The dude who sold me his 96 XJ made no mention of a key fob for the Jeep and may never have seen one himself. Was reading the ‘96 Service Manual today and it showed me where MINE is! So…..I see some factory key fobs on eBay that are refurbed and some are even new. I’ve been leery of taking the XJ to the dealer for this programming as I’ve heard it’s expensive. The Service Manual goes through how to clear the old keyless module and then associating the replacement key fob - looks pretty easy. Anybody here done the procedure?

thanks for the read! 🤘

 

I only got 1 fob with recent '00 XJ purchase. Bought new $9 fob on Amazon but all fob sellers say must be programmed by locksmith. Took Jeep and fob to locksmith but he was unable to program it. Returned and bought new $15 fob that was able to be programmed for $40. Works fine. Don't know what may be different on your '96.

 

I have a 1996 also, I found that after not having factory fobs, it was cheaper and easier to put in an aftermarket alarm system. A basic one...came with two fobs with keyless entry and alarm. Just throwing out an alternative....

 

The 91-96 keyless entry system was horrible. It was IR based, think your TV controller. You had to get right up on the jeep and aim the remote just right for it to work. The FOB's are also crazy expensive. In 97+ they switched to a more standard RF.

As BruceB said, its better/cheaper to just wire in a basic aftermarket keyless entry system then to try and get the OEM one working. They sell cheap systems that are just for keyless entry, you don't even need the alarm part if you want a quick simple install.