I avoided buying a key fob
The lock button on my car key fob hasn't been working for ~ 6 months. I was looking at buying a new key fob for between $9 to $35, but something told me to take it apart.
Some isopropyl alcohol, a used toothbrush, and 5 minutes later I discovered some kind of sticky blue goop had infiltrated my key fob. After a quick brush down and slight emersion of the lock button, my key fob is now working again.
I was expecting a rubber dome switch to have turned into goop from the rubber going bad. I wonder what the blue goop was. Slurpee? Haha.
A few weeks ago my massive 40-year-old table saw refused to start. For a while I could coax it to life by manually getting it spinning and hitting the start button, but eventually that stopped working. Faced with a $300+ cost for a new motor, I watched a few DIY videos and was able to take the motor apart and clean some contacts with fine sandpaper. Now it's back to its old self!
Adam Savage has a great video about an old automatic hack saw he bought, where he says that people wanting to get into mechanical work should buy lots of old tools, take them apart, fix them, and reassemble them. Then they'd gain some real working knowledge of how things work. I thought it was great advice.
It's great advice, and realistically how any serious attempt at a workshop or garage starts off unless you're filthy rich.
I had a 20+ Yr old car with a key fob that had broken, so it would stay on a key ring and wouldn't stay closed.
Wreckers wanted $700 for a new key fob case as I'd have to buy the whole second hand keyless entry system.
A small 3d printer cost $650.
I bought the printer, then designed and printed my own key fob case, including replacing the worn out rubber buttons with some harvested out of an old kitchen timer.
No one was ever impressed or interested with the whole thing, so I figured this meets the criteria for inclusion here...
Impressed and interested. May even not be dull enough for this community 🤔
Awesome job. And you got a 3-D printer out of it.
That's quite the key fob journey, though!
Satisfying isn't it? I had a fancy mini-fridge that died after 5 years. We called a repair guy and he said it needed a new board but when he called the company, they said they don't make them and just suggested we buy a new fridge. Well no shit... I'm sure they WOULD like it if I bought another one of their crap fridges, but whatever - not gonna happen. So since I had a brick on my hands anyway, I pulled the board and Googled "most common reason for PCB failure" and the answer was "capacitors." A short Youtube video explaining how to find bad ones and voila: I found the culprit, a swollen and useless capacitor.
Thirty-seven cents later (well, $2.22, I had to buy half a dozen from an eBay vendor) and she started right up (I already had desolder/solder tools). Felt great.
Ah I did similar with a broken furnace logic board from 2004. Carrier still made the boards, but wanted $250 and none of the components used on the dang thing justified that besides them knowing most people have no choice in the moment.
My neighbour would have gone out and leased a new vehicle.
LOL - might as well, the ashtrays were full anyway.
Not only did you save money, you kept some plastic out of a landfill. Good job!
My 99 civic Shela (can drink and rent it's own car) has a key fob that works but all of the actuators for the locks are busted. Have no fear though, the windows still roll down...I just have to crank it myself because Shela is a golden girl who only deserves the best.
If only I could do that to rsync mine :(
Different but related problem and solution here: Bought a used 2019 Volvo Xc90, and everything went well.. Then I found something that looked like a wireless dongle in my car, and I had no idea what it was. It was about the size and shape of a normal USB dongle, except the USB part.
After some research, ai found out it's something called "sports key". It's waterproof down to 60 meters, contactless, and allows me to use my car as normal without the regular (and much larger) keyfob, as long as I have it on me. After testing I concluded that the battery didn't work.
A few days later I had a followup conversation with the seller (a chain with good reputation) about an unrelated issue that they would take care of at no charge as part of the warranty. I then mentioned the sport key.
Turns out the sport key wasn't covered by warranty due to the battery being designed to last three years only. I could order a new one for roughly 400 EUR. Pitty, it seemed like I had finally found something that was perfect for that tiny inner pocket on jeans.
So I did the only thing reasonable: I used various tools and violence to force it open. Yup, turns out that it was just a CR2032, of which I have many laying around. New battery, some tinfoil, and epoxy glue, and it now works like a charm. I doubt it's waterproof down to 60m, but I tend to stay on land.
And this tiny key is permanently in whatever jeans I'm wearing, so don't have to worry about remembering the keys either (I didn't lock my old car for years, with the keys in the ignition, so actually caring about keys is new to me)
EDIT: Here it is, with a USB drive for scale:
My girlfriend’s stopped working and fell apart into pieces sometime last year. So, I talked her into replacing it. I called a locksmith and was quoted less than $100 on it, probably like $60-$80. She went with the dealership for like $400.
Hell yeah, fixing stuff is awesome
Next step is just not using the key fob.