Just came back from a trip with my wife. Noticed an annoying smart key problem. Most of the time it seems like the car chose to recognize her smart key when we got into the car. When I dropped her off a the rest area, the yellow caution light came on - that says the smart key has left the car. We both carry the our keys when we travel. It seems like the only way to avoid this problem is for us to make sure that I approach the car first each time we take off. Has anyone else had this problem? Any other solutions you can think of?
That's odd. In the 3 Prii that my fiancee and I have had we almost always have had at least two (story to follow) keys with us at all times. The only time we run into trouble with the SKS and car entry if I "key" in with my key at the trunk and then she "keys" in at the passenger door, sometimes the Prius will do the long beeeeeep. Now that we both have a Prius, we have 4 keys with us almost at all times and haven't had a single issue with key warnings when one of us leaves the car. One thought might be to keep the key in your right pocket instead of your left. I'm not sure where the sensor for the inside of the car is, but if her's is in a purse or something right next to the console, the signal from her's is probably way stronger than yours in your left pocket (if that's the case).
Never had this problem, even with two keys in the car. We mostly enter and leave together, so the situation may not have presented often. Tom
My wife and I also have not had this issue. We do have issues is she brings her purse and leaves it in the car. (With the leys inside) The car wont lock and it ofet takes us a min. to figure out what is causing it.
We do that all the time. I won't say anything nasty because it won't help. Every relationship has its little issues that you learn to live with, and keys are one of ours: "Can I use your keys. I can't find mine." Tom
We always have 2 keys in the car too, and it never causes problems like you've described. The only thing we occasionally experience is that he tries to lock the car immediately after I've exited it, and it gives the long beep. I've always just solved that by taking a few extra steps away from the car, so it stops sensing my fob. My suspicion from what you've described is that your fob battery may be dying? Try switching fobs with her and see if the behavior reverses. Then, get a new battery! -Vikki
If you want to lock the car and leave one smart key in the car, you can press the lock button on the fob. Then you will need to use the button to unlock as well. Hopefully this disables the smart key left in the car so it can't be used to start the car? I suppose that would be easy to test.
I think the solution to my problem is to make my wife take her purse with her apon leaving the vehicle. Why have it if she isn't going to use it. qbee42: You are right. Nothing is said because it wouldn't help. I normally just wait patiently until she gets back into the car and pockets her fob.
It does not disable the fob left in the car; only the outside doors are locked. We do, on occasion, use this technique, although I'm not a big fan of it for the reason already stated and that I have to dig in my pocket for the fob. Tom
i have never seen this either and we frequently are unable to lock the car because my SO leaves her purse in car most of the time. (with baby, diaper bags, etc... already have enough stuff to haul around) so my Pri just aint that picky i guess
This is just a guess, but it seems to me that once the connection is made to a particular device, and that device is removed, the connection is broken and must be re-initialized to another device. Like the BlueTooth phone setup? It can only recognize one BlueTooth device at a time. Just an attempt to rationalize. I have another question: Would it be prudent to swap fobs from time to time? Does it have a "battery" that needs to be refreshed from time to time?
No, the fob battery is a primary lithium cell. You replace it when it runs down; there is no recharging mechanism. Tom
I will try switching key FOBs with my wife to see if this makes a difference. I subscribe to the theory that the car locks onto the first FOB that comes into range and it locks onto this FOB. So if my wife reaches the car first her FOB registers and when she leaves, the car registers that the key has left. For some reason it has decided at that point to exclude my key. I did leave my car on one of those occasions and re-entered. The car then recognized my FOB and the yellow light disappeared.
Before I go to my Toyota dealer for a warranty fix, let me ask if anyone else has had the same problem. When I approach my car which was locked with the exterior door button, the driver's door will not unlock when I touch the inside of the door handle. If I then go to the rear hatch it will unlock when I touch the underside of the handle and I can also only then open the driver's door. It seems to me that somehow the driver's door handle sensor is faulty. Anyone have any ideas?
Over this past weekend I lost my keys. During that time, we noticed that my wife's smart key would only lock the doors if we used the button on the smart key. If we pushed one of the black buttons on the car we just got a long beeeeeep. Turns out my keys were under the front seat and the car was trying to tell us, we just weren't listening.
