Intermittent unlocking / keyfobs not working (after bodywork repair)

[chris.bar]

Hi everyone.  New to this forum but need some help please.  Recently had Jaguar carry out a bodywork repair to the rear quarter of the car (rear end shunt)  (XF 2017 model).   When we picked it up, it had the low battery warning for the car battery.  Everything seemed fine.  Then the following day, the key fobs have started playing up.  One key fob will only intermittently unlock the car (and allow it to start), the reserve key fob doesn't want to work at all.  Could it be a simple case of needing new key fob batteries, or could something else be amiss? I imagine the car battery was disconnected during the repair work...  it is very frustrating.  Many thanks

[Big John]

Hi Chris and welcome 🙂

When you say it was repaired by Jaguar I assume you took it to a main dealer for the repair. In my experience most dealers then pass the car to a bodywork specialist to actually do the repair work but your contract remains with the company that you (or the insurance company) paid to do the repair, probably the Jaguar dealer. My first port of call would be the Jag dealer as it sounds to me like a software issue. The chances of both fob batteries failling together are pretty low. My guess is it needs a software reset, as they almost certainly disconnected the battery, which should be simple and done at no cost to you.

Let us know how you get on.

Regards

John

[chris.bar]

Thanks Big Jon,  The car went to Marshall's Jaguar in Peterborough.  They have a lot of franchises, including Jaguar, and it went to their own body shop which is Jaguar approved.  I'll change the fob batteries this weekend (just to rule that out, unlikely to be the culprit I know).  If that fails, I'll get back in touch with Jaguar and will report back how it goes!

Very happy to be on the forum, and have my eye on the new XF, when they are available second hand and any bugs have been ironed out! 

[chris.bar]

Think we have fixed it.  I was surprised that both fobs seemed to die at the same time but I think I might have worked out why..

Solution. Changed keyfob batteries (yep, it was that simple!).

Potential cause:  

Keyfob 1.  While they were fixing the car, I imagine car left unlocked but not started, so the key is constantly trying to communicate with the car, so the battery is heavily depleted over a series of days.

Keyfob 2.   Since the battery was disconnected during the repair, keyfob 2 probably lost synchronisation with the alarm's rolling codes.   When we tried keyfob 2, we didn't press it enough times to get it to resync and jumped to the conclusion that something deeper was amiss since both fobs now 'not working properly'.

Fingers crossed we have found the culprit, and posting this in case it helps anyone else in future.