My wife has a Mercedes which has the exact same type key fob that we have for our trucks. Last night I asked her if she had any issues with her fob and she replied it's hit or miss to get the doors open and that sometimes she stands locked out of the car for long periods of time, pressing lock and unlock over twenty times just to get in her car. I think the problem is not with our trucks but definitively with the key fob and it's entire module. I am going to modify the antenna used for our modules and see if that works. I'll let you know what happens.

 

If you find and old key fob and take it apart and compare the thickness of the board inside alone you will see the problem. I wish I could find and use and older style. I don't know why they didn't just go with the key fob in the pocket and push start....gonna be the norm soon. I wonder about a retro fit. only 4 bolts to remove the box behind the key to changeit out to a button.

 

I was wondering this. Would our trucks work with a push button and the fob in the pocket? Or does it need to be in really close proximity to work?

 

I'm a Mercedes tech and have owned many of them over the years. I have NEVER had a problem with the Mercedes fob, try changing the batteries in it. I've even mistakenly put the mercedes key into my Ram and a message comes up in the EVIC "damaged key." The Ram ignition switch seems to be an exact copy of the Mercedes(probably a result of the shared technology during the merger,) however the Ram key itself does seem inferior to the Mercedes. I've had some minor issues with the Ram, nothing too annoying though. With Mercedes the key does have to be in the ignition for it to work, the keyless start option on them is a completely different version ignition switch.

 

My wife's Mercedes is a 2005. I checked out her fob going to the same places that I go with the ram and it would not work by the coffee shop. Same problem with the ram. So since it's an 05 Mercedes I wonder what they changed over the years in order to make the key work. And for Chrysler they must have used old technology for the 09 Ram.