Chosen Solution
Why is my Dodge Ram door locks not responding to remote key?
You are not alone. Just for completeness, the answer is primarily for anyone who reads this some time in the future. 1.Replace the battery You already know this one, but it’s the easiest and most typical fix. It’s also pretty inexpensive, so a good thing to try. 2. Make sure you’re on the driver’s side of the car There’s often a big difference in performance (distance between you and the vehicle) depending on which side of the vehicle you approach. 3. Check the locking mechanisms in the doors Verify by using the electronic locking buttons within the car to see if they reliably lock and unlock the doors. If not, sometimes all that’s required is a little lithium grease on the locking mechanism … after you’ve spent an hour or so taking the door apart. 4. Clean the contacts Many remotes use a carbon “button” embedded into a flexible membrane. It is intended to contact a small matching interlocking comb pattern of copper (or sometimes carbon on copper) on the circuit board. Sometimes these carbon buttons will fail due to dirt or moisture or corrosion so gently cleaning them (and any other contacts, such as the battery) with a pencil eraser will fix the problem. (BTW, this same trick works on many TV remote controls.) 5.Replace the remote If you can get a dealer to verify that there is a performance problem with the remote, they might be willing to replace it, depending on the warranty status of the vehicle. 6.Replace the receiver If none of the steps above worked, I’d probably report it to the dealer and hope that either it’s a known and covered defect that the dealer will replace for free or that my wallet survives the beating. Hope this info is helpful to you.
