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Remote central locking not working

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by quenching, Sep 27, 2014.

  1. quenching

    quenching New Member

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    My 2005 Prius has today developed a fault, the central locking won't open or close with either of the remote key fobs. I allowed for a strange coincidence that the batteries in both fobs could die at the very same time and replaced one, still not working. The mini-key in the fob will open/close the central locking (all doors plus rear hatch). But of course the alarm would sound as soon as I opened the door, inserting the fob into the "ignition" socket and starting the car silenced the alarm after about 30 seconds, but the remote fobs still won't operate the central locking or activate the alarm.

    I disconnected the 12v battery by removing the ground from the body as per the manual, waited a few minutes and reconnected, fobs worked once but not again. Repeated the procedure but fobs not working still.

    Had to drive somewhere so went anyway and after about 10 miles of driving when I parked the car the fobs were working again - doors locked and unlocked with fobs. After the return journey they no longer work!!!

    Neither fob is working, red lights operate on fobs and new battery in one so its not the fobs/batteries.

    Any suggestions very welcome before I head to the Toyota dealer to empty my wallet :)
     
  2. hchu1

    hchu1 Active Member

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    Did you try checking the 12v battery voltage? Should be at least 12v at rest.
     
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    and if the battery is good, the aftermarket alarm might be a problem.
     
  4. quenching

    quenching New Member

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    Haven't had a chance to check the 12v battery, but the alarm isn't an aftermarket one, its the original factory fitted one (I'm in Ireland so its a European spec car)

    BTW, the fobs were working again an hour after my original post, and have behaved themselves today, hopefully it'll stay that way.
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    perhaps interference from that big military installation.:cool:
     
  6. quenching

    quenching New Member

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    Indeed :eek:
     
  7. Dan Adrian

    Dan Adrian New Member

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    Hello I recently bought a 05 Prius model T3 and the central locking only work if I left my lights on usually after I stop the car close all doors work for about 20 sec or less after stop I can only open the car with the metal key but is only open the driver one I change the car 12v battery same issue I also charge the key fob battery still no charge wired thing a few days ago was working fine after stop again I think something is cutting the power down and don’t have any ideas from where to start
     
  8. Hemant

    Hemant New Member

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    Location:
    HA3
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    I am having this same issue, just wanted to know, if someone found some solution around this? I can't leave lights on as that will drain the battery overnight. any solution?

    Thanks in advance for any help you possibly could lend.

    Regards,
    Hemant

     
  9. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    We had something like this happen not so long ago with our (non-SKS) Prius and I'm going to go with what bisco said:
    Our case was a little different as it made no difference if the lights were on and there was no delay before the remote lock wouldn't work. Our remote locking worked fine away from home, so I tested it 10 or so meters (~15 ft) from our driveway and it still worked fine. I then drove the car progressively toward our driveway a couple of meters at a time and the locks worked fine until I was in front of our neighbor's driveway, which was only a couple of meters from ours and from this point on (and in anywhere in the cul-de-sac to which our driveway exits), the lock/unlock did not work. When I drove down again past our neighbor's driveway the locks worked. Interestingly a Prius with SKS worked fine (both remote and SKS lock/unlock) when this was happening to our non-SKS Prius. I never located any source of RF interference and just as suddenly as it started it stopped, three or so days later, and the locks have been working fine ever since.

    We had the same scenario (as I described above) years ago too, thinking back on it. Never got to the bottom of it at that time either.

    In this instance, I thought maybe it was the fob battery and was going to change the battery, but it measured 3.2 V so I concluded that that was not it and did not change the battery.

    So, I would be looking to see what devices use the same frequency as the remote locking and see if you can track down any device that uses that same frequency. Unfortunately, I don't know what frequency would be for the local areas above (even if I knew where HA3 – maybe Harrow, UK?) was.