For the past several days, the HomeLink transmitter on my '04 seems to have a mind of its own. It's been opening and closing my garage door all by itself when I open or close the driver's door. Basically, I go to get in the car after opening the garage door and about the time I start it up the garage door is automagically closing.

I haven't been able to narrow it down enough to tell if the key actually has to be in the ignition for this to happen. It has happened when I'm leaving the house after opening the door from the wall switch and when returning and opening the door with HomeLink. Probably happened a total of about a half dozen times. Weird.

Anyone else had this issue?

 

Haven't heard of this before.

It may be a faulty transmitter, or the button may be sticking.

 

After the first couple of instances, I've tried to keep an eye on the red indicator light next to the buttons...haven't seen it flash yet when the "auto-close" happens, so I'm thinking it's not the button.

Question is, if it's a faulty transmitter how the heck do I get the dealer to agree to replace it since there's no way to duplicate it at the dealership?

 

The only test in the service manual is to turn on the map lights, which I guess checks the fuse that the homelink is also on, so I don't think they can test it.

You may have to try and trouble shoot it yourself, or narrow it down to exactly when it happens. This could be a real problem for you.

If the red light is not blinking when it happens, it could be something else. Don't know what, though.

 

Camcorder. If you could get a video of the door going up and down you might get them to acknowledge the problem...

 

Maybe your dealer will just be cool with it and replace it? Long shot, I know, but maybe. Although, EpiK has a good idea there - camcorder would be able to show, to some extent.

 

I doubt it's a home link problem... Sounds more likely to be a garage door opener/receiver problem. What make and model garage door opener do you have... About how old is it?

I say this because my parents used to have a cordless phone that would cause the garage door to close, open, stop half way, re open... It acted like a ghost was operating it. The really funny thing was my step-mom thought someone was in the garage, so she called the police and when she was on the phone it did it a bunch more times.

 

did you try reprogramming it?

perhaps use a different button as a variable in a separate test...

 

Most garage doors let you pick a code with little slide switches on the unit. Try using a different code. My 15 year old Sears garage door opener has something like 16 switches. Each one can be on, off, or set to some strange middle position (a trinary code). After choosing a different code, reprogram the HomeLink in the TL per the owners manual. Maybe even try HL button 2 instead of button 1.