Impossible to lock the Prius!

[Prius_SGP]

Hi,

This is actually a fault that I had a few months ago that luckily hasn't come back:

After a 16 hour drive from Geneva, Switzerland to Manchester, UK I pulled up to my Dad's and tried to lock the car.

None of the black buttons worked!!! I turned off the SKS and tried again and still the same. Locked the doors with the key and then unlocked reactivated the SKS and only the boot(trunk) button would work - and that was only 40% off the time.

I left it locked overnight (after trying for an hour to finally get it done with the buttons) and since then have had no other problems.

The only things that I can think of that were different to any other time that I've done a longish journey were that:
1) For the very first time I put the fob in the hole in the dash. I don't know whether I pulled it out before or after powering off the Prius or whether this would effect it or not?
2) The car was filthy after finally getting to my Dad's due to lots of dust at roadworks and spots of rain.
3) His neighbour has an extremely powerfull WiFi hub (you can connect to it from the other end of the road!!) although I can't see this effecting it.

To make matters worse I recently did the same journey and had no problems what so ever!

Could anyone make an educated guess as to a reason or was it just a strange glitch? I have so far been unable to make it do the same thing again. (luckily)

Finally, I know that I could have left it locked by the key, but that's not the point of having a keyless entry - I was gearing up to go to the local Toyota dealer to get it sorted the next day so needed to try as many different combinasions as possible to give them as much details as I could about the problem.

[a priori]

I would love to have the answer, but I cannot think of what caused the problem. I am assuming, here, that you had only the one key fob and that it was on your person when you were trying to lock the doors.

Also, I just want to make certain the Prius was powered off and the doors were all closed. Further, I'm guessing you heard no sounds of any sort when you touched the buttons. If any one of my assumptions is wrong, then it will be easier to attempt to determine the problem.

I have had more difficulty over time getting the black button to work. Perhaps I'm just wearing it out. It is a bit frustrating, at times, but the systems still works. I've only had a "refusal" because of my own mistakes (door ajar, Prius not fully powered down, second set of keys left inside, etc.).

[KK6PD]

Originally Posted by Prius_SGP

Hi,

After a 16 hour drive from Geneva, Switzerland to Manchester, UK I pulled up to my Dad's and tried to lock the car.

Boy that sounds like it would be a fun drive!!! I have driven the Autobahn, but not much over there!!

Originally Posted by Prius_SGP

None of the black buttons worked!!! I turned off the SKS and tried again and still the same. Locked the doors with the key and then unlocked reactivated the SKS and only the boot(trunk) button would work - and that was only 40% off the time.

Is the FOB battery possibly getting weak???

Originally Posted by Prius_SGP

I left it locked overnight (after trying for an hour to finally get it done with the buttons) and since then have had no other problems..

Thats just wierd, Twilight Zone stuff!

Originally Posted by Prius_SGP

The only things that I can think of that were different to any other time that I've done a longish journey were that:
1) For the very first time I put the fob in the hole in the dash. I don't know whether I pulled it out before or after powering off the Prius or whether this would effect it or not?
2) The car was filthy after finally getting to my Dad's due to lots of dust at roadworks and spots of rain.
3) His neighbour has an extremely powerfull WiFi hub (you can connect to it from the other end of the road!!) although I can't see this effecting it.To make matters worse I recently did the same journey and had no problems what so ever!

I was going to say #3 sounds like a good bet, since near field RF will swamp / Overload a nearby radio receiver, lets say your SKS pkg, but since you can not duplicate the problem, maybe not, unless he was really running A LOT of power on WiFi that night! Also if one of the doors is ajar, you will not be able to lock the car. It will just give you a long beep back. In Prius BeepSpeak, it means, "Hey dummy, you have to close the doors tight to lock me up" Damn smart ass car anyway!!

Originally Posted by Prius_SGP

Could anyone make an educated guess as to a reason or was it just a strange glitch? I have so far been unable to make it do the same thing again.

The fact that you had it happen once, can not duplicate the problem, and it has not reared it's ugly head again, I would guess it just got confused. Happens to me a lot, I just lock up, sleep on it, and I wake up unlocked and working!!!

Originally Posted by Prius_SGP

Finally, I know that I could have left it locked by the key, but that's not the point of having a keyless entry - I was gearing up to go to the local Toyota dealer to get it sorted the next day so needed to try as many different combinasions as possible to give them as much details as I could about the problem.

Thats exactly the right thing to try. As a maintenance engineer for over 30 + years, you would be surprised the number of things that have crossed my path, being dropped off at the Maintenance Shop "Broke" only to find as soon as I plug it in, turn it on, and it works just fine.

Its just MURPHEY'S LAW!!!

Hopefully it will not happen again, but keep the fingers crossed!

73 de Pat KK6PD

[RobH]

It's probably just radio interference. There are places that cell phones don't work, and other places where the radio gets scratchy. The keyfob is just a very low power radio device, and subject to all the things that can interfere with radio communication.

I wouldn't worry about it. Just consider the mechanical key as something you have to use occasionally.

If there is something regular about the failures, then it would be worth identifying the problem. Some people have trouble with their cellphone being too close to the keyfob. Airports are particularly high interference areas. Toyota had to change the 2004 SKS keyfob because it conflicted with the equipment at some gas stations.

[edthefox5]

Yep rf...my car is so sensitive I have to twist my waist side that has my cell phone on it away from the black button for it to work. But only sometimes. If I'm in a strong rf field the additive cellphone seems to be enough to swamp it.
Won't arm but no door ajar beep...just nothing. Twist away from black button and it will usually lock up fine.
Especially malls with anti-theft RFD readers. Oh and there's quite a big market now on eBay for modified Wireless Internet Routers (WRT54)with increased power and antenna's. There's software easily available to double the rf power of there tuners. So...hot 802.11 rf everywhere.

[Prius_SGP]

Thanks for all of your comments.

a priori : All of your assumptions were correct. I even tried getting my dad to try to lock it when I was putting my bags in his spare room, to no avail.

Thanks for the rest of the comments - I think that the fob battery should have been ok - that was one of my first thoughts...

I assumed that it was the RF interferrance as everone seems to believe, but I still find it odd that I worked the next 4 days and every time since.....

May be he was downloading a lot of stuff at the time.....

[a priori]

My next thought had been that you were creating your own intereference by having the key fob in the same pocket (or too close to) a cell phone, PDA or some other radio device.

I'm supposing this isn't the case if you left the area and gave the key fob to your father (who had no such intereference and knew how to lock the doors).

Sorry, but I keep trying to figure out how this could have happened to you.

[jaw444]

i don't have an answer, was glad to see your post because the same thing happened to me tonight, using the black buttons to lock always works fine. Tonight i got home from some errands, got my stuff out of the car, closed the doors, started walking out of the garage, then decided i would lock the car (this stuff is too fun), pushed the black button, nothing happened, silence. Pushed again. And again, and again. no effect. got the FOB, pressed lock, it locked. pressed the black button, nothing. Pressed the FOB. It unlocked. Pressed again to lock, nothing. Locked with FOB, pressed black button, nothing. Went to hatchback, pressed black button, nothing, but then, a beep and lights flashed. It worked, but delayed. Played with it a little longer, had another delayed response, but mostly the black buttons weren't responding.

I thought maybe it was something that i hadn't read yet in the user manual, something i was doing wrong out of sequence. I was going to read the manual and then go back and try it again. I saw your post and thought there would be a definitive answer, but i guess not.

Could be my Palm TX, it wasn't where i usually keep it (back pocket)--it was in a bag, but i think i had put the bag. I think i have bluetooth turned off on the Palm. But i guess that wouldn't matter.

good luck.