I can confirm that road salt on the car tends to mess up the keyless entry "touch to lock/unlock" on my 06 RL. When there is a lot of road salt spray on the car, the locks won't work from either door handle and it actually seems worse in fact when it is cold and dry (below freezing) vs damp, since when the car is wet usually it will unlock OK even if touch to lock doesn't work reliably, but when it is dry and salty neither lock nor unlock works until I wash the car.

They use a ridiculous amount of salt here - the blacktops are all white right now from the salt layer and you get a nice white/gray "cloud" of salt dust coming off your tires as you drive.

Also interesting is the car's locks don't seem to mind just being wet in the warmer months of the year when there is no roadsalt - the locks always work perfectly, unless I happen to be holding my iPhone in the same hand that is reaching for the handle.

 

+1 here...

I thought it was snow/water affecting this but it is definitely one of the three things...
Note: My passenger door works just fine but only the driver side is affected. How weird :P)

 

I would think the layer of grime is keeping you from making contact with the handle.

 

What I found funny though is that many people will say their locks act up after washing the car or a rainstorm - but for me when the car is salty, the locks work better (if not perfectly) AFTER washing it, and in my experience with the 06 RL a dry but salty car is worse with the locks than when it is covered with fresh wet saltspray.

 

Sea Salt Ruins !!
Road Salt Kills !!

My van lost lbs of Metal every winter when I lived in upstate NY.

 

I have the same exact problem as RL015....wet, dry, clean, dirty, salted, not salted, only the drivers side works flawlessly. The drivers side does not work at all. I have noticed that sometimes when I try to use the drivers side touch lock/unlock, the keyless access system goes crazy locking/unlocking the car like 10 times. Very odd....