Hello all,

My new to me 2006 S65 came with 2 key fobs. One was a brand new one made for me on the dealer's dime, the other is the original key that came with the car. These are the old style keys, and not the chrome ones (if memory serves as I don't have them in front of me).

Both keys can lock and unlock the vehicle, start the car when inserted into the dashboard key slot, plus open the trunk. Neither one however is recognized when attempting to start or stop the engine via the transmission shifter button. A message appears on the gauge cluster that "Key is not recognized". Similarly, neither will open the door when in my pocket and I press the unlock buttons on the driver or passenger side handles.

I would have imagined a problem with the original key due to a weak battery, but the new key has a new battery in it.

I've done some research on the forum, and none really addressed my concerns. The simplest explanation being the ECU probably just needs to be reset, while some others state that the EIS may be faulty.

I don't have a Star diagnostic computer, just a regular OBDII code reader. Is there anything I can do to troubleshoot first to determine the actual issue before taking it to a dealer?

Many thanks in advance for your help and suggestions.

 

I can almost guarantee you the new key isn't programmed. I just bought a new KG key for my 06 S55 and when I picked it up at the dealers it would unlock and start the car but the KG wouldn't recognize it and the guy was confused. They had to talk to the shop foreman and bring the car into the shop and program the new key so I'd bet money that wasn't done on yours.. who knows about the first key.. could just be bad.

 

What cmpcpro says. Some additional info. The chrome keys will not work on the 2006 if it has Keyless Go. When I got my new S65 one of the keys had "gone missing" at the dealer. To use a new key the lost one should be deleted from the memory. I was also told only 3 KG keys can be used at a time. Amazingly this process took about 4 hours at the dealer. There were firmware updates for the car the SDS required be installed first. They then discovered the SDS computer the tech was using did not have the latest SDS update which prevented the new firmware from installing. So those two things were done, then the new key programmed into the car and all was well. I think the tech must have taken a long lunch break during the process to account for 4 hours ET.

 

Wow! 4 hours is a lot! Took them 30 minutes to do mine!

 

The key was not more than 30 minutes, all the other preliminaries extended the time. Good thing I took a loaner and did not wait for it.

 

Thanks for the responses. Much appreciated. I guess I'll change the key in the old keyfob and see if that helps. If not, I guess I'll need to take the car in to the dealer for recoding.

Does anyone know how much that costs? I'd assume that if nothing else were wrong, this should be labor only and no more than an hour?

 

Changed the battery in the old keyfob; still no dice when it comes to KG. Car just key not recognized.

 

Have the dealer reprogram them..

 

I tried to have this done today at MB of Manhattan (Daimler AG's only factory owned dealership in the USA), and I must say that it was a COLOSSAL waste of time and money.

I got there this morning at 10:00 AM. I wasn't able to leave until shortly before 3 PM. Turns out that the two keys I have are coded for tracks 4 and 5 and they cannot be re-programmed at all. In fact, no MB smartkey once programmed can be re-programmed. This is what I was told by the SA several times. Additionally, you can't move the assignment of keys on certain tracks to other tracks. In other words, the dealer wants me to pay out the nose for 2 new keys. No thank you. On top of that, I asked them about the door chime to see if it was coded out by the PO. The techs said there's nothing wrong with it. Of course when I get the car back over 4 hours later, the door chime doesn't work.

Long story short, I left with absolutely nothing being done but getting charged $165.00 for diagnostics. I feel like I had to pay them to waste my time. Yes, I'm pissed. No, I will not be going back to them again. On top of that, they gave me a printout saying I need another $13k worth of maintenance done. And to add insult to injury, I feel like since my car was in their hands, a rattle somewhere in the front or the rear of the car when going over bumps has been exacerbated. I've heard it before, but not quite as excessively as I did on the way home versus the way there.

I'm going to go beat my head against a wall for a few minutes now.

 

OK. Took a few minutes to breath and find my zen. Then I called another dealer. Spoke to a very friendly SA who consulted with his master techs. They claim that there is indeed a way in SDS/Xentry via a submenu in KG to alter the position of keys on tracks. He didn't promise, but he said it's likely that they'll be able to reassign the two keys I have now to tracks 1 and 2 rather than having to buy a brand new key. That sounds a helluva lot more reasonable so I think I'll try that route before deciding anything else again. At worst, I'm out another 160 bucks. At best, I save a several more hundreds in the cost of new keys and programming labor.

 

If another dealer is able to do it , you can certainly go back to the first dealer management and demand a refund . Or you can do a cc dispute

 

Good suggestion. Didn't think of that.

 

Good news. The other dealer I took my car to this morning was able to transfer the key tracks in Xentry from 3 and 4, to 1 and 2. Now both of my keys work perfectly with KG. Happy ending after all.

 

Awesome , now go show the service manager from the first dealer your bill and get your money back

 

James:
I bought a Lexus (2003 just last yr. with 40k on it..just like new) and was having trouble getting front end aligned properly..it ended up being a bad brand new tire...anyways...since I was at the Lexus dealer...they asked if I wanted a full car check for free...sure..I'm here....free...why not...they come back with a $3500 tab of stuff I need done (on a car I paid $9000 for)...mind you..I am an aircraft mechanic...so I do know something..I had as well pulled up all the known issues this model has had in its build run prior to buying the car. Their list was almost verbatim what I had found out in research. Leaky water pump seals...not a drop...leaky valve covers...not a drop...etc...etc...etc...so the point being they are just out to take your $$$$

 

Was surprised to get an email from the SA over at MB of Manhattan this morning stating they're going to refund the diagnostic fee. I thought they were simply going to ignore my request since I wrote them right after my keys were successfully re-coded and didn't hear anything back for a week.

In that time however, MB corporate sent me a survey email asking about my experience at their only corporate owned dealership in the USA. You can imagine that I wasn't very diplomatic about describing my experience. I guess someone must have read it and took action.

So, again this is a story with a happy ending. My KG still works perfectly. Only thing that's not functional is the micro-switch for the lock button on the driver side rear passenger door handle. Apart from that, everything works as it should.

 

Nice! Those surveys are very important to dealerships the more bad ones they get the lower their rank goes in getting the good new cars quicker than other dealers