Been having an issue with my keyless entry over the past few months and I'm hoping maybe someone on the forum can help me diagnose what's going on.

I've been digging through the forums for weeks looking for similar posts with resolutions, but no luck.

Here's the details:

So occasionally (seems to be totally random), my keyless entry will completely stop working. I can hit the buttons on the remote non-stop and nothing will happen. I have two sets of fobs and when it stops working both remotes won't communicate with the car. Sometimes if I keep walking around the vehicle pressing the fob buttons it will finally connect and work. Other times it won't work at all. I recently found that on the times when it won't work even after trying to a while, if I open the fob remove the battery, and reinstall the battery the fob immediately starts working.

I've checked my dome lamp fuse like some other posts said but it's fine. I've replaced the batteries in both fobs and checked voltage to be fine. My vehicle battery is brand new and voltage is fine there too.

No idea what to do here lol. I was thinking maybe the receiver is going bad, but not sure why removing the fob battery and reinstalling would immediately fix it temporarily. Hoping maybe someone has had similar issues and found a fix. My next course of action is to take it to the dealer and see if they can diagnose it somehow. Thanks for the help T4R.ORG crew!

Is one of your door lock actuators not locking? This can make it seem like the keyless entry isn't working, because it won't lock the bad actuator or flash the lights. They seem to die out in the cold months. I've lost 3 different door lock actuators over the past 3 years

i wouldnt invest more money in that keyless entry remote, save up some money and do a whole new system with remote start, or alarm and remote start combo, i suggest compustar brand, you can upgrade the remotes for longer range, 2 way communication, 3000ft, 1 mile and 3 mile range, drone servie for unlimited range with your cell phone. i did my upgrade last year, after replacing 2 remotes, aftermarket 2 way remote 130 a pop, i decided its time to swicth out to a current system with more upgrades.

I checked this today, but all my door locks seem to be working fine. When my fob stops communicating none of the door locks try to move at all.

Interesting. I hadn't really considered upgrading my remotes. Did you end up replacing your remotes due to a similar issue?

yea, after 2 2way remote replacement, and since it got discontinued a few years ago, i decided to upgrade my whole system, 10 plus years old. it still works, i just want the latest stuff with drone service and all.

Okay quick update. Still haven’t solved this unfortunately.

Last night I decided to try and reprogram my two remotes to see if that helped. Went though the process and reprogrammed both remotes. It worked okay for a bit then later that night they stopped working again. Same issue where they wouldn’t communicate until I remove the remote battery and reinstall. Instantly works as soon as the battery is back in. This is crazy! Lol

I did confirm that both remotes stop working at the same time. When I do the battery remove/replace trick on one then they both start working.

My next plan is to try replacing the antennae/receiver in the rear hatch area. Looks like most dealers no longer sell these though so I’ll have to get a used one. Anybody replaced one of these?

Just ordered a used door control receiver module from eBay. It doesn’t look like any dealers stock new ones anymore.

Has anyone replaced the receiver before? Wondering if I can just swap them out or if there is any special procedure involved.

Well more bad news….

I bought a used door control receiver from eBay but after installing it and reprogramming my remotes there was no change. It still randomly decides not to unlock lock with the remote sometimes unless I remove and reinstall the remote battery.

I think I’ll have to take it to the dealer now and see if they can diagnose what’s going on with their dealership scan tool. Bummer.


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This might be a dumb question but did you try replacing the battery in the remotes with new ones?

i wonder how much money have you invested so far, a basic remote start or alarm remote start combo can be had and installed starting at 300ish.

if you have extra time, take apart the fob and the rubber and use contact cleaner to clean the areas up.

Yeah that was the first thing I tried. No change.


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Haha a fair question. I’m in about $50 after buying new batteries and a used receiver off eBay. I did try to clean the remote contacts as well like you mentioned but no change.


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Okay T4R crew. I finally figured out what the issue was. Well, really my local dealer figured it out. They used their Toyota/Lexus RF remote tester and found that the signal on both remotes were super weak. Turns out even though the coin batteries I bought last month were new and showed 3v on my multimeter, they weren't quite powerful enough to get a good signal sent on the tester when installed in the remotes. They put another set of batteries in and it solved it. Also they found that one of my remotes was still working intermittently with the new battery so they replaced it and now both are working consistently.

I still don't quite understand why removing and replacing the battery in my remote would cause it to work for a bit. Maybe the longer the battery sat in the remote it would discharge? No idea.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone else and I appreciate all of you guys reading along and offering things to try.

I have run into this before both with batteries customers have put in and with one or two of our own interstate brand ones. Basically the batteries are just borderline DoA out of the box. They should measure above 3v, closer to 3.2v when brand new (sort of how 12v batteries are goo when at 12.6v). What happens is that the voltage drops significantly when the fobs are used causing a weak signal, the reason taking it out and putting back in works is because the battery will momentarily recover naturally; but it's over all capacity is garbage so it quickly fails when loaded.