Good Evening Everyone,

I recently purchased an 2008 S40 2.4i with 87k, and am glad to be back in a Volvo.

The issue I am having is with the key fob / remote. None of the buttons work, but it does start the car. I have been using the cut key insert to get into the car each morning, which sets off the alarm of course. There are no fault codes displaying. I either can't recall or didn't check if the remote was working when I test drove the car. There is only one remote, but by scrolling through the settings menu it says there are two for the vehicle (thus one is missing).

I already replaced the battery with no luck. My initial thought was that the key had to be reprogrammed by the dealer, but after contacting one they did not recommend this service citing past lack of success. While I disagree, the charge would be roughly $250 with no guarantee of it working (needed software + labor). I also replaced any of the bad fuses I could see - it's hard to tell if they are bad so if there is a specific fuse to look at please advise.

Is there any way to diagnose the issue myself? Any suggestions? I'm not looking to fork over that kind of $$ to a dealer for a non-critical issue. I appreciate any and all help!

Pat

 

You need a new remote. There was a bulletin for this on non-keyless cars.

 

I believe I have the same issue with my 2008 C30. What was the problem for your fob? How did you fix it?

the dealer I went to said it could cost up to $2500 to fix.
was it your module, antenna, or door sensor, etc?

did you happen to fix it by disconnecting your car battery for a few minutes and then reconnecting car battery? I’ve seen multiple post online recommending those steps but I’m hesitant to do so.

thank you for your time. Hope this message finds you and your Volvo doing well.

 

CEM update required by Volvo
After facing the same issues as everyone on this thread and spending countless hours searching forums to find the answer, I believe this is the only fix. A bit of background first, my main key buttons stopped working and didn’t think much of it as I had a spare, however after a couple of years, that too also stopped working and it become a bit of a challenge locking and unlocking doors. I reached out to Volvo who quoted me a considerable amount of money for a new key as it would need to come from Sweden. Fast forward a few months later, the key finally arrives and I go into Volvo all excited that I’ll finally have a working key, but no, I get a call from them saying that the key works on the ignition but the buttons on the brand new key still don’t work, I explain that I cannot pay for a key that doesn’t work and they respond by telling me that it does in the ignition, after an hour of debating, the master technician arrives and tells me that they will do a CEM update on the vehicle but cannot guarantee this will fix the problem, however I would need to pay for it regardless, I reluctantly agree and they proceed with the update, low and behold, 45 mins later, I’m told the good news and the bad news.

Bad news is the new key buttons still don’t work but starts the vehicle.

Good news is both your old keys are now working fine with no issues.

in the end they decided to send the new key back to Volvo as faulty and only charged for the CEM update which was £45.

Please do let me know if this fixes your problem as it would help a lot of people spending weeks and months searching for the answer.