SKS issue

At the end of May we took delivery of a beautiful new 2006 Driftwood Pearl Prius. It's been a very pleasant car so far, but I've been having quite a time with the smart key system. The SKS has not worked properly from the beginning. The salesman at the dealership even commented when we took delivery - "this isn't the way this should work." The problem is intermittent operation. Sometimes the SKS works and sometimes it doesn't. When it does work, the range seems very limited. I often have to hold the fob right up to the door handle or wave it in front of the dash to get the car to recognize it's there. The salesman asked us to bring the vehicle back the following Saturday so one of their Prius techs could have a look. We showed up as requested. The tech played with it for a while and agreed it was working intermittently. It didn't matter which fob he tried, both worked about the same. He took the battery out of one of the fobs and replaced it with a new one. The SKS operation did not improve. The old battery tested fine, by the way. He said he would have to call Toyota to report the issue and get instructions from them. We were called a few days later and told Toyota wanted to replace the batteries in both fobs with their batteries, so the dealership ordered 2 batteries from Toyota and we returned the following Saturday. The new batteries were installed in the fobs. The SKS did not improve. Once again we were told they would call Toyota to get more instructions. When the dealership called back, they suggested we leave the Prius with them so they could work on the car and call Toyota as needed to try to get to the bottom of the problem. We dropped the car off on 5/30/06. After a few days the service manager called to say Toyota wants to replace the "module" and it would take a day or two to get the part as there is only one in the US. That seemed a bit strange, but that was the deal. The part came and was installed. The SKS operation did not improve. Now the dealer has put in a call to have a Toyota engineer come to their dealership to solve the problem. I just spoke with with the dealership service manager a few minutes ago and was told the engineer should be there tomorrow (6/8/06). I have enjoyed the Prius very much in the 3 weeks or so I was able to drive it. I don't want to make assumptions about the rest of the car because of the flaky SKS, but I am starting to worry. Am I alone in having this problem? Has anyone else in Priusland had this problem? What was the solution? I've read a few posts concerning SKS trouble, but most seem to be resolved by not keeping a cell phone in the same place as the fob, etc. I can't find mention of my particular issue. Any suggestions?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tumbleweed @ Jun 7 2006, 10:46 AM) [snapback]267248[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for the suggestion, tumbleweed. I really should get a feel for a properly functioning SKS so I know if mine gets repaired correctly.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(B Rad @ Jun 7 2006, 02:00 PM) [snapback]267378[/snapback]</div>

I can't complain there - the dealership gave me a 2004 Camry LE while my Prius is in the shop. The MPG is not nearly as high as my Prius, but a very nice car otherwise.

 

Well, it took 10 days at the shop, but my SKS problem was finally solved. The dealership requested a Toyota field engineer come and look at the problem as they were unable (even after talking to Toyota and replacing several parts) to resolve the issue. The Toyota engineer arrived early on 6/8 and determined the "door lock receiver" was faulty. It was replaced and the condition was resolved. I am told this is a very rare problem. The dealership claimed this was the only such problem they have ever seen. Anyway, the Prius SKS works as advertised now.