This car has had numerous problems it's whole life. It's a 2007 Civic EX auto with 84k. Thank God Honda gave us extended warranty. The newest problem to show up, is the remote functions on my key quit working. Nope, it wasn't the battery. This happened to us before about 3 years ago. At least back then, the dealership was able to fix it. This time, it's been two weeks and four trips to the dealer so far, with no results. The dealer claims they aren't able to reprogram the key to the security module. All they are doing now is changing parts hoping something works. (Of course, none of these parts are in stock, and have to be ordered each time they want to punt.) They evidently don't know what is wrong, and evidently Honda doesn't know either, as they claim to always have a call into Honda for help each time. So far, they have been operating under the warranty, and it hasn't cost me anything. Now, they want to start changing parts that will cost me money.

The car has an aftermarket keypad entry that operates the trunk solenoid, and nothing else. It is totally isolated from the rest of the circuit, and has been on the car for three years. Now, the dealership wants to claim that suddenly, this is the problem. I told them I wasn't born yesterday, and was an electronics tech for years, and to please show me how that secondary trunk relay kept them from programming a key. However, after changing hundreds of dollars worth of parts so far, I asked them if they had checked to see if my key was even working properly in the first place. They said no, that they had no way to test the key!

So now, I've talked them into replacing the key module before they go any farther into this fiasco. Of course, they have to order one first. And, of course, I will have to pay for it.

If I ever get this car out of my driveway, it will be my last Honda. Buyer beware.

 

Even parts stores have a little tester box for keyless transmitter fobs. It just has a light that comes on when a nearby transmitter emits any sort of RF signal. It doesn't verify the signal is properly coded, but usually a bad transmitter won't emit any signal at all.