Impossible to lock the Prius!

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.).

 

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

Is the FOB battery possibly getting weak???

Thats just wierd, Twilight Zone stuff!

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 nice person car anyway!!

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!!!

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.