good time to get another key should you need a spare. Doing it at early in the process will reduce added down time waiting on the emulator to get to you.

Watch all the esl replacement and steering column removal videos you can...then watch them 5 more times. In my humble opinion just assume to pull the column out. I spent a lot of time, correction, I wasted a ton of time upside-down under the dash sweating and grunting and cussing and just generally fussing with trying to get the esl off the column with the column still in car. Just assume to take the column out entirely.

Couple other tips I learned in hindsight that the videos don't tell you or don't stress enough.

1. Make sure steering wheel is as straight as possible before disconnecting power...also make sure steering column is all the way in if it is power assisted before disconnecting battery...oh and the seat is back so you have room to crawl under the dash

2. No need to take dash cluster out.

3. Take care when removing clock spring. Might want o mark it at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock and don't spin it all. Put it safely aside.

3. Maybe tape the steering shaft in the column so it wont spin prior to pulling column or disconnecting the colum from the u joint...not a huge issue but this may help a little when reassembling.

4. Do take gas pedal out. It's simple to do and will save a lot of frustration trying to fish out the column. Doest seem like it's in the way...it is.

5. im not sure if it is easier to disconnect the column from the shaft that goes through the firewall or to keep it connected and just pull that out still connected to the column. I disconnected at the U joint and this proved to be a huge pain when it came to reassembly. The Female side of the U joint is aluminum and if you have to spin the steering shaft at all trying to match/align the master splines it will bugger up the aluminum u joint making it impossible to reconnect the shaft to the joint. That's why I suggested tip 3 above. If you have issues at this point get a wire brush like a battery terminal cleaner and use it to ream out the aluminum side and clean out all the metal fragments that will be created from searching for master spline alignment.

Oh and there will be points whena second set of hands will be very helpful.

Good luck!

todthedod

Wow thanks for all the info. I think I'm retired from crawling under cars and steering columns so I've just let the car sit this past week. If the ESL does fail, it will go to the stealership. About 15 minutes ago, I found my other key fob finally. It was in a box in storage from when I moved. I put a new battery in it and it works like nothing has ever happened. It locks and unlocks the doors while the other fob wouldn't. I can push button start while the other fob wouldn't. I'm not holding my breath that it's not the ESL but we will see. I'll keep you updated.