I'm trying to retro fit the old style (pre 92) factory remote central locking to my car. I'm not interested in fitting an after market rc system.

I've got the ir control module, the ir receiver and the dash led out of a wrecked donor car. I bought a new key fob (the type with the flip out key) as all the donor ones that I could find were totally screwed.

I've plugged the components in - the car is pre-wired for all of it.

When I follow the instructions to initialize the fob nothing happens. The owners manual says to turn the ignition to on and hold the fob above the dash led and hold down the lock button until the led on the fob flashes rapidly. Then turn the car off and thats it. I also found some instructions that say to hold down the unlock button, but that didn't make any difference.

Problem is that the fob won't lock or unlock the car. Is there some trick to doing this? are the instructions wrong? Are there any parts of this system that commonly fail?

I dont think this is a very common option for an E34 to have, but is very common on an E32. (help shogun!)