Remote Locking

[spursnut]

Hi all, the remote central locking on my 97 st sometimes decides not to work. A couple of times i've been out and it refuses to open even though the batteries have been replaced in the fobs (i've tried both fobs), i stood for 10 mins in the rain the other day trying to get in until eventually it decided to open, then worked perfectly for days, then the same again. Trouble is that if i open the door manually then the alarm goes off what with the button disarming it. It eventually works but i'm concerned that some day it won't and i'll be stuck. As i say i have 2 key fobs and its the same with both of them so i'm thinkin the problem's at the car end. Anyone else had this problem? Where is the sensor on the car? Many thanks in advance, lets hope i can get home from work today......... :(

[Tarby777]

Hi all, the remote central locking on my 97 st sometimes decides not to work. A couple of times i've been out and it refuses to open even though the batteries have been replaced in the fobs (i've tried both fobs), i stood for 10 mins in the rain the other day trying to get in until eventually it decided to open, then worked perfectly for days, then the same again. Trouble is that if i open the door manually then the alarm goes off what with the button disarming it. It eventually works but i'm concerned that some day it won't and i'll be stuck. As i say i have 2 key fobs and its the same with both of them so i'm thinkin the problem's at the car end. Anyone else had this problem? Where is the sensor on the car? Many thanks in advance, lets hope i can get home from work today......... :(

For once, a question I can answer. Yay! I had the exact same thing recently with my 97 ST and like you, got sick of standing in the rain, muttering "unlock, you b*gger!". Toyota told me it's a known problem... bottom line is the fobs are poorly designed, get worse over time and eventually fail. The design of the fob is such that, it lets a lot of crap in (pocket fluff etc) and you end up with poor contacts inside. You might be able to buy yourself a bit of time if you take the thing to bits and give it a real good clean. If the Battery is out for more than 10 mins, you might need to re-sync the fob to the car by holding both buttons down for a couple of seconds. You can also give it a bit of a boost by holding it to the underside of your chin for a few seconds! Sounds barmy, but I got that tip from a mechanic when I couldn't get in one morning, and it works...

Mine got so bad (despite a free cleanup courtesy of my local Toyota dealer) that I eventually didn't dare arm the alarm anymore, and for a few weeks I just locked it with the key. Last month, I bit the bullet and got a new fob: £110 inc. labour

BTW, I'm assuming that you have the Toyota alarm rather than the 3rd party one that some Celicas have. If you have one of those then one of these mobile techy dudes could sort you out with a new fob, but not if you have the Toyota alarm.

HTH

Tarby

[spursnut]

Hey thanks for that, the thing is that the little red light on the fob does light up, did this happen with yours?

[Tarby777]

Hey thanks for that, the thing is that the little red light on the fob does light up, did this happen with yours?

With mine, it degraded over time; it took more and more pressure (and more and more attempts) to actually get the LED to come on at all. The arm button wasn't as bad as the disarm button but IIRC I never got to a point where the LED came on without it triggering a response from the car (apart from one time when I changed the Battery and had to re-sync the fob as mentioned in my OP).

HTH

Tarby

[spursnut]

Thats what's making me think it may be something different with mine because my led is lighting every time, it just seems like the car is not responding, and as you say i'm having to lock it just with the key for fear of not being able to turn the alarm off when i come back, still i took my fob apart there and gave it a clean so we'll see, thanks for the advice so far though :)

[sotal]

both of my fobs stopped working a few weeks back, Luckily it was when I got out of the car and I couldn't lock it - so I had to use the key.

I then went to get the spare and that didn't work either, so I tried resyncing them. Mine resynced no trouble but the spare still refuses to work. The red light lights up perfectly - but it does worry me a bit. We need a manual way to disarm the alarm with the key

[spursnut]

Exactly how do you re-sync it? I took 1 of mine apart and cleaned it out and it ain't working now, the light is lighting but nothing's happening. Tried holding both buttons down at the car but i imagine there's more to it than that otherwise i'd just go up to a GT4 and stand beside it and do that so if anyone could tell me the process i'd be very grateful, although i'm still not sure that it's gonna cure the original problem.

[sotal]

You have to put your key in and turn it until the last position before the car starts. Then press both buttons for 10 seconds

[spursnut]

many thanks i'll do that tonight