When I got the car roughly a year ago the "lights" button did not work. So I ordered a new remote, paired it with the car, worked like a charm...
Then, roughly a month ago, the remote ceased to work. Earlier that day a buddy of mine unknowingly sat on the keyfob for 10-15 minutes, so I suspected a button remained depressed during those couple of minutes and thus drained the battery. I replaced the battery, worked like a charm...
Today the two red buttons on the keyfob refused to work. Each 10-15 attempt at pressing the "lock" button did its thing; the "lights" button didn't do isht at all. So I opened that thing, checked the battery (3.2V seemed okay enough), reassembled the remote again, and it works again...

Is this something these keyfobs are famous for? Something maybe mechanical? (There is a single screw in the upper right corner of the keyfob PCB, so maybe something gets loose in there?)

 

My Car is a 2008 and I’ve had it for roughly a year and the key has always been problematic.

When I first opened it up I thought it looked like the previous owner had spilt coke on it. Cleaned it up and couple of buttons worked.

Since bought a new one and programmed to the car worked for a while but then stopped after a month of so, thought battery. Changed the battery and still didn’t work.

Reprogrammed again and work again for a bit.

Seems the programming drops out every so often randomly.

I’ve given up just use the key now.

 

The only thing I noticed was that my X358 sometimes sits for (say 3~4 weeks) and the remote doesn't work, unlock manually and then it works again.
Has happened twice, car is on a charger, it's like something in the car "goes to sleep".

 

"Notorious" not "famous". The meant-to-be 'switches' and their elastomeric weather-cover are low-grade *****, as to design, material selection, and assembly implementation. The "good news" is the El Cheapo Chyna-made third-party ones are no worse, and are cheap enough to renew often.

The mechanical key is sound.
The passive responder code-capsule rarely fails.

If in doubt, leave the battery out, pretend it never HAD a remote and use the key.

End of problem. End of stress. A fine motorcar no more needs a 'remote' than a Rorqual needs a Moto-Guzzi.

 

I have had my car car for 6 years now and the only problem I had was that the key fobs did not have the Growler, so that I had to adapt it with parts from an S-Type fob, but that is a totally different matter... no problems regarding the reliability of the buttons.

Best regards,

Thomas