1998 Mercury Grand Marquis keyless entry fob replacement?

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.

Reply to
freespaceimpedance
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Before buying a new fob, get another new battery and try it. Even though a battery reads the proper voltage, it may not have enough amperage left in it to function properly.

If I can find my old Ford CDs, I'll check on the re-coding procedure. Don't hold your breathe :-( Maybe someone else will answer before that.

Reply to
SC Tom

I found this video that may be helpful (or at least worth a try):

Reply to
SC Tom

Thanks, I'll try a new battery. It's the easiest and cheapest thing at this point.

Unfortunately the video is not applicable to the 1998 Mercury GM. The '98 is weird like that. Seems to have something to do with PATS vs. PATS II (Ford's trade name for their Passive Anti-Theft System, of which the fob is part).

Supposedly there is a trick where you short some connectors on the PATS port with a paperclip, you then can program a new fob, but if replacing the battery works I won't have to mess with that.

Reply to
freespaceimpedance

Programming a 3rd fob is simple if you have 2 working FOBS. Not so easy if you only have 1 or none.

Good idea to get a third and have it programmed and sitting waiting before you need it.,.,,

Reply to
clare

Unfortunately, a new battery did nothing.

Guess I need a new fob. Considering how much the dealer is probably going to charge to re-code it, and how close the car is to the scrapyard, I think I'll just go without.

Reply to
freespaceimpedance

I only have the one. Well, now it's none, since the one I have doesn't work. The car came with two, but by the time the car was mine, in about 2004, the other was long lost.

I might call up the Ford dealer and ask what they'd charge to re-code a new fob, but I probably won't like it.

Reply to
freespaceimpedance

Yeah, appears it can't be done on a 1998.

Several website like this one:

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all say the same thing, needs to go back to the dealer to be programmed.

-bruce snipped-for-privacy@ripco.com

Reply to
Bruce Esquibel

Indeed, that does seem to be the case.

If I do get around to calling the Ford dealer for an estimate, I'll post in fo here. If they will give me a number. When I took the extra ignition ke y in to be recoded a few years ago, they seemed genuinely perplexed at firs t. I don't think anyone had asked them to deal with plain PATS (as opposed to PATS II or successors) for quite a long time.

Reply to
freespaceimpedance

So I did get around to calling. $87.50 for the dealer to re-code the two f obs. About $22 for the fobs. A bit over $100 total.

Nope, probably not doing it.

I'm at the point where I feel like I'm probably wasting money throwing even another $100 at this car. The leather seats have developed holes, the pai nt is falling off in places, various pieces of trim are cracked or have fal len off...it's just starting to look awful, and that's not even addressing some small fluid leaks here and there.

Reply to
freespaceimpedance

At the point where it doesn't owe you anything and you want to keep it that way???

Reply to
clare

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