Replace Buttons on your Nissan Keyfob

After purchasing a new Nissan Primera P11-144, the rubber buttons were badly worn, and on one of them the button didn't work at all. So I went onto to eBay and purchased a new kit for around £6. Just takes a little patience.

What do you need?
• Various Tweezers
• Soldering Iron
• Solder
• Flat Screwdriver
• Blu-Tac / Clamp

Right, If you can not solder, I would suggest that you get someone who can to do this as if you make a mess of it, you may destroy the small circut board. I would not recommend using the cheap £3 soldering iron's too, I used a soldering station with variable heat which I purchased from maplin. Just remember when soldering, a true saying "Cleanliness is next to Godliness". If your solder tip is dirty you will just make a mess of things. It is always recommended to prepate the top for solder. Clean it with fresh solder and any ensure you tin the tip. Plenty stuff online about soldering best practice. 

If your buttons work and after you have stripped down the fob and your buttons look fine, you can skip the soldering step.

Anyways lets get started.

When you get your kit, you should have recieved the following
• New Battery
• New SMD Switches
• New Rubber Buttons
• New PCB Cover
• New Case

And first thing is first. The old Keyfob!

First thing is first. Use the flat screw driver to seperate the fob from the key. (I used the end of tweezers but a flat screwdriver will be better).

You should then see the fob on it's own. There is two small lugs at each side, just use your screwdriver to help pry the fob apart.

Next you need to remove the PCB and PCB cover from the casing. See the ones that are circled orange? Once the PCB has been removed, pull off the Battery Connector which is circled in green. Be careful with this as you will need it.

Remove the battery and the other terminal clip also. This terminal clip was a bit of a pain to remove. Be very careful not to break it.

Now the PCB has been removed, either Clamp it down so it is secure, or use some Blu-Tac. Note if you overhead the board the Blu-Tac will melt. Again if your soldering iron is good it will melt the solder very quickly. You will see the orange circles on the board. I already removed the bottom switch, To remove the switches, grip the buttons with the tweezers and heat the old solder. I used Solder Braid to remove the old solder. The switches should then just remove.

Now get some new solder, Put a small blob on all contacts for the switch, Just a very small amount. Once that is done, remember, Wipe Wipe, Sizzle Sizzle?

Now get the new switches, Grab one with the tweezers. Just seat the switch above the new Solder (Still holding with the tweezers). Just heat the Solder on the PCB again while putting a little pressure on the switch. One side will then just sink after the solder is melted. Immediatly after it is melted remove heat, and one side should be soldered. You should be able to not grip with the tweezers but use the tweezers to push down on the button while you melt the solder on the other side. and that should again sink into the new solder.

Your board should look like this:

Then once done, remove the Blu-Tac, and assemble the fob in reverse order of dismatling them using the new parts. Remember to fit the Battery Connectors. The fob should all just clip back together. and should look like this:

Enjoy your brand new feeling Keyfob!