VL2020 Battery - amzn.to/3JsBpA6 Solder Iron - amzn.to/30msPQc Flux - amzn.to/30heYuj Superglue - amzn.to/3wKEyE1 Fob Cover to help the fob stay together - amzn.to/3HtBuBs Replacement case - amzn.to/3DgSatf
The fact the battery is soldered in, and you have to break open the key is frankly ridiculous. What exactly they were thinking when they designed this, I will never know! Great video thanks!
Those batteries are rechargeable and charge while you drive. They were thinking you'd get rid of the car before the battery hit the end of its usable life.
@@chriskuta6178 Where did you get this information from? The battery is a rechargeable type. However, there is no inductive charging circuitry presence on the circuit board and the coil you see is an RF antenna for the remote operation.
@@mikeharmon8733 car keys are a decent part of how I make my living. While my place of business would not touch a sealed key like that (at least, not to change the battery, would happily make a new one), I can tell you it has what we would call an nb circuit board, whereby the immobiliser chip is hard wired to the circuitry of the remote and most definitely has an induction circuit (that is how all non keyless factory fitted immobiliser systems work).
Thank you for the video. It was strait forward and I was able to obtain batteries and everything needed to do the job. If you are watching this and thinking you can do it too, well rest assured it is not an easy job. The fob does not come appart with any cooperation. It will fight you for at least an hour. Besides the screw driver; I employed a very sharp knife, and acetone to disove any glue (somehow I did not bleed much). Once appart, sodering the old battery out and new one in was a challenge due to the micro board. I did not have a radio frequency monitor, so I had to make a bazillion trips from my work bench to the car, and for whatever reason the transponder always worked outside the fob, but put back together never did, I think it was a contack issue, but after two dozen attempts everything gets foggy. It is dark now and it is working. What I learned is that crazy glue only tacks it together lightly, and that the silicon jacket is essential. I have one more fob to do. I am nolonger excited to go at it. I will wait for it to go completely dead. I also know there will be blood. Great video.
Thanks Rob 👍🏻 I had no idea what was going on inside the key fob for my Mini One Seven. Now, thanks to your video, I do! Luckily fir me I also own a soldering iron.
It was a great video.... until the janky bit of gluing at the end! Just run a nice bead around the perimeter and mate the 2 halves, I did that and it was perfect. (Still gets a thumbs-up though - very useful content)
My key does not read, vehicle says no key detected, does this mean the battery is dead? I thought the chip was always active and the battery was only for the locks
What temp or setting for the soldering gun? And does the soldering wire come with the gun? Is it soldering the two tabs lower when it’s heating it up/soldering? Or do the tabs stay sticking up high? Thanks.
Save yourself hours, bandades and possible stitches and order a replacement online. Rob must have had one that had been previously surgically opened and put back together making a much easier battery swap.
Utterly fantastic video. I have never soldered anything in my life, I bought the correct battery, bought both a soldering kit, and some flux, followed your excellent tutorial to the letter. But it still isnt working. I have read that these keys charge while the Mini is driving. *So either this new battery is dead, or do I have to reset the key?* My key was working. (I hadnt driven my Mini for years.) I took the battery out fully charged it. Then both keys didnt work, could the battery replacement have done something to the cars sensor?
I feel your pain. The soldering of the new battery to the board is hard to do. The battery has to be flat against the circuit board, and make a good contact while not touching anything else. I found the contacts had more than enough solder on them, and did not add anymore (as Rob did). Once I got the battery in and working, I found that putting it back together in the case made it not work again. Eventually I got it to work, but it was not pleasant. Also, I heard that story about driving charges the fob too. Its total BS. the key and the transponder have no connection.
The VL2020 you linked has a different configuration than what you showed in the video. I would have to cut the inside of the case to make it fit semi ok
Thanks for the heads up. Sometimes Amazon will switch the listing around on me and my link sends to a different item. Probably happened since this video is 3 years old. The updated link: amzn.to/3JsBpA6
@@KeyFobRob no worries at all:) and thanks for making this video. Even though I found out that the batteries I ordered were slightly off. I was still able to test the original battery and found it to still be in good working order. So on to sending my EWS out for testing haha
Hi, i do not have any RF tester any idea what points to measure and what voltage should be there to make sure key fob is working? My problem is the i am in situation that i am not sure what is faulty key fob or receiver in car. I do have mini r50 2004.
I have owned my Mini cooper since 2007. It is now 2022 and the battery is becoming weak. It still works but I must be very close to the car for it to work. I am planning to replace the battery on both my keys.
Hi Rob, Does this key have a ID44 Chip ? I bought my car with one key, wanted a replacement so got a new shell, cut a copy on new shell blade, and bought an old FOB, reprogrammed the old FOB using lock button + 3 time middle button method, it assigned my new key to the car but the second one won't start the car ? I could not find a ID44 Chip or have no idea why everything works but not starting ? Also thought may be 2006 R52 has limit of 2 primary keys where the previous owner had 2 keys programmed so I may have to delete a slot and add my new one as a primary. Sorry for the long question but I'd really appreciate any help. Thanks so much.
My neighbor Grandpa has R52 with dead battery’s key fob, I’ll try to solder a new battery too, nice vid however how damn BMW mini has done with the horrible design key fob that we have to pay like $500~ if we ask Dealer to replace with a new ones! I say F ..k dealer stealer Thank you the vid , appreciated
VL2020 Battery - amzn.to/3JsBpA6
Solder Iron - amzn.to/30msPQc
Flux - amzn.to/30heYuj
Superglue - amzn.to/3wKEyE1
Fob Cover to help the fob stay together - amzn.to/3HtBuBs
Replacement case - amzn.to/3DgSatf
The fact the battery is soldered in, and you have to break open the key is frankly ridiculous. What exactly they were thinking when they designed this, I will never know!
Great video thanks!
Probs get people to buy a new key everytime the battery is dead
Those batteries are rechargeable and charge while you drive. They were thinking you'd get rid of the car before the battery hit the end of its usable life.
@@chriskuta6178 Where did you get this information from? The battery is a rechargeable type. However, there is no inductive charging circuitry presence on the circuit board and the coil you see is an RF antenna for the remote operation.
The manual for the car states that driving the car charges the key😂
@@mikeharmon8733 car keys are a decent part of how I make my living. While my place of business would not touch a sealed key like that (at least, not to change the battery, would happily make a new one), I can tell you it has what we would call an nb circuit board, whereby the immobiliser chip is hard wired to the circuitry of the remote and most definitely has an induction circuit (that is how all non keyless factory fitted immobiliser systems work).
Thank you for the video. It was strait forward and I was able to obtain batteries and everything needed to do the job. If you are watching this and thinking you can do it too, well rest assured it is not an easy job. The fob does not come appart with any cooperation. It will fight you for at least an hour. Besides the screw driver; I employed a very sharp knife, and acetone to disove any glue (somehow I did not bleed much). Once appart, sodering the old battery out and new one in was a challenge due to the micro board. I did not have a radio frequency monitor, so I had to make a bazillion trips from my work bench to the car, and for whatever reason the transponder always worked outside the fob, but put back together never did, I think it was a contack issue, but after two dozen attempts everything gets foggy. It is dark now and it is working. What I learned is that crazy glue only tacks it together lightly, and that the silicon jacket is essential. I have one more fob to do. I am nolonger excited to go at it. I will wait for it to go completely dead. I also know there will be blood. Great video.
It's definitely a headache 😔. Good news is, this should only have to be done once, maybe twice over the lifetime of the car.
Just wanna leave a comment to express my gratitude to the video creator. Your tutorial is wonderful and I made it!
Glad it helped!
Thanks Rob 👍🏻 I had no idea what was going on inside the key fob for my Mini One Seven. Now, thanks to your video, I do!
Luckily fir me I also own a soldering iron.
Good stuff! Glad the video was helpful
When change the battery, there is an initializing procedure to configure the key?
It was a great video.... until the janky bit of gluing at the end! Just run a nice bead around the perimeter and mate the 2 halves, I did that and it was perfect. (Still gets a thumbs-up though - very useful content)
Could I mail it to you and pay to to replace? Jim
Send me an email at KeyFobRobCorp@gmail.com and we can work out the details.
Very detailed. Quite the process for this one!
Yes indeed!
My key does not read, vehicle says no key detected, does this mean the battery is dead? I thought the chip was always active and the battery was only for the locks
Could you not use the type of silver paint as used to repair rear window heating elements..?? 🤔
why is it not possible to change only the battery ? Cause the battery is not soldered, its only the frame.
The battery is spot welded to the frame
i can't do this!! Where can i have it replaced? Geez!!
What temp or setting for the soldering gun? And does the soldering wire come with the gun? Is it soldering the two tabs lower when it’s heating it up/soldering? Or do the tabs stay sticking up high? Thanks.
Save yourself hours, bandades and possible stitches and order a replacement online. Rob must have had one that had been previously surgically opened and put back together making a much easier battery swap.
Nah. First time this fob had been opened. They can be ridiculous to get opened but this one seemed fairly manageable
Utterly fantastic video.
I have never soldered anything in my life, I bought the correct battery, bought both a soldering kit, and some flux, followed your excellent tutorial to the letter.
But it still isnt working. I have read that these keys charge while the Mini is driving. *So either this new battery is dead, or do I have to reset the key?*
My key was working. (I hadnt driven my Mini for years.) I took the battery out fully charged it. Then both keys didnt work, could the battery replacement have done something to the cars sensor?
I feel your pain. The soldering of the new battery to the board is hard to do. The battery has to be flat against the circuit board, and make a good contact while not touching anything else. I found the contacts had more than enough solder on them, and did not add anymore (as Rob did). Once I got the battery in and working, I found that putting it back together in the case made it not work again. Eventually I got it to work, but it was not pleasant. Also, I heard that story about driving charges the fob too. Its total BS. the key and the transponder have no connection.
The VL2020 you linked has a different configuration than what you showed in the video. I would have to cut the inside of the case to make it fit semi ok
Thanks for the heads up. Sometimes Amazon will switch the listing around on me and my link sends to a different item. Probably happened since this video is 3 years old. The updated link: amzn.to/3JsBpA6
@@KeyFobRob no worries at all:) and thanks for making this video. Even though I found out that the batteries I ordered were slightly off. I was still able to test the original battery and found it to still be in good working order. So on to sending my EWS out for testing haha
@@KeyFobRob thanks for making this video it really did help.
You're welcome. Best of luck to you in the future
Hi, i do not have any RF tester any idea what points to measure and what voltage should be there to make sure key fob is working? My problem is the i am in situation that i am not sure what is faulty key fob or receiver in car. I do have mini r50 2004.
If I'm you, I spend the $30 and get an RF tester - ebay.us/1P0RrV
Thank you for your video, this was very useful and I followed your instructions and changed the battery
Glad it helped
It’s a rechargeable battery, and it charges when the key is in the ignition.
Does it need to be reprogrammed by dealer after battery replacement?
No you can do it yourself.
Tried this and had to drummel the FAB apart. I ordered the same battery and the terminals were different. A complete fail!
how long does the battery last? I just bought a 2008 with dead battery in FOB. Excellent video - ty
Should be good for at least 5-7 years
I have owned my Mini cooper since 2007. It is now 2022 and the battery is becoming weak.
It still works but I must be very close to the car for it to work.
I am planning to replace the battery on both my keys.
Hi Rob, Does this key have a ID44 Chip ? I bought my car with one key, wanted a replacement so got a new shell, cut a copy on new shell blade, and bought an old FOB, reprogrammed the old FOB using lock button + 3 time middle button method, it assigned my new key to the car but the second one won't start the car ? I could not find a ID44 Chip or have no idea why everything works but not starting ? Also thought may be 2006 R52 has limit of 2 primary keys where the previous owner had 2 keys programmed so I may have to delete a slot and add my new one as a primary. Sorry for the long question but I'd really appreciate any help. Thanks so much.
Did you solve this? I have the same issue.
Nice work!
Thanks!
Wow very good job thanks
Hopefully it helped
Do you have to solder tho?
Yes
Think I’ll get Timpson to do it for me, looks like a ballache to do
It is. Very easy to muck it up
Great video!
Thanks!
My neighbor Grandpa has R52 with dead battery’s key fob, I’ll try to solder a new battery too, nice vid however how damn BMW mini has done with the horrible design key fob that we have to pay like $500~ if we ask Dealer to replace with a new ones! I say F ..k dealer stealer
Thank you the vid , appreciated
Sure thing. Good luck!!
Please add to the description that it requires soldering and gluing back together 🙏
Thank you ‼️
You’re welcome 😊
Replaced battery in key remote and still doesn’t work. Now next step!
Ever fix it?
Great video and thanks. Typical German engineering, absolutely ridiculous to have to go through all this just to replace a battery.
Yes it is. You're absolutely right
as if I needed another reason to hate mini coopers.
Yeah - this one is pretty ridiculous
Great video, but I’m just a girl. I’ll stick with the manual buttons 😅
It's definitely a process!
WTF, who invented this? most key fobs you just open the case and pop a new battery in. GEEZ
Yeah - this one is quite a process
Yes, but this car was made in England, and they tend to make things better than the United States and Japan
Your video was helpful thank you for demonstrating
i need to buy a soldering gun just to change a battery xD and a new key cost around 200$ i asked
Sooner buy a new key
This seems so stupid! I am not looking forward to doing this with my key......just great.......
Yeah - I feel you. It's a pain for sure
This design is total crap
What a stupid key design
Thank you!!!
You're welcome!