Thread: Remote unlock/start

I have an 06 GT, and my factory remote start / door unlock is having problems. I thought the battery was low, so I brought it in a dealership to get the battery changed.

When I showed him the remote, he pulled a machine out the back and placed the remote in it, when pushing the buttons he said my remote is fubar on signal strength and the battery is fine.

He opened it up and there was condensation on the back of the rubber buttons and curcuit board.

He told me the replacement remote will be $250 and 1 hour of labor.

Is that realistic that a new remote will cost about $300 ??

wow lmao is it a factory one or aftermarket one? If its factory buy one off of ebay if its aftermarket the unit should be under the dash on the driver side find out the model # and a dealer who carrys the product and contact the dealer and for me it was 50 bucks for the remote and 25 to program.

But personaly i would try fixing it first. Pry the remote open, Get a bottle of alcohol and clean it real good with alcohol and q-tips

Originally Posted by gahris

I have an 06 GT, and my factory remote start / door unlock is having problems. I thought the battery was low, so I brought it in a dealership to get the battery changed.

When I showed him the remote, he pulled a machine out the back and placed the remote in it, when pushing the buttons he said my remote is fubar on signal strength and the battery is fine.

He opened it up and there was condensation on the back of the rubber buttons and curcuit board.

He told me the replacement remote will be $250 and 1 hour of labor.

Is that realistic that a new remote will cost about $300 ??

I’m down to one remote for my car, so I did some looking a few months ago. The correct remotes for our cars are not cheap. In fact, I believe the price was about $250-260. The people who say cheaper have probably never actually looked for a straight up replacement. I have the exact same set up you do; again what most people don’t know is that our remotes that have the remote start option are special high power units. I agree the price is ridiculous, but I haven’t found any cheaper choices. The extra $50, is justified if you don’t have a working remote to program off of.

As was said earlier, let it dry out and try it again. Considering it still works, you might get lucky. Also, put a new battery in it. The worst that can happen is you’ll have a spare battery for your new remote.

Originally Posted by Vegas~Blown

you can get a 10 pack of them for $80 on ebay, or singles in the $15 to $20 range. Heck, you can get the whole GM remote start add-on for $160 --- and it comes with 2 remotes.

Can you link me to one of these ebay sales for the 5 button GM remote start / door unlock remotes.

Also, how do you program these into your car? The new Remotes?
I did check ebay and found a few remotes in teh $30 range that are the same

Omg..
Like I said I looked a few months ago for a remote, man I’m glad I waited. With a little searching I did find some of what Vegas is talking about. Looks like we can get a remote for about for about $20 and $8 extra for shipping. So far just one company, Midwest Keyless, seems to carry them. EBay item number = 120491602683
Tomorrow I’m calling the locksmith to confirm they can program it. The dealer would probably snub me if I brought them a remote I got off EBay.

the way to program it should be in your owners manual. with the 97-03 models you just hold the unlock and lock button for 15 seconds and the horn beeps to confirm. the dealer will charge 50-100 to set the remote because they have to look up the instructions, is what they told me. i told them to screw ill google it.

Originally Posted by Swiggles

the way to program it should be in your owners manual. with the 97-03 models you just hold the unlock and lock button for 15 seconds and the horn beeps to confirm. the dealer will charge 50-100 to set the remote because they have to look up the instructions, is what they told me. i told them to screw ill google it.

I wish it was that easy. The owner’s manual doesn’t have a re-coding procedure. And Google-ing it came up with several variations of the procedure. And none of them specifically for an 08, so I’m still leaning towards a lock smith to do the re-coding. With any luck when I get the new remote next week, it will come with the correct re-coding procedure. It will be nice having a spare remote.

wow! i check a few places and the 08's need special programing. it says to go to the dealer or local locksmith. click the link on this site and it brings you to a locksmith remote directory thing.
2008 Pontiac Grand Prix - Free Keyless Remote Fob Entry programming instructions, procedures for all automotive vehicles

Hopefully the lock smith I use is as good as I think he is. He helped me out a couple times with my last GP. If I have to use one of those listed lock smiths, I would have to pack a lunch.

This is just an update for anyone still subscribed to this post, I finally finished getting my spare remote. Long story short, I purchased the remote for $25 and the dealership programmed it for $45.

Nice, was it a GM dealership that did the reprogram?

wow u wasted ur money. ..... i went in the lost and found and took an extra key fob cuz at the time i only had one which was given to me at the time of purchase from carmax and they only guarante one. so i took it in complaining that none of the buttons were working. he asked me if i was still under warranty which is 36,000 miles. and i said yeah. he also wanted the second key fob but i told him i nevr had a second one. so in the end he replaced the found one and came to the conclusion that the one i had was faulty. so i got a free remote start key fob in working condition and programmed for free. just as long as i was under warranty.

Lmao, ya I’m going to run around looking through lost and founds for a FOB. Ya right! My time is worth more than that. Consider your self lucky Carmax popped for the remote after BS-ing them and call it a day. I got a great deal on the car, used with 20k miles on it knowing it had only one remote. I looked for a remote right away but as I posted earlier the FOBs were outrageously priced, so even if the warranty covered the re-coding I would have lost my ass buying the remote. Regardless it wasn’t cheap to get the spare, but I would have done the same thing again.

Gahris – yes the GM dealership had to do it. In talking to my locksmith he intentionally got out of that service because it is just too complicated in today’s market. I would imagine it would be hard to find any locksmith who would programs the 04+GPs.

Originally Posted by Swiggles

. with the 97-03 models you just hold the unlock and lock button for 15 seconds and the horn beeps to confirm.

wow, that sounds insanely unsafe. i could get a 30 dollar remote on ebay and get into any 97-03 with it? hopefully theres more to the process then just that...

Originally Posted by Jakegday

wow, that sounds insanely unsafe. i could get a 30 dollar remote on ebay and get into any 97-03 with it? hopefully theres more to the process then just that...

Yes there is more to it, but it can be done without the dealership on the 97-03 GPs.

There are procedures on programyourremote.com
Also, be aware there are several remotes for GPs, before buying the remote match up the number (GM/L:??????????) on the back, don’t just go by the description.