I am leaving on a long trip in the next few days and started thinking it would be nice to bring an extra key along for the journey. I'll be by myself for much of the trip, so I can't give the spare to someone else. I have the SKS and foolishly thought that I would stash the spare in my camera bag. About five minutes later I remembered that the car wouldn't lock if I were to ever want to leave the camera bag in the car. Is there any way around this issue? Is there a way to allow the car to lock with a specific fob still in it? The chances of losing my main SKS fob are probably slim, but I don't want to take chances while being so far from home. Perhaps I'll just bring the spare "key" portion of the fob, so that I could at least get into the car. Thank you for any thoughts on this!
The only way I can think to do that would be to remove the battery from the spare fob and store it in the bag separately.
I was reading my owners manual for my silver 05 prius and I found a section that say's if the battery goes dead in the FOB remote use the key to get in and insert the FOB into the slot and even with the battery dead in the FOB remote the prius will start. This is good to know. This also gave me an idea for having a spare key hidden in the car incase I was far from home and lost my FOB remote. I removed the battery from my spare FOB remote and removed the door opening key and put it in my wallet then hide the spare FOB inside the prius. Now if I ever lose my FOB remote I get the key from my wallet to open the door , then get the spare FOB without the battery and put it into the FOB slot and I can start the car. Have fun, Don
Are you certain that the fob will work without the battery in it? Have you tried it yet? Or maybe you just left out the step of re-installing the battery?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco\";p=\"97641)</div> Or a good bit of foil -- the altoids tin is more elegant & less likely to be mistaken for trash, though ;-) It's also a good idea to either stash the mechanical key or a copy of it on your person. You may have read the chinese puzzle box thread, that it is pretty hard to get in to the car if you somehow manage to lock yourself out.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kkister1492\";p=\"97694)</div> Yes, No battery needed in FOB if it is installed in the FOB slot. I have tried it and it works fine. Some people say that you could wrap tin foil around the spare FOB with the battery installed but since this is a spare key , and it may not be used for years ,I wouldn't want to have a battery in it that could leak and distroy a very expensive FOB.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kkister1492\";p=\"97694)</div> How do you think non SKS cars work? OK, sure, the remote lock function needs the battery, but not in allowing the car to start.
My wife sometimes leaves her purse in the car, so I just use the lock button on the FOB to lock the car. You have to use the unlock button on the FOB to open the car because I think SKS gets temporarily disabled. Glenn
Well, in earlier posts it was recommended that one remove the battery for storage and then re-install it when needed. Also, our salesman (and, yes, I realize that some of them are full of it) said that if the battery in the fob ran low, we could still use it (the fob) in the slot. Thought there would be residual amount of 'juice" in the battery for the car to recognize the fob. He said something about it charging the battery that way, too. That seemed a bit off. It seemed to me that a trule smart key system talked to each other. No battery = no communication from the fob. If that isn't true, then why couldn't a cheaper non-SKS fob be programed to work?
The dealer is correct, the fob will work in the slot without the battery. The car can excite the fob briefly to extract its ID, the same way security badges work these days, and Mobile's SpeedPass. Putting the fob in the slot will not charge anything in the fob. The CR2032 is not rechargable. A cheaper non SKS fob I think would work, just not with SKS, but then the way the Prius gets programmed for an SKS fob may not work with non-sks fob. On the other hand, the proceedure for programming a fob for a car without SKS may work for a car WITH SKS, but with a non-SKS fob.
