Smart key not detected

Weird situation here...just me venting / wanting to know if anyone else ran into this issue?

So the other day I drove to the market, parked the truck, and turned off the engine. The dash started beeping, showing the message "key not detected" and the engine warning light flashing. I exited the truck and tried to lock the door but it wouldn't let me, and the warning was still on the dash screen. I go back into the truck and press Start, and the truck starts right up like normal! I drive it to another parking stall, shut it off, and beep...beep...beep...??!! Of course my next step was to get onto Tacomaworld to look for a solution . Saw threads about being locked out, or driving away without the smart key, but nothing like this.

I just left my truck unlocked, go into the store and return 20-mins later. Just to check, I pressed the unlock on my fob, and the truck responded! Everything back to normal now, hasn't happened since.

btw, 2016 TRDOR, automatic with push to start. Remote start (12volt.solutions) and Anytimebackup mod.

 

If it happens again, then I’d worry.

 

Take it to the dealer asap and don't wait- I bet the next time it happens is when you are off-roading it 20 miles from nowhere and your buddies don't notice you are not following them anymore.

 

Good point. I was most likely going to bring up the issue with the dealer, definitely now sooner than later.

 

I've had issues where if my key is under my phone in my pocket it can't be detected.

 

battery getting weak in your keyfob would be my guess.

 

You guys know there's a physical key inside the fob right?? You don't need to worry about leaving your truck unlocked you can manually lock/unlock it with the actual key. And even if your FOB is completely trashed you can still hold it right up next to the start button and it will start the car, I removed my FOB battery just to really test it and it still works.

It sounds like your truck is trying to warn you that your FOB battery is getting low, just replace the FOB battery and go from there.

FYI if you keep your key fob consistently near your cell phone/laptop/any device that generates a magnetic field it will constantly try to interact with it and kill your battery a lot faster.

Another thing to be aware of is environmental background noise, if you're near a cell phone tower, radio tower, or any other high powered transmission device your key FOB will likely be overpowered and not able to transmit to your truck, so again use the manual key and hold the fob next to the start button to get around it. Its the reason almost no ones car alarm works on Mt Soledad (there's a bunch of radio towers up there and I constantly see people think they're "locked out").

 

good information jaque8. thanks

 

Uh, I can get in the back with that key but I don't fit through the slider as my truck has keyless handles (2017).

The problem may also be an intermittent loose keyfob battery connection - should check the battery clips too.

 

What's that "hole" thingy in your door handle...???

 

Huh, how quaint. I never used or noticed those before on mine!

 

Wait wait wait yours doesn't have a keyslot at all!?! I've never seen that before, you sure its not just covered under the plastic part on the door handle??

That's crazy if you don't have one at all

edit: nevermind looks like you just didn't notice, don't feel bad it happens all the time! I've shown people that have owned a prius for YEARS their keyhole and they're SHOCKED they never saw it before lol

 

Yeah, and we're gonna let technology take control of our vehicles (not to mention our lives) in the near future. Not for me thank you very much. Can't even rely on tech to open doors and start the engine.

 

I didn't even get one of the magic key fobs. My Taco is such an outdated piece of shit.

 

Yeah, but guess whose going to be giving us rides when our trucks don't start because the fob is broken?

 

This, Even when im outside the truck if the fob is between me and my phone It wont even unlock until i move it around in my pocket

 

just hold the remnants of the fob to the push to start button and it has a passive RFID that will allow you to start the truck.

 

That's cool, unless you're my wife. We were working out in the desert and everyone wanted to put their lunch boxes under the truck in the shade, so I recommended to her to put the keys in one of the lunch boxes so she wouldn't accidentally run them over. Well, she broke the alarm fob when she ran over all the lunch boxes (She couldn't find her key, so got the spare out of her pack!)