996 What can cause remote entry to not work after dead battery & door card removal??

[Omegaguitar]

Hello fellow Porsche owners. Looking for a bit of insight.  My remote door locks have not worked for 2 years, here is what happened before they stopped working.

I bought the car in the winter and immediately drove it to a garage to store it. The remote entry worked at that time.  The door pocket storage door hinge was broken on drivers side so I proceeded to take apart the door panel one day to fix it but noticed right away the battery was dead and needed replacement.   Took apart the door panel, repaired the hinge and put everything back, then replaced battery, and then needed code to get radio working (Loren provided it!).  When leaving garage I noticed the remote locks no longer work.

Here are some points to consider

 

-Buttons on remote work/ led light up.

-When I open the drivers door, interior lights do not light up, they only do once I insert and turn key.

-When I open the passenger door, interioor lights DO light up.

-When exiting vehicle from drivers side the interior lights will stay on for very long time after the door is closed.

-If I then open and close the passenger door the interior lights go off after about a minute.

-Both windows retract to open when you touch the handles.

-If you sit in the car (on the phone) and all the lights turn off, they do not turn on when you open the drivers door from the inside, yet they do when you open the passenger door from the inside.

 

It appears to me that the car somehow does not know if the drivers door is open or closed.

 

Could this cause the remote locks to not work?

Could a fault in one of the micro switches cause this?

If neither of these, what trouble shooting can I do?

 

I do need a second key as I only have one and will eventually need to buy it and take it to  a Porsche dealer in Montreal to program it but if there are additional problems that will prevent this programming to take place I would like to resolve them first..

Thank you for taking the time to read all this!!

 

 

 

 

 

[JFP in PA]

It sounds like something is not connected in the door you worked on, which can disable the remote.  I would start with checking what you took apart.

[Omegaguitar]

Thank you for your input.

This will be my next project. Taking apart the door panel, verifying all switches are plugged in and wiring in good condition. I guess I should also test the microswitches with a tester.   If this fixes it I will kick myself for not doing it sooner, but in my defense I had more important things to work on with this car over the last 2 years:

-suspension issues - worn control arms, front shocks& shock bearings and most annoyingly, lowered and 'stanced' rear suspension by previous owner  

-failed AOS which hydro-locked the engine. Car sat for 3 months and the whole time I though the motor was blown. finally removed spark plugs and cylinders were full of oil, as was exhaust. The engine must have sucked in at least a liter of oil.