Stranded (at least inconvenienced) - in Austin
by Sandy McConnell
Tejas Chapter member
On a verrrry hot afternoon, running one too many errands, my daughter and I came out to our '95 540i to head for home. As I approached the car I tried to unlock it with the usual push of the coded alarm button on the key. Alas, there was no response, and so I tried the only other thing I knew to do. I unlocked the car manually with the key, and as the alarm was boldly resounding and the lights were flashing I jumped in the car to start it with the key. I turned the key and got nothing....at least no rewarding engine start up....the alarm stopped, but the lights continued to flash. "Oh great", I thought, "what have I done now!" "This always worked with the 535i", I whined to myself. So I got out, locked the car again, and went to make a phone call, since our "luxury" car was unusable to us. (And even with the lights continuing to flash, no one ever approached us to see if we were stealing the car - or to help)!
The obvious call was, of course, to my hubby (El Chapter Presidente), but could I get through to him? Noooo, he was on the Internet! So I called the closest BMW repair shop, and the gentleman that answered, sympathized with me and said he thought it was the battery in the key. Since a Radio Shack was next door, to where we were stranded, you can guess where we went next. The man there, popped the cap off the key and found you still have to open the key with screws to get to the battery. That is to give you time to read the very important instructions pertaining to changing out the battery. "Change the battery in less than one minute, without touching any buttons!".... which he did....(no, I mean he changed the battery correctly.)
We returned to the car, relieved, knowing it would unlock and start properly this time. But alas, deja vu.
I tried calling Glenn again, before I tried the dealership or the 800 phone number, and this time got through. He called the dealership for me and found out that my key had dumped the "code" and that the car would not recognize it. All he had to do was come to my rescue with his key, which the car still recognized, and send me up to the dealership so they could reset the code in my key. (Which they did in all of about 30 seconds.)
The reason I write this saga, is to hopefully prevent anyone else from going through what we went through. The dealership explained that they try to change the batteries in keys routinely with each Inspection II. Apparently, the batteries in Glenn's key were changed but they didn't ask us for my keys and/or we didn't know enough to request that they take care of my key also. We will certainly make sure next time, and I hope you do too!
The bright side of this story ? The next day we left town for vacation in Corpus Christi. It could have happened to us at any stop between here and our return to Austin, before we'd learned about this tricky theft deterrent..............