Fob batteries? Why do I keep burning through them?

I use Duracells. They last 2 - 3 years.

 

My wife has my spare key for my 2018 and she never uses it. She got a reading when she tried to use it that battery was low. I use mine everyday and never got any notification. Decided to play it safe and changed them both. Strange.

 

Mine seem to last 3 years.

 

I changed the battery once in 4 years, maybe 3.5 yrs or so out of the original. Only reason I did it because the truck yelled at me to change it even though it wasn’t malfunctioning or anything, it still locked, started, ect. Truck is for the most part a daily driver.

 

^^^ This ^^^. Turn it off every night and when not in use. It was designed to make the touch handle work without having to push the fob so the stupid thing stays active all the time.

 

I had my truck since may 2020 and i just had to replace mine this month. I bought a 6 pack from Amazon

 

I'm on the original batteries; purchased 10/15. I only use 1 of the 2. Never disabled anything.

 

Hmm. Now you have me thinking. My spare fob is disabled and in the safe. I don't use it or rotate it with the active key. I wonder if I should store it with battery removed, for corrosion mitigation.

 

Very interesting.

 

have had my original batteries since November of 2019, still going strong. Ski

 

To answer my own question. Yes the CR2032 batteries on Amazon are junk. My last replacements were nice new Duracells from Walgreens. Going strong and going the distance.

 

I'm burning through Amazon batteries every three weeks. It's ridiculous. Got to be a bad batch of batteries. I don't want to disable the thing all the time. I do leave my fob in the truck at night. Maybe that's added to the pace. I will be trying a store bought battery soon. So annoying. I've had to open up the battery so much, I'm afraid I'm going to wear out the fob.

 

You leave your keys in the truck overnight.... I won't even leave them in it when I'm in the middle of the mountains with no one around. I'd suggest changing that habit for other reasons besides battery life.

 

More than likely a dying fob housing.

Order a new one (they're not expensive) swap the metal key in and program the new fob to the truck. You shouldn't need a programmer for that.

 

definitely stop leaving the fob in the truck...

growing up, another family that ran in the same circles as my family did(same school, church, etc), the husband was high up within the local fire department, as well as had a very well respected local business, and the wife was extremely involved as well, which meant their vehicles carried customized license plates on fire fighter backgrounds. everyone in town knew their vehicles, but also knew the people enough that no one really screwed with them without just cause.

one time, the wife notices she was going through a ton of gas after a month, but errands don't stop, so just chalked it up to her routine. this went on for nearly 4 months.

one night, the husband got a fire call at 2AM. he rushed out to the garage, jumps in his truck, and calls the wife to ask where her vehicle is... fire call dealt with, they informed the police, who quickly setup a little sting operation around the garage. around 5AM, the vehicle shows back up with the individuals..


turns out, the family always left their garage unlocked, and she hung up her purse in the garage, with the vehicle keys. some enterprising individuals must've been checking doors 4 months ago, and discovered the open garage, with vehicle keys.

for the next 4 months, these individuals used her vehicle as their personal errand unit for their drug deals, always careful to never leave obvious traces, and always returned it by 6AM, so it was ready for her to take the kids to school that morning.

they later learned the 4 month timeline based on recorded hits on license plate searches by the local police at known-shady motels. because absolutely no one was going to publicly call out a higher-up in the fire department/local community because his wife's car was where it shouldn't be at 3AM most nights...

as mcgruff the crime dog would say, "take a bite out of crime and don't leave keys in vehicles"...

 

Dang. Four month without getting caught. Family must've thought it was a very trustworthy town

 

Definitely try name brand batteries and stop leaving your fob in the truck. I’d guess it’s latter.

 

2019 battery used to last a year or more, seems as time goes on it's now down to ~ every two months replacement. Parked in garage I have always kept the fob in truck. On the other hand the starter battery is still going strong after 6 years.

 

After 4 years still no issues with the FOB batteries and I remote start the truck at least 2 a day 24/7 but to be ready for it I got these on Amazon.ca as they call for the replacements of CR 2032