How to Open, Start and Replace Fob Batteries in Chevrolet Vehicles
We now have nineteen videos offering help to Chevrolet drivers who’s key fobs or remote controls have gone dead.
Battery replacement videos are at the end of the list.
This video covers the latest Equinox models. It also will help with newer Cruze, Sonic and Blazer models.
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Here’s the new Blazer model.
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This updates opening and starting Chevrolet SUVs and Pick-ups adding changes to Suburban and Tahoe models starting in 2021.
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This combines all push button start Chevrolet SUVs and Pick-ups.
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This video is owners of the electric Bolt. We used the Volt as a stand in but the back up processes are nearly identical.
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This video updates the Impala.
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This is the Chevy Sonic. The Turbo model is the first to feature keyless start.
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This video updates the Chevy Cruze, which has important back up changes in the 2017 model.
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This video features a 2017 Malibu. It is hiding its key hole.
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Updated video help for Coupes. The video will help with getting into and starting the Chevrolet Corvette (C6 and C7). It also will help with the Cadillac CTS or ELR Coupes. And getting out, if you need to!
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Video help exclusive for the Chevrolet Corvette (C6 and C7). Similar to the video above, but the start process is unique. We included help getting out if the start battery dies while you’re inside.
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Video help with a late model Camaro. Easy to start, but hiding its key hole.
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This video will help with getting in and starting the Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban as well as the GMC Yukon.
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Video help for the Chevrolet Cruze. Getting in is easy, starting the car is another matter…
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Video help for both generation Chevy Volts.
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Chevrolet fob in use since 2021.
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Chevrolet key fob battery replacement, updated.
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A new, tweaked, fob style found in a Malibu, so far.
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This one is for a Chevrolet flip key. Still in use in some push button models.
Models covered include the Sonic, Tahoe, Silverado, Trax, Blazer, Equinox, Traverse, Camaro, Corvette, Volt, Coupe, XTS, Escalade, Bolt, Malibu, Impala, Suburban, and Cruze.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Mercedes-Benz now features two SmartKey styles. The original and most common style is tapered, like the one shown to the right. To retrieve the mechanical key, slide the release catch found near the top of the fob in the direction of the arrow and pull the mechanical key away from the SmartKey (remote control or ‘clicker’).
In 2017, a second, rounded SmartKey style was introduced in the E-Class sedan, and is shown to the right. It migrated to S-Class sedans in 2018 and is found in all 2018 E-Class models.
In 2021, another key fob was added to the S-Class Maybach that looks similar and operates very similarly. It is a little more tapered at the key ring end. Again, push the button on the back and remove the mechanical key.
Make sure the handle of the mechanical key is pointed away from the paint. Insert the key into the opening (black arrow) underneath the cap as far as it will go. Hold the door handle out. Pull the cap that is now on the mechanical key as straight as possible away from the vehicle until it releases.
The 2021 Maybach adds flush door handles. This has now been added to AMG and EQS models in 2023, EQE, E-Class, S-Class and C-Class models in 2024.
Finally, the 2023 CLE Cabriolet and 2024 GLC models employ yet another method to hide the key hole. Pulling the driver’s door handle to the open position reveal the key hole underneath the back of the handle. Simply insert the key and turn and you’ll be inside. And yet again, the alarm will likely sound, but it will go off when the car is started.
Automotive Culture Needs an Empathy Reboot
Automotive Culture
DashboardSymbols.com was founded on the basis that the industry was leaving its driver’s behind at crucial points in the driving experience – namely when something goes wrong. Recent events reinforce this basis.
First, General Motors and the ongoing saga surrounding very, very bad ignition switches. Evidence continues to point to GM treating the problem as a customer satisfaction issue early on and later to discover how to alter the behavior of their customers in order to rectify the problem of their cars shutting down unexpectedly. At first, the company warned against possibly hitting the ignition key with a knee or a bag, or some other foreign object and thus turning off the car. Later, drivers were instructed not hang heavy items on key chains, a warning that remains in force for cars not yet serviced in a recall.
Who Know?
Second, we got a call from a Kia Motors customer who tried to determine in advance of the battery in his key fob going dead just how to start a 2014 Optima. No one in sales or service at the dealership where he bought the car actually knew! They each pointed to a slot in the glove box, which had been removed for the 2014 model year. The customer called Kia’s California headquarters where he
was told that the start button is simply to be pushed by the key fob itself if the fob’s battery goes flat. He called us since we turned up in a search for the answer, and we had it wrong too! We had the procedure, but not for the 2014 Optima. (We had access only to the 2013 model year manual and have since confirmed his answer and updated this website posting.)
In both stories, one element of a car company serving the public got it wrong – at corporate in the first instance and at the dealership level in the second. The underlying issue to us at DashboardSymbols.com is a lack of empathy for customers. It is far too easy and convenient to look for where a customer is misusing the equipment or to leave them to their own devices rather than to expend energy looking for a possible problem or a real answer. Even as there was ample evidence that several parties at GM knew the ignition switches were bad, others at the company who were hearing complaints failed to go beyond looking for how the customer might have caused the problem. And anyone at the Kia store (who will remain nameless) could have opened the owner’s manual from a new Optima and supplied the correct answer.
Widespread Problems
These problems are not confined to GM or to Kia dealerships. They are part of a culture deeply entrenched with service and sales personnel who all too often quite frankly see their customers as stupid. “Not that question again!” And they are just as entrenched at the corporate level as evidenced by the growing number of tell tales thrown into cars with little regard for the average Joe who just needs to get the kids to school on time and get to work. The car culture puts a new system in a car, and makes a new tell tale. Over 270 of them on DashboardSymbols.com and growing.
A little empathy, a mile walk in their shoes, rather than the cynicism will go a long way at GM, and the industry as a whole, to change the current culture. Or at least soften it.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY