It finally happened: as of a few days ago, the keyless entry fob for my 199
8 Mercury Grand Marquis no longer works.The battery is a fresh Energizer coin cell of the proper size. By "fresh" I mean I replaced the battery perhaps 2 weeks ago, and tested it with a mul timeter prior to installation (at which time it produced 3.6v). There are no visible signs of anything being broken inside the fob, so I don't know w hy it won't work.
Really, I have no way of telling whether it's actually the fob that's broke n, or the radio portion in the car. I can perhaps replace the fob, however , so let's start there.
I've found a few aftermarket fobs for sale, mostly on Amazon so far, that c laim to be replacements for this keyless entry fob. Has anyone actually bo ught one and had it work with a 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis? Did you have t o take it to the dealer to be re-coded?
I wasted an entire morning at at Ford dealership a couple of years ago, try ing to get a fob from a 1999 Mercury GM re-coded to work with my 1998 Merc so that I'd have a spare. Eventually, they told me it simply wasn't possib le. I don't want to repeat that experience.