Key Fob Dead Zone

scdaren · January 24, 2020

There is this one strip mall parking lot by my house with a gas station and some restaurants, etc. Maybe 1 in 5 times I park there, my keyless fob won't work. I usually lock the car by pushing the button on the interior door when I get out. Then to get back in, nothing works. The buttons on the fob won't work, the button on the door handle won't work. I have to pull the physical key out of the fob to unlock the door. Thankfully it will still start the truck.

It's the weirdest thing, I've never had it happen anywhere else, just a bunch of times in this one parking lot. Must be some kind of interference. Anyone ever run into something like that?

redwngr · January 24, 2020

Might be worth trying a new battery in the fob.

If that location has more that usual radio frequency 'noise' a stronger fob signal might help.

Fobs use CR2032 button batteries.

They are cheap to buy and easy to change.

Be sure not to short the front and back together as it will kill or seriously degrade the battery.

I've occasionally had one with an abnormally short life.

May not solve it, but only a couple bucks to try.

Edited January 24, 2020 by redwngr

smrr1 · January 24, 2020

Maybe try locking it with the fob? Not sure if the truck is seeing some kind of problem from being locked from the inside and kills the fob. Long shot but maybe.

scdaren · January 24, 2020

58 minutes ago, redwngr said:

Might be worth trying a new battery in the fob.

I can try that -- but I don't think it's the battery. It's only in this one spot, and everywhere else the fob works from WAY across a parking lot. Farther than any other car I've owned.

scdaren · January 24, 2020

15 minutes ago, smrr1 said:

Maybe try locking it with the fob? Not sure if the truck is seeing some kind of problem from being locked from the inside and kills the fob. Long shot but maybe.

Same problem. Sometimes I lock it with the fob (or try to), don't realize it didn't work, and just come back to an unlocked truck that doesn't blink when I press the unlock button.

GregG10 · January 25, 2020

A couple years ago there was a weird situation in town, there were about a dozen cars,all different brands that the key fob would not work on and the people could not even start their cars! It was one Day and one section of the local mall. A wrecker hauled a couple to repair shops and they started right up. The next few they actually hauled to a different location at the mall and they all worked. Per the news they never did figure out the problem and it never happened again. Maybe some kind of radio wave interference I am guessing. Either that or aliens or even big foot!!!

scdaren · January 25, 2020

2 minutes ago, GregG10 said:

A couple years ago there was a weird situation in town, there were about a dozen cars,all different brands that the key fob would not work on and the people could not even start their cars! It was one Day and one section of the local mall. A wrecker hauled a couple to repair shops and they started right up. The next few they actually hauled to a different location at the mall and they all worked. Per the news they never did figure out the problem and it never happened again. Maybe some kind of radio wave interference I am guessing. Either that or aliens or even big foot!!!

Glitch in the Matrix.