Monday morning lock issue

I discovered yesterday that my car would not remote lock. Nor open. Nor flash the lights nor do the worthless alarm thing. My assumption was that the key battery had just died. So, I've been keeping track of the spare for ten years now. It not only does not work it will not start the car so it has completely lost the code. The primary still starts the car.

Now the question. Is it the key or the car? The Interwebs answer varies. If it is the car, then likely Mercedes will need to get involved. If only the key coding, then maybe a locksmith. Cheaper, available, convenient and they would try to fix anything else.

I'm fortunate the car still starts but concerned this might be a temporary condition as the key program deteriorates.

So, first choice, a local locksmith.

Thanks for helping me work through this. You were very helpful.

This is the picture on the web site of our local locksmith. The dog's name is Sydney. Sydney says to go there.

Sydney couldn't help

Turns out that Sydney, the locksmith mascot, died a few years ago at the age of 17+ years old. The owner was still very sad about it.

He replaced my battery and verified that the key was transmitting. It was actually transmitting already but any troubleshooting would start with 'have you replaced the key battery'? So I did. $9. Still didn't work. So I did some more Googling and got a couple of ideas.

Put the key in the lock and turn counter clockwise and press the lock button. It actually said put the key in the passenger door lock but that is European cars. U.S. cars don't have a lock on the passenger side.

I did what they suggested but it did not work. I tried all the permutations of that with no effect. Then read the manual. The Smart Car manual has more stuff in it than any manual I've ever read. It had some thoughts that sent me back out.

Finally I turned the car on. Didn't start. Locked and unlocked the doors manually. Turned it off. Locked and unlocked the doors manually. Pulled out the key. Pushed the unlock button and it worked. Back and forth and all is fine.

Somehow the electronics had just gotten funky and randomly trying things fixed it. For now. Further testing tomorrow.

Then I need to figure out how to reprogram my spare key which is not working at all. There are lots of directives about that (including in the manual) and I know it is fully charged.

So, the spirit of Sydney helped me after all.