I've been having an odd problem with the remote key of my 2002 Passat. (I have only one, having lost the other soon after buying the car.) It has slowly stopped working, more or less. It seemed obvious that it was the battery in the key, and so I replaced and reprogrammed it, though my dealer said that as long as the red light comes on, the key is still working. He was right. The remote works to unlock doors as long as the car has been running for at least an hour. And then it works only for about 20 minutes. That is, after a long ride, I can lock the car with the remote, but it won't work when I come back to the car after 20 minutes or so. It does not work at all after only short trips. Because I haven't made any long trips in a while, my remote hasn't worked in over a month. I brought my car into a VW dealer today, and after looking at it all day, they just phoned to tell me that the key is working, but the receiver isn't responding. To which I said, duh, that's just what I told you. They seem clueless about what to do next. (Call the tech people at VW, he said).
Has anyone out there had similar problems, and figured out how to fix it?
Many thanks, Onno Oerlemans