Fobbed off – but not for long
I bought a 2007 Peugeot 107 recently. You’ll see it in CM soon as we start using it for some of our regular features, such as Electronic Diagnostics, Clutch Clinic and
DIY Servicing. It’s my first drive of the little 998cc three-cylinder motor and I quite like it. Anyone here own or have use of one?
Of course, the 107 is basically the same car as the Toyota Aygo and Citroën C1 albeit with different body panels. However, the engine is Japanese-designed and it does have a great durability record. In fact, I wanted to try one out after talking with a MOT tester in Peterborough who races the C1. Yes, races it against other C1s for endurance 24hr events. He drives to circuits around the UK, red-lines it for 24 hours and then drives it home again. Now, that is impressive.
Two keys came with this 107, a fixed key and a remote fob. The fob was in a bad way – the locking button was missing. However, on ebay they sell replacement fob cases from £2 upwards. I paid £5 for mine because it has a shiny Peugeot logo too. Transferring over the internals of the original fob is a matter of undoing a securing screw, removing the blank key blade (supplied), screwing in the original blade, with the circuit board placed in position. Job done, I thought...
It didn’t work. I took it all apart and then noticed the circuit board was missing the operating switch for the ‘opening’ button. The original fob had been damaged for so long, the tiny switch had gone awol. Once again, ebay came to the rescue at £2.56 for two new repair switches. When they arrived I was prepared to solder in the new switch, but decided instead to lever off the top of the new switch (metal) and place that and the new ‘button’ on to the existing board base. It worked, with no soldering required. All in for less than a tenner and ten minutes’ labour, we now have full remote locking and unlocking!