Confusion and Frustration with Driver 1 and 2.
 

Hi,

I am a new (and extremely happy) owner of a 2007 RL with the Tech Package.

There is one thing that continues to confuse and frustrate me, and that is the key fobs and how driver 1 and 2 are handled. Here are some questions that I have:

1) [Confusion] I notice that the trip odometers and timers are set on a driver by driver basis (e.g. reset trip odometer A at fill-up). What happens if these are set differently for Driver 1 and 2? Does the car maintain separate trip odometers for 1 and 2? Or do they share the odometer but it will only reset on fill-up if it recognizes the appropriate driver?

2) [Frustration] My girlfriend has a key, but does not drive it. She does often get to the car before me. I could go through and set all the options for Driver 1 and 2 to be the same, but instead the Salesguy showed me how to unlink the key. The problem now, is that it recognizes the unlinked key as an unknown driver - which apparently has its own set of preferences, but some can't be modified (the MID refuses to set options) and some can be set, but seem to get lost. The most frustrating one is the setting of daylight savings time (it baffles me that someone thinks that two different drivers will have two different opinions about DST being in effect) - where I live we use DST, but often I will look at the clock and notice that it is an hour off - sure enough this is when my girlfriend made it to the car first. I try turning it on, but it doesn't seem to save the preference.

3) [More Frustration] It appears that when the driver is not recognized (i.e. the unlinked key got to the car first), the calendar is grayed out. Is this normal?

Any explanations or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Regarding #2 you options are:

1. Don't let her carry her fob with her when you go-out together
2. If she does carry it, either don't let her open her door first or you could use the remote to unlock before she does.
3. If she does beat you to it, when you get in the car, press "driver #1" on the door mounted selector buttons to set it back to yourself.

There may be more to it or a better solution but that's how I handle it. If all four of us are out, I'll just open the passenger front door for the wife and that way, all four doors will unlock.

This is almost too easy...

When the gf is not around, get into your car using your key fob. Hit the "Driver 1" button on the door for good measure. Once everything moves into place, hit "Memo" then "Driver 2" and now both your Driver 1 and Driver 2 settings will be identical.

Should take you a total of 5 minutes. Now regardless of who gets in the car first, you will have the correct settings.

Confusion and frustration eliminated.

Nope, I tried that. It seems like some settings (e.g. auto unlock behavior) are not savable via memo, but only via the options programming in the MID.

And having her not unlock the door wont work as apparently all that matters is that her key fob is detected before mine. I could tell her to stay at least four feet from the vehicle at all times, but I suspect that would involve other sorts of complications and frustrations that I'd rather not have in exchange for the current set. ;)

I suspect I'm going to just need to re-enable her fob, and set everything the same for driver 1 and 2. I wish there was a less klunky solution though. It would be nice if the car would allow a particular driver's preferences to be permanently enabled, or set the preferences to the second fob it finds if the first one is not linked to a driver.

I'm also still curious about #1 and #3 if anyone has any ideas.

Not all driver-related settings are controlled via the memo button.

I think the wife would need to be eliminated in order for the above to occur.

:tomato:

Only kidding. I love women. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

Simple solution.......Show some old fashioned chivalry and open her door for her. If you open the passenger door (by grabbing the handle) the drivers door will unlock as well.

She'll think you are a perfect gentleman even know we all know it's just to get your settings right.

Side note: the memo, driver 1 and driver 2 buttons only set seats mirrors and steering column, all other memory settings are done through the MID (which cannot be set to an unlinked remote)

I believe all the NAVI Address Book, radio presets, NAVI screen settings, calendar, HVAC settings must also be set for the remotes independently. You cannot tranfer all that detail with the Mem 1 & 2 buttons either. My Driver 2 Fob still shows all the factory settings. :ugh:

I took the fob away from my wife after our 1st trip.

Actually, this does happen when my wife and I are travelling and she gets to the door first.
If there is confusion, I can set things straight by locking and unlocking the door with the key fob #1 after I am in the car, and the doors are closed.

Do not open the doors after you lock the car with the fob without unlocking or the alarm will go off. It is a quick click to lock, and click to unlock, then start the car and it will always say Welcome Driver 1. And you don't have to take the key fob away from the lady, which can have its own set of problems.

One thing occurred to me today- if I can make her key-fob associate with driver 1, then there will be no problem, no matter who gets to the car first.

Does anyone know if this can be accomplished. If necessary I would not be above purchasing another key fob that is a #1 key fob (I notice that they are labeled). How hard is it to "teach"the RL to recognize it, and will it recognize to key fobs as #1?

Seems to me simpler to duplicate your settings in fob 2. She'll loose her settings but that will solve your problem...

Yes, but then every time I want to change a setting or to add something to the address book I won't have to go back and forth with the two fobs.

My salesman told me not to lose the fob because it costs $500. Seems to be an expensive fix to your problem.

YIKES!

I looked it up, and it looks like I can get one for the bargain price of $250, but that is still about three times what I was expecting it to cost.

On the other hand, I can't seem to find anywhere in the shop manual that discusses how to pair a key with the car - and I suspect my local dealer will probably want to charge me for an hour of labor to pair it.

Here's some good/helpful info from the quick-start 'flip book" that came with the car.....read the entire thing and I think a lot of your confusion will be gone.

Linking/Unlinking the Remote Transmitters with DPMS:

The remote transmitters 1 and 2 (identified on the back) are linked to the DPMS, the climate control settings, the audio settings, the customization menu (in the MID), Navigations and illumination settings. To recall your settings in DPMS, the remote transmitter must be linked to the system. Remote transmitter 1 recalls Driver 1 settings, and remote transmitter 2 recalls Driver 2 settings.

To link and unlink the remote transmitters, press and hold the Lockk and Unlock buttons at the same time for about 1 second. The LED blinks twice to indicate linked and once to indicate unlinked.

Notes:
- Whenever you customize audio, navigation, keyless memory and DPMS settings, your transmitter must be linked. If it is not, your settings will not be stored
-With the Keyless Access System, when both fobs are within range, the settings for the user who unlocks the vehicle will be chosen.

Definitely don't buy it from the dealer. The going rate on Ebay is under $200 for a new matching Driver 1/2 set. The dealer will charge you $800 for a new set.

Of course, you still need to get it programmed. That can cost good money at the dealer also.

What I did was buy a set on Ebay for $180 and then gave one of the mechanics $20 to program them for both for me after hours. It's NOT like programming a regular remote for a car. Since these remotes ARE the key, they require programming with dealer equipment. I dropped by the dealership at the end of the day and he programmed it in about 15 minutes.

Were you then able to have two keys tied to Driver 1?

That would be perfect!

Yes, I now have 4 fobs that will work with this car. I gave the other two to my daughters so they stop bothering me for my key (this car has become the favorite in the house).

The only drawback is you still only have 2 unique drivers. So there are now two keys for Driver 1 and two keys for Driver 2. I think yuo can have up to 6 unique keys programmed on one car.

So are you saying you can get new 1/2 pairs but have them programmed for 3/4?

No that's not what I'm saying. I definitely still only have two unique drivers. However, I have 4 fobs. The car recognizes them all as unique keys, but when you enter the car it will link two of the fobs to driver 1 settings and the other two fobs to driver 2. There's no way to have more then two unique drivers. That's all the cars software (and hardware) can support.

I think that's a bit of a shortcoming. There should be at least 3 unique drivers.

One thing I think they should have for the next RL is an "on/off" switch for the key fob that would eliminate this problem.

This has happened to me as well. My wife is 5 foot tall, and Im 6 feet, so if she gets in first, I get nearly crushed to death before I manage to stab the "1" button on the door.

Actually, there is a way to do this. Press the lock and unlock buttons at the same time and hold for a few seconds. the led will flash once. the keyfob is no longer tied to a driver.

To reset do the same and the led will flash twice.

The good news is that it once unlinked from a driver, the fob wont reset your seat position but will randomly set a bunch of other options (like daylight savings time).

Lost Driver 1 Nav Preferences and addresses
 

So I saw on the back of my fob that if you hold down lock and unlock it'll pair the fob with the car- because sometimes our fobs don't automatically adjust the seats and preferences (no nemo 1 or 2 light up).

Anyway, This caused all information associated with the fob to be gone! Is there a way to get it back? .

2005 RL 40k Miles 😎

I dont want to be the bearer of bad news.....

but you're going to have to reposition your seating and mirrors to the way you like it again

But it's not just that. ITS EVERYTHING. Stereo, Nav, Nav preferences, menu settings, ect...

The fob was not being recognized as a saved fob, hence no settings associated with it The car had the settings saved in its hard drive .

I was able to reset the key returning my settings and addresses I was originally asking about. If you have no idea how to help resolve a situtation and know nothing about computers- try to avoid giving advice

When you unlinked your keyfob, you also reset the navi:

https://acurazine.com/forums/second-...-1-2-a-499756/


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Welcome, seems like thoiboi hit the nail on the head with the information needed to re-sync the fob. Also cleaned up some posts here and merged with the relevant thread. Happy wrenching.

What did you do to restore the settings?