I'm going to start off by saying that this is a very common mod for 987.1 and even 997.1 owners. The problem is that the OEM keyfob is overly sensitive and sometimes just the act of putting it in your pocket unlocks and opens either the trunk or the frunk. At the very least this is annoying and at worst it could mean walking away from the car with one of those open, leaving the light on and draining your battery. This is why you'll see many owners hold their keys until they're far away from their car. I've personally gotten used to only putting it in my bag or in my looser jacket pockets but never in my jeans.
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| Ready to start the keyfob migration process - 4-5-2019 |
Replacement keyfobs are cheap and easily found on Ebay or Amazon. They're also a bit beefier and have the shell used in the 987.2/997.2. The first step is pretty easy, simply open up both keys, release the latch for the actual key and transfer it over and then transfer over the battery and battery terminals as well as the button circuitry.
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| Moving the guts over - 4-5-2019 |
The scariest part of this process is that you have to transfer over the transponder used by the immobilizer from the OEM key to the new key. The transponder is glued onto the OEM key shell so you really don't have a choice but to completely destroy the old key shell to get the transponder out. Doing this carefully, it took me almost all of watching the latest episode of the Grand Tour to get that done. Note: If you buy an actual new Porsche key from the dealer it includes a new transponder and you then need to reprogram it to the car. That costs a few hundred dollars in total. This method costs about $20 but is a one way process.
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| Transponder extracted and ready to move over - 4-5-2019 |
You then just combine the two halfs of the shell being careful not to pinch the contacts so the buttons engage properly (this took me a dozen tries since it's a snug fit) and you end up with a sweet new keyfob that both looks better and is no longer the sensitive mess the original ones are.
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| Old keyfob (top), New keyfob (bottom) |
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| Old keyfob (bottom), New keyfob (top) |
I bought two of these new shells so I could convert both keys but I think I'm going to just hang onto it and keep one of them original just in case I ever have a problem.
