Wife and I have 2 Toyotas ('11 Avalon and '12 v) and thus 4 fobs between us. I keep one for each car on separate keychains and I have one keychain in my pocket and one on my dresser depending on which car I'm taking. She keeps both (one for each car) on her keychain in her purse. Her key stopped starting her car. Not even when pressed against the start button. Mine for her car worked just fine. Went to the dealers and they tested all 4 units and both of hers registered low, both of mine high. Since they were pairs bought at the same time, odd that hers for each car should register low and mine high. She almost never uses my car and I also seldom use her car. The dealer's service manager said that, when the fobs are too close together, they keep talking to each other and trying to do the key fob to car handshake. And that this explained why her fobs all registered low and all mine didn't. They normally last 3 years or so but when kept in proximity as in a purse on the same keychain I guess that they lose 1/3 to 1/2 battery life. Replace battery in all her fobs, all is well. Next time you are at the dealer's, have them test your fob's strength. Takes only a few seconds.
Interesting discovery. Me and Myself are the only people who drive my v so I have the 2 fobs laying around the house somewhere and grab whatever one I happen to find. Left one in my pocket of my jeans one time and sent it through the washer and dryer, still works fine and is nice and clean now. I do recall reading in the owners manual about a warning to keep the Fob away from other electronic devices like your cell phone as it will run the battery down faster. I do suspect if I leave my iphone next to my fob for a long period of time the iphone battery seems to deplete faster. Could just be in my head though..
Interesting. Fortunately, I have only one "smart" keyed car. There is nothing smart about those stupid fobs. Laziness, yes.
here's another one for the "things I never knew department". There are lots and lots of other threads that have already discussed this exact same issue - since 1984 - and yet the premature dead battery scenerio prolificly lives on so - go to Ebay and you can buy (bulk quantity) a couple dozen of these li'l batteries for way less than ¼ the price you'd pay at the local Pharmacy for just 1 or2. Then stick 2 or 3 in each of the glove boxes & viola - no more problems. Actually I should say no more problems for the folks presently reading this ... however I have been hapily re posting this similar response for about a decade now. If anyone else is willing to pick up the gauntlet I'll be more than glad to pass it on. Alternatively buy a teeny metal box or just wrap it in aluminum foil then you can keep it in the car with no drainage issues. .
spare batteries (left in plastic blister packs) .... glove box ... spare fob gets wrapped in foil ... user decides where to then stick foil wrapped fob. Turning where they stick it ... one might need to place foil wrapped fob in a little baggie .
What battery does it take? Since they swapped the battery for me, I never saw it. The battery in the car idea sounds like a good one since you can get in with the physical key. BTW, looking for a DRL, I happened to see a dealer price at much less than my dealer had quoted for the part. Mentioned it to the parts manager...guess what. You can compare prices even at dealers. They met the net advertised price.
new to me 2012 v two. Is there a dash slot for the fob? Is it sensor only, what if the FOB battery dies? Stupid? Too lazy to look in the book? Go ahead dis me, but I didn't see a slot.
I would carry the book with you as you may want to know how to jump start it, how to start it with a dead fob battery or how to stop it when the Start button does not work (hold down over 3 seconds). There is no slot. It's similar to the tags that keep you from stealing the good stuff at Walmart but the tag is in the fob. By the way the answer is in the first post above.
yup lazy, I searched for fob and slot in the v forums first, and got... nothing. Perhaps you can read the tea leaves that said there is no slot in that first post. Dumb me couldn't. I'm coming from an 05 with a slot. Book, shmook, that's why god invented forums, now if he could just work on that search engine a bit. Have a WM employee put the good stuff in the dumpster, there I helped you out too. I'll guess the book doesn't mention slot either. Is the book in searchable form somewhere? If I ever find a manual that says product X does NOT do this, I'll eat it. Well somewhere there's a sears lawnmower manual that says don't pick it up and use it as a hedge trimmer. (after the lawsuit) So there is an RFID sniffer , somewhere around the start button, no fob battery needed if the fob is in THAT area? explain THAT to the parking attendant. (I have a story about how an attendant cleverly locked me out of my 05)
