2013 Cadillac CTS
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in Ventura County

2013 Cadillac CTS Smart Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

I got a call from a Lang Ranch address on a weekday morning. The owner of a 2013 CTS had walked out to her driveway, pressed the start button, and got nothing. No crank, just a key-not-detected warning on the dash. The fob was the original one she had owned for years.

She had already tried the obvious stuff. New CR2032 from the drugstore. Cleaned the fob contacts with a cloth. Pressed the button about forty times in different spots near the dash. Still nothing.

When I got there I had her drop the fob into the console slot and try the start button. The car fired right up. That told me the fob was communicating at close range but the antenna wasn't picking it up from normal proximity distance. Nine times out of ten that is a fob antenna or a contact seating issue inside the fob, not a full fob failure and not a vehicle-side problem.

I opened the fob on the hood. The replacement CR2032 she had installed was the right battery, but the positive contact had a slight bow to it from what looked like a previous prying attempt, probably years back when someone changed the battery the wrong way. The cell was sitting at a tilt and losing contact under vibration.

I straightened the contact, seated a fresh CR2032 flat, and closed the fob. Tested from the driver's door, from the passenger side, from about thirty feet back. Locked, unlocked, every button on the face of the fob, three consecutive push-to-starts. Clean across the board.

She did not need a full replacement or a reprogram. She needed the right small fix, done at her driveway in Lang Ranch, for a fraction of what the dealer would have charged just to look at it.

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