| Remote Key Almost Impossible to Initialize: 316i 1998
I am Mabboseg from Australia and I have a 1998 316i E36 BMW Compact with two passenger doors. I had bought this as a used car and I was given only one key having remote locking and unlocking in it. It also had a user manual but most of the contents of this manual is for Left Hand Drive, seems that it was meant for US market. Recently I had bought another remote similar key which was very expensive $A520.00. I had used the standard procedure to initialize the keys and now both of the keys don’t work for locking and unlocking. But they work manually and can start the car. I thought I had messed up maybe with something.
I had successfully initialized the key several times before when it use to stop working for remote opening/closing. That procedure was:
1 Get in the car and close the doors
2 Put the key and switch to position 2 for less than 5s
3 Before 30s lapsed…While holding the unlock button press the lock button 3 times and release all buttons
The LED in the key begins to flash, and use to give lock/unlock signal but now when I do that it only flashes, continues to flash maybe 10 times and nothing happens.
I went online and looked for resources to fix my problems but with no success. Some of the new procedures that I have tried are as follows:
No 1:
1 Unlock vehicle via Manual locking from the driver's door.
2 Briefly switch on terminal R (1st Position) in vehicle (maximum 5 seconds) and switch off again.
3 Open Driver Door and Close it Again => The system is now ready to be initialized.
4 Press and hold "unlock" (No.2) button on the Remote Key.
5 Point Key Remote in the direction of the rear window antenna , with the "unlock" button still pressed, press "lock" (No.1) button three times within 10 seconds, Now you have to Release the Unlock Button.
If you have any additional Remote Keys you must do the same steps , but this time
without Turning on the ignition or opening and closing the door, just after you hear
the Central locking Click, then within 30 Seconds Sync the other Keys buy pressing
Unlock button and 3 times Lock button the release the Unlock
No 2:
1 Get in and close all doors.
2 Turn on the ignition and turn off quickly. (No more than 5 seconds) to start the process. Next action must take place within 30 seconds.
3 Remove the 1st key.
4 Hold the key up near your left shoulder (this is so it is closer to the remote receiver antenna)
5 Hold down the unlock button (which is button 1) and press the lock button 3 times (center button)
6 Release the unlock button and the doors lock which confirms the operation.
Quickly repeat steps 4 & 5 for key #2 etc.
If it does not work, try doing the keys in opposite order. Key 2 then key1, vs 1 then 2.
No 3
1 Inserted the key into the door lock and turned to lock the door
2 Inserted the key into the door lock and turned to unlocked the door
3 Sit in the car for about 10min doing nothing for the initialization to kick in
4 Switched the ignition lock to position 1 and then switched off (within 5 seconds)
5. Press button 2 (lock) and hold in
6 Pressed button 1 (unlock) three times, then released button 2 (within 10 seconds)
No 4
1 Open all the doors and sit in the car
2 Turn on the ignition and turn off quickly. (No more than 5 seconds) to start the process. Next action must take place within 30 seconds.
3 Remove the 1st key.
4 Hold the key up near your left shoulder (this is so it is closer to the remote receiver antenna)
5 Hold down the unlock button (which is button 1) and press the lock button 3 times (center button)
6 Release the unlock button and the doors lock which confirms the operation.
No 5
1 Make sure that all the doors, trunk and hood are closed.
2 Insert the key into the ignition and switch it to position 1. Turn it back again. Repeat this four more
times. Then remove the key from the ignition cylinder.
3 Press the "Lock" button three times while holding down the "Unlock" button. Then release the
"Unlock" button. The door locks will then cycle to confirm that you did it correctly.
4 Repeat step 3 for each key that you need to program.
5 Exit the programming mode by inserting the key into the ignition and turning it to position 1 and then
taking it out.
No 6
1 The car must have been opened with the remote control. If the car was not opened with the remote
control, an interlock takes effect and initialising is not possible for a 15-minute period.
2 Enter the car and close the driver's door.
3 Turn the Ignition key to position 1 (max> 5 seconds) and return to position 0.
4 Press button 1 (Unlock) on the transmitter and hold. Keeping button 1 pressed, briefly press button 2
(Lock) three times in succession within a period of 10 seconds.
5 Release button 1, The LED will flash slowly for max. 10 seconds,
6 The central locking system indicates that initialisation has been performed successfully by closing and
releasing the locks in rapid succession.
If the LED does not flash and the central locking system does not operate, the initialising procedure must be repealed-
If you use additional remote-control transmitters for the same car, each of them (up to four) must be initialised within a further 30 seconds (repeat steps 4 to 6), otherwise they will be de-activated.
I have tried many more with slight variations in timing etc without any success. I also have done the following:
• I have checked all the fuses in the fuse compartment next to the battery they all are OK. I have done this with an ohm meter, individually taking each out - testing – put it back.
• Checked the central locking system, it is operating OK manually; it locks/opens all the doors, trunk and fuel door with the keys.
• Apart from the remote locking/unlocking everything seems to work as normal.
• Have bought a packet of six batteries (CR2016) and both of the keys have a new one in them now.
I don’t know how to check if the remote receiver in the car is working or not, also I don’t know where it is mounted in my car. Maybe it has a separate fuse mounted somewhere else ( not with other fuses in the fusebox). Or maybe I need to check for something else ????
The only other thing that I remember doing recently is that the ASC was switched off for a while when I drove on the spare wheel for a long distance and put the normal wheel back when I got home.
Now I am relying on this forum to fix my problems …. PLEASE HELP with any ideas that you may have tried with success. | 
2011 BMW E38 728i
Linear Mode
