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Is 250 Keyless Locking / Unlocking Problem Help !


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Quote from page 11 of the manual

"The system may not operate properly in the following cases:

- The electronic key is too close to the window or outside door handle, near the ground, or in a high place when the doors are locked or unlocked.

- Gripping the door handle when wearing a glove may not unlock the door

- If the wirless remote control is used to lock the doors when the electronic key is near the vehicle, there is a possibility that the door may not be unlocked by the entry function...

"

Also of note is the battery saving function on page 10.

It seems like they found all these issues, which would commonly be labelled as bugs or defects by project managers and testers, and instead of fixing them have simply decided to list them as warnings in the user manual. Great. Just great. Wish I could get away with that at work.

LOL - I've never actually read the manual. They've covered most angles I reckon, all we need now is a Force Majeure clause and we're there!

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  • 3 weeks later...

As I said above, this is not a Lexus specific problem. I know of Lexus, Toyota (one in the same I know), Subaru, Mercs and a VW which have had the same problem. Also, the locking transponders and associated technology will be subbed out to someone like Lucas who would specialise in the technology. there is no point ranting, pointing fingers at, or getting indignant with Lexus as all they can feed back is to the manufacturers involved.

The interference issue is also not a fault of the technology, which no doubt meets all CE regs with regard to interference as will other approved transmitters. When you get to pirate radio, home WiFi, taxi firms etc etc all putting out high power frequencies all over the spectrum you will get interference. This is where we need some tighter controls and regs to resolve the issue.

Absolutely - and if we could "see" the amount of radio waves around us all of the time we would freak out!!

It's likely to be a specific interaction of a number of radio waves in any one area which causes the problem. I could never get my Audi to lock or unlock at a particular Merc garage in Coventry. The garage told me it was "normal" in their car park for this to happen.

Rich Bee,

I'll rant and get indignant if I want :) It is people like me who complain that helps manufacturers fix their problems. I know. I work in software, and if our users didnt complain we wouldnt know of half the problems that arose if they didnt test our products in the real world and give us feedback.

As an end user, I don't and shouldn't care about inteference, or who the real manufacturer of the equipment is or whatever excuse the car maker wants to throw our way to sidestep the problem and wash their hands off providing a fix, no matter how presitigious the brand. If I ever sold a system that occasionally failed to boot I wouldn't say to the buyer "oh its because the motor on the hard drive sometimes doesn't start because of static electricity, move your machine to the pantry where there is less of that" or something. Even though sadly some in my industry may have probably used that line, I dont expect your average computer user to have to know about whats inside the box, we accept responsibility for the whole and send someone round to fix it, which is what you would and should expect, especially with what is meant to be a luxury brand.

The spectrum is already regulated and licenced to prevent major clashes. But not dealing with inteference is a failure of the implementation of the technology because it seems some of the 'cheaper' manufacturers like Ford and Peugeot can seem to build a system that works without locking you out of your car or not letting you lock it in the first place, which are quite serious and aggravating issues as you can imagine. Of the top of my head I would say a potential fix would be for the transponder or aerial to detect inteference at the frequency it was operating at and ask the key fob to automatically use another frequency or boost its output. Or ask Ford how they do it.

I doubt you would be defending the problem quite so much if say the brakes on the car totally failed because of 'inteference' from rain water. And if you did then maybe manufacturers wouldn't be so compelled to invent technologies like ABS to help because they would think it did not bother you too much when you couldnt brake during bad weather.

Sorry for the long and ranting post, don't get me wrong, I like my new Lexus, but it sets me off when they try to blame everything except their technology and are really patronising to you as well (e.g. "did you turn off the engine first before you tried to lock it? no I like to keep it running so the car is warm in the mornings darling."). Like there can never be anything wrong with the actual product. It is when we stop complaining and live with it that we say goodbye to improvements and progress and ultimately end up with below par unreliable, poor quality products and systems, much like the old British car industry that used to exist :P . Sorry, couldn't resist.

So, moral of the story, keep complaining and give em your feedback. Otherwise they'll just surf the internet all day. Doh, back to work...

Hi there

I purchased my 1s250 in december 2005 and since then i have experienced this problem 24 times today being the 24th time.

On 2 occasions RAC have had to tow it back to lexus because they coulldnt even get it to restart themselves, and today me and my work colleague had to push it 20 yds down the road to get it going again.

Lexus have told me not to take the vehicle in areas which this has happened, so then that means i cant take my daughter to school as it happens there, i cant take my car to my works unit as it happens there and i cant even park it outside my house because guess what it happens ther is well, plus a number of other places.

Personally i think its a joke and a absoloute disgrace, i have instructed a solicitor on the matter and it has been in that situation since september and Lexus are not happy about it.

Finally, i dont pay 28000 pounds for a car that cant even guarantee to take my daughter to school and back again.

regards

mike

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Mike - have you tried a courtesy car in those places? If they work and yours doesn't you've got good grounds, and Lexus really ought to take it on the chinny chin chin.

Hi jamboo

cheers for response

i have just come of the phone with Lexus and are coming back tommorow with an answer on what they are going to do.

i have used other vehicles with wireless key entry with one of them being the new L200 which worked in all of them areas perfectly

By the way if they are trying to fob any one off with european legislation on this matter then why is this problem worldwide.

regards

mike

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Hi there

I purchased my 1s250 in december 2005 and since then i have experienced this problem 24 times today being the 24th time.

On 2 occasions RAC have had to tow it back to lexus because they coulldnt even get it to restart themselves, and today me and my work colleague had to push it 20 yds down the road to get it going again.

Lexus have told me not to take the vehicle in areas which this has happened, so then that means i cant take my daughter to school as it happens there, i cant take my car to my works unit as it happens there and i cant even park it outside my house because guess what it happens ther is well, plus a number of other places.

Personally i think its a joke and a absoloute disgrace, i have instructed a solicitor on the matter and it has been in that situation since september and Lexus are not happy about it.

Finally, i dont pay 28000 pounds for a car that cant even guarantee to take my daughter to school and back again.

regards

mike

I could accept this happening on an extremely rare occasion due to some very unusual interference but this would seem to be more a fault on the car than location. A trial with a courtesy car would be in order I think. I've never had a problem with my keyless entry but I don't suppose radio waves are as much of a problem up here in the North East - we only got colour TV last month and to be honest I can't see it catching on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I certainly agree with neil1's comments. It appears we tolerate a lot of these excuses from dealers/manufactures. As far as I am concerned, once these issues are known off at the stages of manufacture/testing and listed in the manual, it should be fixed. Period! My GS died on me saying that the key is not detected which is bollocks. How will anyone feel at 5am when you stop to grab a coffee, get back to your car and cannot unlock the doors/start the car? My wife has a Peugeot 306 which is a third of the price of the new GS and has never had such a problem. If Lexus are aware of these interference problems, then they should at least provide a manual mechanism where the care can be started to get you home. This is totally not acceptable. This is my first GS and prior to that I had two IS200 which were trouble free.

I've had the GS for two months now and it nothing but full of rattles. My dealer has requested I spend a full day with one of their technicians to try and find out where the rattles are coming from as it is intermittent but it certainly looks like a dash out job again. Dash coming out twice in two months on a £30K car? This is Mickey Mouse!

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I certainly agree with neil1's comments. It appears we tolerate a lot of these excuses from dealers/manufactures. As far as I am concerned, once these issues are known off at the stages of manufacture/testing and listed in the manual, it should be fixed. Period! My GS died on me saying that the key is not detected which is bollocks. How will anyone feel at 5am when you stop to grab a coffee, get back to your car and cannot unlock the doors/start the car? My wife has a Peugeot 306 which is a third of the price of the new GS and has never had such a problem. If Lexus are aware of these interference problems, then they should at least provide a manual mechanism where the care can be started to get you home. This is totally not acceptable. This is my first GS and prior to that I had two IS200 which were trouble free.

I've had the GS for two months now and it nothing but full of rattles. My dealer has requested I spend a full day with one of their technicians to try and find out where the rattles are coming from as it is intermittent but it certainly looks like a dash out job again. Dash coming out twice in two months on a £30K car? This is Mickey Mouse!

Following my recent emails ive had some amazing events happen

On tuesday of last week i was called by lexus and they said that they except liability to the car and was going to change it for a rx300 up to the value of my is250 when i bought it. Obviously iwas delighted and was told to give them a couple of days and they would find me a replacement.

On friday of that week i rang Lexus to see how they was getting on and to my amasement they told me that they had changed there mind and would not be changing my vehicle because all lexus models would have the same problems as i currently have at the moment because of were i live. What a load of bull the rx doesnt have keyless entry.

And then on tuesday of this week ive also got a new fault with the car, my windows come down all by them selves. On wednesday morning when i left the house all of the windows on the car were half way down and the car throughout was absoloutley soaked through. I rang lexus wolverhampton who said the person i needed to speak to wasnt there and to ring back, when i rang later that afternoon he still wasnt available as he had gone home and to ring back in the morning. When i returned home that day all the windows were down again and the car was now in a even worse state, I had to ring RAC to disconnect all the fuses so it wouldnt happen again that night.

The following day i finally got in contact with the service manager who told me to bring the car in which i refused, i told him that they can collect the car as it was soaked through and i dont see why i should be soaked through because the car is in world of its own and they agreed and woUld contact me to arrange a collection as they couldnt coLlect at that present time.

Whilst i was at work Lexus had rang me 2 times and on both occasions leaving a message. The first message said mr leaver we are now able to collect your car please ring us. The secound message was something else it said.

Hello Mr Leaver its xxxx xxxxx can you give us a ring and we can come and collect your car if your available. (At this time he had thought he had put the phone down but he didnt). As he attempted to disconnect the phone he called me a FUXXXNG KXXB and also said i FxxxNG HATE PEOPLE WHO BUY THESE CARS FXXXNG KXXB.

My car was brought back to me on friday and they have not rectified the fault because they dont now how to and that Lexus Technical are investigating.

As you can imagine i wasnt to happy with this and my solicitors are going to take this to the next level.

So since my last message ive been told there going to change my car, then they told me they wasnt, my windows dont work properly and they called me a FXXXNG KXXB.

Good old Lexus hey.

Regards

MIKE

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hi

i had a problem with the windows, i came out and found all my windows half open,at the time i didnt know that if you press and hold the open button on the fob it opens the windows,i took it into the dealer for a check and they couldn't find anything wrong although they are aware of the same thing happening to other owners, it looks like i must have caught the button in my pocket as it hasn't happened again.

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hi

i had a problem with the windows, i came out and found all my windows half open,at the time i didnt know that if you press and hold the open button on the fob it opens the windows,i took it into the dealer for a check and they couldn't find anything wrong although they are aware of the same thing happening to other owners, it looks like i must have caught the button in my pocket as it hasn't happened again.

cheers for the response

we have looked at that but that isnt the problem the windows came down during the middle of the night and on the secound occasion i checked the car before i left and left the keys in the house and it happened whilst i was out and also the doors were unlocked.

regards

mike

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Hi Mike.

Very upsetting to see your issues. I had a problem this morning when I tried to get in (unlock) my car by just putting my hand in the dorr handle. Both sides, and it wouldn't open. The key fob buttons worked. This is the first time this has happened in a spot I have parked the car many times before.

On you window opening issue, this must be related to the same frequency interference that you are getting with not opening the doors.

I believe your dealer should be able to change the frequncy of your fob and the car sensors.

Also, looking at a document I got off the US owner's webssite, the dealer should be able to disable the feature where you hold the unlock or lock buttons to open/close the windows.

Having said that, after seeing your problems and the car being drenched, they need to do some serious replacement of interior to get it back to new.

I am not 100% sure, but I think the RF frequency they are using for these systems is the same that is used by remote garage door controls, cordless home phones, etc.

If I am correct, and it is that frequency, Lexus, needs to upgrade there technology and move to the new (higher) frequency range which has a bigger spectrum and less overlap.

Hope you can get some positive results from the dealership.

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It's only happened to me once and the dealer said leave it a few days and it'll be ok, which it was. They said that if it didn't clear up they'd change the frequency of the car unit and replace all the keys at their expense under warranty.

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  • 3 months later...

Interesting thread, this happened to me yesterday evening, my wife and i were about to go out around 7pm, and th lexus wouldn't open :(

Anyway i could be dealing with it then, so we jumped in her clio and enjoyed our evening out.

This morning the car could still not be opened (it was parked outside my house, where it has function fine for the last 12 months) I phoned the RAC, they came 2 hours later, opened the car with the emergency key, started the car by waving it near the start button (maybe i should of read the manual) and told me to go to the dealer and get it checked out.

I got to the dealer (Lexus Hedge End) and everything was working fine :( I was told about interference and told to see how it goes over the next few days.

Got home parked outside my house and couldn't lock the car :(

I hope these mysterious radio waves disappear soon, as i dont fancy having to park the car down the next street and walk to it every morning. Just so that i can open/close it correctly.

--

bedrock

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(Snip)

I could accept this happening on an extremely rare occasion due to some very unusual interference but this would seem to be more a fault on the car than location. A trial with a courtesy car would be in order I think. I've never had a problem with my keyless entry but I don't suppose radio waves are as much of a problem up here in the North East - we only got colour TV last month and to be honest I can't see it catching on.

What's this TV thing you mentioned getting? and does it come in different colours? :duh:

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  • 3 months later...
Try parking the Clio on different sides of the Lexus to see if it blocks any potential interference.

The IS250 manual says that if you have problems with unlocking the car you can place the fob next to the little black lock button, the same with the ignition, place fob next to the start button. Maybe your key needs a new battery/batteries. I have not tried dismantling the fob, but perhaps you could check the Battery voltage with a volt meter?

I had a problem with my last is200 se, in that whenever I used the keyfob to open the boot, it rang my next door neighbour's doorbell. I thought it quite funny, my neighbour didn't think so. Eventually fixed by selecting a different frequency for the neighbour's doorbell system.

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  • 8 months later...

New club member.

I just got the same problem on an IS250 - Manual, the car is 2 years old. No issues whatsover for 2 years (apart from the usual alloys rusting), and today, parked on the same spot it has parked for 2 years, the keys don't work.

Funny the keys locked yesterday but don't unlock / lock today.

Changed the batteries with new ones & same thing.

They remote controls just flash the red light several times like crazy when I approach the car but nothing happens.

Called the RAC man, let's see what he has to say.... too late to call Lexus.

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SOLUTION to interference !

At least short term. The RAC guy told me it was radio interference, he gets it all the time from all brands. Specially when there are storms (like today), the weather really affects the keyless systems badly.

The RAC guy walked pointing the key while pressing the button ALL AROUND THE CAR approx 2 inches away from it.

When he was about to complete the circle the key decided to work on a specific spot, on the edge of the roof on the passenger seat.

Apparently there is usualy a spot where the interference is minimal and the key should work again, but only on that specific spot.

So if it happens to you again (same as me) try doing the walk around the car with the key till it works.

Try low (alloy level) first, then middle height, then roof height.

It is defenitely worth complaining as my neighbours has a cheap Citroen also with keyless system and he laughed his head off as his car is 1/3rd the price of mine and his worked perfectly.

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