Tried charging it via the ignition but that didn't help. Dealer charges $350 for a new one!!!

 

The battery charger setup is like that of an electric tooth brush - the charge sort of goes thru the air; there are no actual electrical contact points as with most cell phones - the charging is some sort of field effect thing.

What some do is with elastic bands, tape the two black fob pieces together so that the uncharged one sits with the good key fob when the good key fob is in the ignition and you are driving. It could take a good week or so to bring the second battery back up.

In the mean time, you can review the links as below. With great difficulty, the key fob can be pried apart and the battery replaced. The battery is a 3 volt Panasonic VL2330 1HF and is not readily available.

Well Digi Key has them and millions of other hard to get electrical bits as well.

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...0-1HF&x=7&y=13

The odds are the battery is OK however. The battery is soldered in and it may be that one of the solder contacts has cracked and depending upon temperature, may or may not conduct electricity. The solution is just to re solder the cracked joint.

The 1HF letter on the battery relate to the type of solder connector tabs the battery has and this is where the cracked solder joint is to be found. It seems the factory solder work was not always quite what would be desired.

DISCO3.CO.UK - View topic - both key fobs not working - help

 

Thanks. A lot of info here so I will try some things and get back to you!

 

Hey guys, just wanted to chime in and say that I attempted to charge my LR3 Key Fob on my iPhone MagSafe Charger Pad. Knowing it charges via induction, I just thought I'd give it a shot.
I set it on the charger pad for like an hour or two, went out to try it, and it fired right up. I drove the vehicle for a half an hour or so to see if I could verify it would hold a charge and everything was good, and it seems to be fine now.
I'm assuming this would work with most modern cellphone chargers, but I'm no scientist, and don't understand the technology well enough to confirm that. Attempt at your own risk, but I figured I had nothing to lose! Haha..
Hope that helps!

 

Was the recharged key able to operate the door locks?

I assume that prior to the MagSafe Charger Pad recharge, that the key fob would not lock or unlock your 3?

I ask, as to my knowledge, the battery circuit within the key fob has nothing to do with the engine start or not circuitry - that is the battery is only there to operate the door lock circuitry.
As to starting the engine, there is a circuit within the key cylinder that looks for some code on a chip inside the key fob much like the chip inside a credit card and then communicates that information to the engine computer where a calculation is done as to if the engine is allowed to start.
Knowing that one can charge the key fob battery with a MagSafe charger is actually a big deal - beats taping the dead key fob to the ignition key fob or putting it in the ignition and driving around for a couple of days with the door lock function not really working.

I assume however that if the key fob battery is dead just because of a cracked solder joint, that while the battery may still get fully charged, the door lock functions would still not work.

 

If your old LR3 key is shot just get a couple of new ones from Ebay. I've bought 4-5 over the years; they're about $25. Never had a problem with them. The battery's may/may not be the rechargable panasonics but they look identical and work perfectly. You will need to have at least one working key to re-code the keys from Ebay, and will need an IID tool to reprogram them. Takes about 30 seconds per key. The only thing that takes a little time is swapping out the blank key blade on the new key for the one off the original key.

If you're original key doesn't work (i.e. won't lock/unlock the vehicle), you may still be able to use it to re-code the new key.