Key Fobs not Recognized

[SuedeGopher]

Good morning,

Wondering if anyone out there has had issues with their key fob not being recognized by the car while they're attempting to power on? We've noticed a trend that seems to be getting worse wherein both of our key fobs are not being seen by the car and the car will not turn on. Our workaround has been to push the lock/unlock button several times until the car receives the transmission. It can take quite a few pushes/moments of either the lock/unlock button before the car realizes the key fob is nearby. No issues getting going after that...

Before anyone asks, yes, we have a brand new battery (Optima) that's 3 months old or so, but the problem does appear to be worse after the car had sat for a week plugged-in without usage. Possibly a 12V issue?

 

[TonyWilliams]

Did you replace the fob batteries? CR 1632 battery.

 

[user 340]

I had a similar problem about a year ago. The car had a new 12V battery and new batteries in the FOBs. I replaced my FOB batteries again and the problem seemed to go away. I'm not sure if that was due to replacing the FOB batteries or something else. I did shake out the FOB when I had it open in case something in these was creating an unwanted conductive path.

 

[GlennD]

If the fobs are like the VW ones they need the full 3.3V of a new battery. 3V is within spec but no go.

 

[miimura]

If the fobs are like the VW ones they need the full 3.3V of a new battery. 3V is within spec but no go.

At least our e-Golf has a message on the dashboard that the fob battery is low. The RAV4 EV has no such message. Just maybe the yellow exclamation triangle icon that doesn't actually say what the problem is.

 

[n3ckf]

when this happened to me, the Fob appeared to be "flakey" for a couple weeks (it would sometimes work, sometimes not) before it stopped working.
By that time, my replacement batteries had come in and i just swapped them (in both Fobs). Its probably time to do that again. Cheapest car repair ever...

 

[SuedeGopher]

Heh, well you guys nailed it. In my wee pee brain, I thought, "there's no way both fobs are dead at the exact same time."

Turns out 3 years of apparently intermittent versus active usage took em out at the same time.

n3ckf, same issue, flakey before being super flakey. Thanks all for indulging my lack of imagination.