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[rayson56]

After 2 1/2 years and 32,000 miles I decided to change the battery in my key fob for my 2018 CVO RG. No big deal right? I've changed dozens of these for myself and my customers over the years.
So I had ridden my bike to work that day and I put my helmet in the saddlebag, used the remote and locked it up and went on with my day. I went back to my parts dept. got a brand new 2032 out of the wrapper and installed it in my remote. When I went to leave at around 9 that evening my remote would not work! Okay what did I do wrong? I pulled the fob apart and by putting a little pressure on the battery in the remote I was able to get the bags to unlock and retrieve my helmet and start the bike. I got home and did all of the normal checking and testing of the battery and install and again all was right but it did not work.
Now keep in mind there was NOTHING wrong before changing the battery and the new battery tested perfect and nothing was bent or broken or out of whack during the process.
The next day I called my local dealer and I could almost hear the service writer scratching his head as he said "you know I've heard of people having trouble with non Panasonic 2032's from other manufacturers." Some sort of minimal size discrepancy I guess affecting the contact points? He said to bring it in and we'll take a look at it for ya. So I got off work and went home and popped the fob/remote apart again and grabbed a small O ring and placed it on top of the battery to snug things up and put it back together and it now works like a charm!  Unbelievable.
So for all of you folks like me with that ginormous remote key fob, if you are ever out and about and your battery in said fob needs replacing and something like this happens and you, hopefully this bit of info. will help.

[iski]

Thanks for the tip.  Have had "new" batteries in the past in fobs that never worked right, they went in the trash. Will try this next time.

[grc]

I'm pretty sure the real root cause of this issue lies with the fob.  Harley even had an internal bulletin a few years back that indicated a fob issue.  Regardless, I think we have all seen what globalization has done to other products in terms of strict adherence to standards.  Variability has increased, even with simple things like coin cell batteries.  The fix back when Harley actually admitted the problem was a shim of some sort to assure good contact.

Jerry

[rayson56]

Very well said Jerry.