Hi there 4G TL owners.

Do the key fobs go bad? Last month the battery in my key fob went low (after 4 years). Got the message on the display, so I changed the battery. Everything seemed fine.

But now intermittently, the car doesn't recognize the key fob is there. Sometimes the door doesn't unlock when I put my hand in the handle. Nothing happens when I click the fob to open the door. Sometimes the car asks for me to put the key in the slot, as if its not recognizing the fob is there.

Thoughts?

 

Sometimes those batteries sit on the shelf for years and are weak when you buy them.
We have experienced some odd gremlins as well. Like the driver settings not changing etc.
Try buying another battery from some place with a high volume of sales like Home Depot. Additionally there is a way to "reset" the fob, our dealer did this for us.

 

i had the same problem.. found out that the new battery was a dead battery.. got a new one, then it was fine.

 

get a good battery, like a duracell or energizer. Some of the lower quality batteries don't work well.

 

I second this. I recently replaced the battery in my fob with a fresh one from a blister pack that came free with some electronic toy...don't know what. The battery was ostensibly the same type, but I noticed when popping it in that it felt just a shade thinner...barely perceptible. Over the next few days, the car MID prompted me several times to insert the fob in the slot.

Changed over to a duracell, and no problems since.

 

Same with me, i used to use cheap battery from eBay for my TL fob. It usually works only 3 -4 weeks, then it shows same weird symptoms that you experienced. Then, i changed to energizer battery and it worked flawlessly for 5 months now *knock on wood*

 

i recall reading some AZ members who had this issue state that if they had the key fob AND their *cell phone* in the same pocket it seemed to interfere with the car recognizing the fob.... just a thought.

 

Thanks for your help. I replaced the battery with a fresh one from Duracell.
Everything is fine now!

Moral of the story is - don't buy a stale replacement battery from the watch counter at Walmart.

 

Same with me. New battery solved it