U0515: Invalid Data Received From Remote Function Actuation Module
What to do
The car drives normally — this is the receiver that listens for your key fob.
Two things to establish before anybody charges you. First, try a spare fob if you have one: a weak fob battery transmits intermittently rather than failing outright, and that is the commonest cause by a wide margin. Second, does it fail in a particular place? Car parks near transmitters, electric gates, LED signs and cheap chargers can jam the band locally. A fob that works everywhere except one spot is not a fault in the car.
If it fails everywhere, and a fresh fob battery does not fix it, then it is worth looking at — recent trim or headlining work is a common trigger, since the receiver antenna runs through those areas.
Until it is fixed, check the car has actually locked before walking away, and use the key blade if in doubt.
What this code means
The remote function actuation module is broadcasting data that cannot be accepted as true. See U0400 for what an invalid-data code is and why the module it names is usually the messenger rather than the culprit.
This is the module that listens for your key fob, and its faults have a distinctive signature: they are intermittent, they are worse in some places than others, and they are frequently not the car's fault at all.
It is a radio receiver. It listens on a licensed short-range band for a coded message from the fob, checks the code is one it knows, and asks the body module to act. Radio receivers are affected by their environment in ways wired systems are not.
Which produces the one question worth asking first: does it fail in a particular place? A car park next to a transmitter, a gate motor, an LED sign or a badly filtered charger can swamp the band locally. A fob that works everywhere except one location has diagnosed itself, and there is nothing wrong with the car.
Where the fault travels with the car, the usual causes are ordinary: a receiver antenna connection disturbed by trim work, water in the module, or a fob whose battery is weak enough to transmit intermittently rather than not at all. A dying fob battery is the single most common answer, and it is worth eliminating before anything is opened up.
One security note. Do not treat a remote-locking fault as cosmetic: if the car is not reliably locking, it is not reliably secure, and the mechanical key exists for exactly this.
Likely causes
Start here
- Corroded or loose connector · easy
- Damaged data bus wiring · moderate
Less common
- Module not coded to the vehicle · specialist
- Water ingress into module · moderate
- Damaged wiring harness · moderate
- Faulty aftermarket alarm or immobiliser installation · moderate
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
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- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
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