Unlock Button on Fob Stuck Down

[Betelgeuse]

I'm having a problem that has been reported on this forum a couple times, and I'm just wondering if anyone has a suggestion on how to fix it. Just this weekend, I noticed that the "unlock" button on my fob is stuck down. Our car has SKS, so I have probably pushed this button a grand total of 30 times in the 3 years we've owned the car, so there's no way the button should be worn out at this point.

The funny thing is that I can still use the SKS as usual at this point. My guess is that the remote must have some sort of time-out that stops sending a signal if you hold down the button for too long. Why the SKS still works is beyond me.

As others have discovered, the remote is glued shut, and to this point, I've had no luck prying it open. I suspect that the button has just gotten wedged under a piece of plastic, so if I could just open it, I'd be able to fix it in 10 seconds. I haven't really gone at it yet, since it still works as an SKS fob, and I'd rather not break this $350 piece of technology.

Do people have any suggestions on how I should attack this? Do you think the dealer would cover a replacement (we're still under warranty for the next 2 months)? Do people know if there's an easier way to get the fob open?

[Patrick Wong]

I think that you should try to get the fob replaced under the 3 year/36K mile warranty.

[McShemp]

Originally Posted by Patrick Wong

I think that you should try to get the fob replaced under the 3 year/36K mile warranty.

Can you post a picture? The unlock button is recessed on my '06 FOB (so I can't see how it would ever get stuck down).

[Godiva]

Have you tried running a pin or needle around the edge in case a piece of dirt or something is wedged in there holding the button down?

[lenjack]

Is the button still inaccessable if you remove the battery cover and the batteries?

[KK6PD]

Talk about a post with great timing!!!

As I was getting my free oil change at NoHo Toyota, the gentleman who sat next to me had just drove up in a nice Charcoal gray baby!! My first words to him were ... Hi, have you gotten tired of that damn backup beep yet!!!

Well that started the ball rolling and he happened to mention the reason that he was there was his FOB had a STUCK BUTTON!

The unlock switch was broken. It was in the down state, or ON mode if you prefer, but it was not making contact. If you pressed and forced the contacts together as you normally would as you depress the switch it would work! The fact that there was no tactile feedback from the switch was bugging him! The only fix was to replace the FOB with a new one. It was covered under the warranty. As I drove away they were finishing programing it, I could tell by the number of times they were testing it!!! beep, beepbeep, beep, beepbeep over and over!!!

By the way he was very tired of the back up beep, I wrote down the de-beep info for him, and told him to look us up at Priuschat.com!!!


73 de Pat KK6PD

[Betelgeuse]

Originally Posted by McShemp

Can you post a picture? The unlock button is recessed on my '06 FOB (so I can't see how it would ever get stuck down).

I could post a picture, but there'd be nothing to see. The button looks identical to the button on our un-stuck fob. It's just that there's no tactile response and the unlock feature no longer works.

Originally Posted by Godiva

Have you tried running a pin or needle around the edge in case a piece of dirt or something is wedged in there holding the button down?

The trouble is that there's a rubber membrane that covers the entire lock/unlock button group. So, I can't run a pin around the actual button without cutting through the rubber (something I obviously don't want to do). I've tried to run a pin (and a knife) around the seam in the fob, but it appears to be solidly glued shut.

Originally Posted by lenjack

Is the button still inaccessable if you remove the battery cover and the batteries?

That is correct. As far as I can tell, the fob is designed to never be opened.

Originally Posted by KK6PD

Talk about a post with great timing!!!

As I was getting my free oil change at NoHo Toyota, the gentleman who sat next to me had just drove up in a nice Charcoal gray baby!! My first words to him were ... Hi, have you gotten tired of that damn backup beep yet!!!

Well that started the ball rolling and he happened to mention the reason that he was there was his FOB had a STUCK BUTTON!

The unlock switch was broken. It was in the down state, or ON mode if you prefer, but it was not making contact. If you pressed and forced the contacts together as you normally would as you depress the switch it would work! The fact that there was no tactile feedback from the switch was bugging him! The only fix was to replace the FOB with a new one. It was covered under the warranty. As I drove away they were finishing programing it, I could tell by the number of times they were testing it!!! beep, beepbeep, beep, beepbeep over and over!!!

By the way he was very tired of the back up beep, I wrote down the de-beep info for him, and told him to look us up at Priuschat.com!!!


73 de Pat KK6PD

Well, this is good to hear. I hope that my dealer will be as reasonable and will be willing to replace my fob for me. I'm starting to wonder if this is some sort of design flaw in the fob; this is the third case I've read about on this board (in addition to my own) about a stuck unlock button.

[Betelgeuse]

A little update:

I'm sitting in the dealer right now (at least they have free wireless) and it appears that there's good news and bad news. The good news is that the dealer is replacing the key under warranty. The bad news is that they're having a heck of a time trying to reprogram the car to accept the new key. Apparently, the tech working on my car just called the Toyota helpline trying to figure out how to get this to work. Anyway, I've been here for nearly three hours now, so I really hope they figure this out soon.

I have to say that I really love the SKS, but the difficulty in doing any simple maintenance is a real Achille's heel.

[Betelgeuse]

A final resolution:

After ~4 hours in the dealership today, they finally successfully programmed a new key for me and sent me on my way.

Actually, after ~3.5 hours, they claimed that they had finished and handed me the new key. I then started to try things out in the car and quickly discovered that, while the new key worked, the second key that came with the car (i.e. the one without the problem with the unlock button) no longer worked. Actually, the behavior was really interesting. Everything worked as usual if the new key was in the car, but as soon as the original key was introduced into the car, nothing would work (even if I had the new key in there too).

After this, I finally got to meet the actual tech (who expressed some strong feelings towards the SKS computer). Apparently, he had been told by my service writer that there were no additional fobs that needed to be programmed with the car. This is funny since, when I came in, I asked the service writer at least two times if they needed my other key to do the programming and was told, 'No.'

Anyway, apparently the tech had figured out the quirks of my car, since he was able to add the original key back in within ~15 minutes.

So, overall, I'm happy that they covered the new key under warranty, but it really seems like it should be a bit easier than it was.

[KK6PD]

Originally Posted by Betelgeuse

A final resolution:

After ~4 hours in the dealership today, ....
So, overall, I'm happy that they covered the new key under warranty, but it really seems like it should be a bit easier than it was.

That will teach you to leave that DAMN EASY BUTTON at home!!!!

However, glad they covered the cost!!

A win for you!!

73 de Pat KK6PD