<p>Hoping someone can help us with this–we bought a used 1998 Volvo with two remotes (that you use to lock & unlock doors & trunk). They work OK but both have cracked cases/housing. The dealer says he could sell us new remotes for $145 apiece + $140 re-programming fee; we only need new housing/cases. Any suggestions, anyone? Would love some thoughts. I’ve seen a few on e-bay & some for about $60 via google & may try buying from there for less, but would love other suggestions. The remotes still work, but hubby would prefer more intact remotes.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Have you considered calling your local junk yard? I’m sure they get keys turned over to them all the time. I am assuming here that you are looking to take apart the remote and just salvage the case. </p>
<p>BTW, If you go to one of the many Volvo bulletin boards, you might be able to get someone to send you the user instructions for reprogramming a remote. Then you could just reprogram the one you get from the junk yard and not have to worry about opening the case. Plus you’d have the old ones as backups.</p>
<p>I know in Mazdas that you must have all the remotes present at the same time to do this.</p>
<p>If they don’t have one today, ask them to keep their eyes peeled when the next Volvo comes in.</p>
<p>Thanks for a great idea. I’ll give them a call & see whether they are willing to let me know. Would love other suggestions as well.</p>
<p>No Volvo experience, but I had a similar problem with a Nissan remote and didn’t want to pay dealership prices. I took a chance and bought one on line, which came with programming instructions. Piece of cake to set it up and the new one had much better range. I’d definitely second the junkyard search, though. Just wish I had thought of that.</p>
<p>Tried calling around & it doesn’t appear that our junkyards carry Volvos (tho how this is, I can’t say). Everyone suggested I try the Volvo dealer, so maybe I’ll go back to ebay & take my chances with them. I never can tell whether I’ll get my merchandise or not, so it feels more like gambling than I like. Oh well, we’ll see.</p>
<p>Strange how the junkyards in Hawaii don’t have any Volvos. Perhaps they mean that they just send them off to the mainland instead of stocking them, because the ones that the dealer sells have to be scrapped someday, don’t they?</p>
<p>I don’t know how easily they disassemble, but as long as one you find on Ebay is the right model, you probably can use it to swap the case. And my guess is that you can probably find one cheaper than the price you mentioned.</p>
<p>I got lots of helpful Volvo info from <a href=“http://www.brickboard.com/[/url]”>http://www.brickboard.com/</a>
The site is a little awkward to navigate, but worth the effort. What model is your 98?</p>
<p>Our Volvo is a S70 turbo & the remote has 4 buttons including an alarm. It shouldn’t be rocket science & I was very surprised there is no junkyard where we can get Volvo auto parts as well. <sigh><br>
On another site, it was suggested I try using JB Weld products to repair the case, but then it would be tough to open to replace the batteries.</sigh></p>
<p>I found a great on-line site for folks who are interested. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.lkqremotes.com/[/url]”>http://www.lkqremotes.com/</a></p>
<p>They sell all kinds of remotes for various vehicles. You can also buy other car parts as well & they even come with a 60-day warranty for the remotes. They are supposedly “factory reconditioned.” I decided to use them instead of ebay & paid via paypal, so expect everything will work out fine. Will post about how things work out. It was $14.99/remote + $8.50 shipping for the two remotes for a total of $38.48 for the pair.</p>
<p>HImom. I’d love to know how it works out…I lost one of my remotes for my VW Jetta wagon. The dealer told me if I bought a second one they’d have to reprogram everything and then one I have wouldn’t work any more(charge to reprogram - over $100). How does it work with mail order? Thanks.</p>
<p>HImom…beautiful… I hate it that the dealers rip us off for this stuff. One of my remotes never works right and the dealer tells me its dirty inside and that it will cost me $100. to replace…they didn’t say they would charge me to reprogram though so I guess they were giving me a “deal.”</p>
<p>For us, the “innards” work fine, so all we’re doing is replacing the cracked plastic cases for factory reconditioned ones that have been shipped today (they must have received the paypal payment). We will swap out the working innards for the uncracked cases (& put the old cases over the new innards). At this point, I’m not planning on reprogramming anything. [If the remotes stop working at some point, we may have to consider using the ones we’re going to store in the cracked cases.]
If you find a site that deals with your brand of car or perhaps the NPR CarTalk website bulletin board, maybe you can get info on how to reprogram your remote. I hate being ripped off by dealers too–a pet peeve!</p>
<p>You might try contacting the site I listed above & asking them if they have info about reprogramming remotes–they may. They have a toll-free number you can call them at.</p>
<p>Geesh, you all forgot ebay.</p>
<p>And craigslist.</p>
<p>By the way, the remotes came in the mail. I’ve swapped the innards of our damaged remotes into the factory-refurbished cases & put the refurbished innards into the cracked cases (for possible future use). The remotes now look great in the uncracked cases & function perfectly! Hubby is happy because we were able to do this at far less than what the dealer wanted. I actually prefer not to use ebay except as a last resort & this seller gave us a 90-day warranty (I’ve had some flaky sellers on ebay in the past). Have glanced at craigslist but never actually used it.</p>