One Last Question on Key/Fobs before Purchase

Several people on this forum have tested this, and have claimed that it has worked. If not, just remove the battery, and store it taped on the back of the unit. In the event of an issue, insert the battery and go.

 

My advice: Change dealers.

If you don't have a spouse, you can place the second fob inside the car sans battery placing said battery in a glove box, and tie wrap the key to an undisclosed exterior location. If I'm not mistaken (and someone will weigh in if I am mistaken) you can start a G3 with a dead fob by touching the aforementioned fob to the starter button.

Your dealer won't budge on a 200 dollar fob for a 25 thousand dollar car?

Like I said....I think that would illuminate the "change dealer" light for me personally. They're not doing you a favor by letting you buy one of their precious little cars, and I think I'd let them know about it.

One last thiing you can try.... (and this worked for me once... ) tell then that you intend to slam them on the customer satisfaction survey if they don't meet you half way on the fob issue. If you follow through on this tactic, don't give them stoopid low marks, since the people who compile the data probably throw out the very lowest marks as statistical outliers....just give them low to luke warm marks.

The economy must be pretty good in your area.

Dealers are still pretty anxious to sell cars here....

Good Luck!

 

the key fob is $200. I got the programming included as part of my deal, I still paid for the fob (the door key was an extra $22, plus the laser cutting of $28 at the Lexus dealership).

 

I have been doing what you propose for half a year. No Problems. I keep my door key on a separate key ring in a different pocket. My door key on my operational fob is uncut. Don't really need it for anything more than it's ring.

My operational fob is on a chain snap shackled to a belt loop and my emergency fob is wrapped in several layers of Al foil and hidden in a small chassis box "velcroed" to the internal body.

It's all working well, so far, but I might remove the battery in my emergency fob, just to be sure. Good luck.

 

As stated above by Wairgens, it works fine. I switched fobs after a year or so and the one that had been stored in foil inside the car was fine, no dead battery or anything. I hid the extra mechanical key under the car in a "secret" place.

 

Man you guys are real worry warts!

 

This weekend I:

(1) wrapped the extra smartkey for my Gen III Prius in foil and confirmed that it remained undetected when placed in the car (even when held against the start button). Next, I

(2) removed the foil and took out the battery. Although the battery-less smartkey wouldn't unlock the door (I used the hard key for that), the seemingly inactive smartkey still worked to start the car when held near the start button while the start button was pushed (held in the hand pushing the start button). Finally, I confirmed that the

(3) battery-less smartkey remains undetected when hidden in the car, unless it is held within a few inches of the start button (I won't hide it there).

 

I know this thread has been "inert" for 6 years; but I'd like to share something I only recently learned about the subject:

The reason for that "strange" behaviour (smart key without battery being able to start the car) is that the two functions (locking/unlocking and start control) are handled by different parts in the fob. See the attached photo; the battery only powers the locking transmitter so removing it only prevents the 433MHz transmitter from operating; meanwhile the small black transducer at the bottom is powered by the magnetic field produced by a device close to the start button and responds with its own code when interrogated.

 

welcome!

and thank you!