My Keyless VW Passat Won’t Start

This week another bewildered customer called us wondering what to do. He was stranded, miles from home, telling us his Keyless VW Passat won’t start, and believing it was something to do with the key. This is the model of car we’re talking about today.

Our customer had been having trouble for a few weeks. The car was telling him that he needed a new key battery, and then, one day it wouldn’t recognise the key. When he tried to start the car this is the warning message he got on the dashboard.

Are you seeing the same warning? If so this will help you.

Let’s look at the three common reasons why you’ll see this warning message.

My Keyless VW Passat Won’t Start – Reason One

The first and most obvious is simply that the key isn’t programmed. This is why it’s telling you it’s not recognised and makes sense.

The car automatically detects the key when you’re inside the car, but it won’t if the key isn’t coded to start the car.

Do these cars ever forget the keys?

No, we haven’t seen this. In the olden days a few Fords would do this if the battery went flat, but we don’t think this model of Passat does this.

So if it’s telling you the key isn’t recognised, and it’s a brand new key, you’ll need it programmed in with a diagnostic machine.

My Keyless VW Passat Won’t Start – Reason Two

The key is damaged. Inside these keys are delicate components. In the olden days, when a key was made, the components would be protected with a glue called encapsulant.

The glue protected the circuit board when the key was dropped, and this was standard practice in the electronics field. However, they no longer do this, so when the key is dropped, thrown etc, the electronics suffer.

Can My Keyless VW Passat key be fixed?

I’m sure if you Google it, someone will know what to replace inside your car key. We don’t unfortunately, so our answer is a brand new key.

My Keyless VW Passat Won’t Start – Reason Three

At last, something that you can do. If the battery inside your car key gets low on power, you’ll get a warning message to get a new one. Normally we say that car key batteries are easy to change, but this key is a complete pain.

Who knows what the designers at VW were thinking? They could have made it so easy. However it’s not.

Need a new Key Battery? Click here to order one from Amazon.

We’ve made a YouTube video, that shows you what you need to do to change the car key battery and hope it helps. Be patient and watch the whole thing first because it feels like a bit of a puzzle.

How do I start my Keyless Passat?

Good news. If you want to start your car, even though the key battery is flat, you can still get up and running. VW provided an emergency start method and it’s very easy. There’s a place that you need to hold the key close to, so that the car recognises it.

Just hold the key up on the steering column while you start the car in the normal way.

Once the car is running, you can take the key away and use the car normally.

That’s it! Now you’re up and running, make sure you get a new key battery fitted as soon as possible. It’s possible the buttons will stop working on your key but again don’t worry. VW supplied  an emergency key and door lock to use when this happens. Click Here to read more.

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