TechNut

The first thing I wanted to do when I brought our new ES home tonight was to program the garage door opener. I cannot get it to program. We have an Overhead Door opener that is about 12 years old that used rolling codes. Before I explain what I have done, let me just say I have programmed this door on my previous 3 Lexus automobiles that had Homelink. So I am no stranger to the process and I it was working fine with the previous ES.

The procedure is very simple and clearly documented on page 287 of the manual. I press the “learn button on the garage door opener, then I press and hold the button on the mirror for two seconds, and then I release it. The instructions say you may have to repeat this procedure up to 3 times. The odd thing is, the light continues to flash red, and when I try it a second time, the light actually goes out. So it doesn’t really feel like I am duplicating the procedure as I am getting different indications from the lights in the mirror on each successive attempt.

Anyone have any guidance or tricks to programming Homelink on this ES model?

Thanks in Advance!

TechNut

Problem solved. I am posting the solution here in the hopes that this will help others.

Here is the explanation that finally got me working: https://homelink.com/program/instruc.../0/0/usenglish

Sorry, but upon testing this post I see the link above doesn’t take you to the exact page and I cannot see how to fix it. But if you go to the page and click on “start over” you can enter your car and opener and get detailed instructions.

To summarize: after reading the manual, I thought you either had to do the part starting on page 285 (using a hand held garage door transmitter button) OR the part starting on page 286 where you press the learn button on the garage door opener. The link above shows you have to do both. You still do the part with the hand held remote, and then you do the part with the learn button discussed on pages 286/287. I have reread those pages of the manual several times and I still don’t see how I could have reached that conclusion. I do not recall this being the case on the last Lexus vehicles I programmed but I cannot imagine that it would be any different so it must just be my confusion.

Anyway, I am just glad I figured it out. Now I will sleep tonight...

markp1798

I struggled with this as well and finally came to the same conclusion as you did. I also have the Overhead door brand about the same age so it may be related to that brand of opener but my Toyota Avalon did not require both methods to be done together to program the car. I agree as well that the manual is not clear that you must combine both methods to get it programmed on the car. You use the old Overhead door remote to get it started then finish up using the second method described on the manual. They should write it up as a single method with all steps combined rather than two separate methods.

jimv1983

I came to the same conclusion as well after almost an hour of messing with it.

markp1798

TechNut posted a link to the HomeLink website at https://homelink.com/program/instruc.../0/0/usenglish where you can find the procedure. Just enter the info they need and it will give you the steps for your car and opener. However if you combine both procedures together that are outlined separately in the Lexus car manual on pages 285 and 286 (Again as provided by TechNut) it will work. The manual just does not say you need to perform both procedures together as a single procedure. I suspect that is only necessary with the Overhead door opener since you make 3 people reporting this issue and all 3 of us have that brand of door opener. Good luck

jaygee1

Thank you so much for the link/solution! I too have an Overhead that’s about 12 years old and both methods got Homelink working.

TechNut

Glad we could help. In my opinion, that kind of sharing is a big part of what these forums are about.

ES63

Anybody else though notice the range of the transmitter is very limited? also directional. If my car is backed up to garage, and i hit button it will not open / recieve signal , turn icar around or actually hold something up to reflect signal works fine. Also other thing im not crazy about is it will operate door even with ign off and or no key fob nearby. my previous car as safety would not allow this. ie if someone were to break into your car. or left car unlocked( nono ) they have access to your garage....

TechNut

I have not noticed any difference in range from our 2015 ES. It works fine as I approach the house. I have not tried it with the car pointing the opposite direction. As for operating it with the ignition off, this is standard for Lexus implementation of Homelink - at least I can verify it has been since the 2013 model year.

patnic517

Thank you and this forum. We just bought ours today and my husband spent an hour on it and told me to return it. It's all set now after reading this thread!

TechNut

Glad we could help. That is the real beauty of forums like this - to share notes and tips. I was also frustrated and it took me a second pass in the car to figure this out. I posted in the hopes of saving others the same aggravation. Enjoy your new car! We love the Atomic Silver/Chateau combo.

scubadvr1

By the way, a lot of Lexus dealers will send someone to your house for free if you can't figure it out yourself; but it's usually something easy to work out yourself and saves the hassle of the visit.

Verndog08

I just tried programming my new to me 2017 and I read the directions the exact same way! You do one or the other. They are very misleading. After searching UTube I found a video that was different than the manual procedure that worked! But basically after clearing out old codes you have to pair the homelink to the remote opener first holding both at once till it flashes quickly, then press the pair button on opener itself then quickly get back in car and press the same homelink button several times . until the sync.It now works excellent!

TechNut

Excellent. Now to complicate things further, my "Overhead Door" brand garage door opener will only hold like 6 transmitters, and so it just kicks out the oldest when adding a new one. So after adding this car, it kicked out one of the hand-held remotes that I shared with a neighbor so they could set packages inside my garage. Sigh. I ended up having to zero out the door opener and re-add the cars, hand-held remotes and keypad. Truly a first-world problem isn't it! LOL

I suppose these electronic gymnastics keep us safer as it eliminates the chance of any old vehicles/transmitters still be active.

Verndog08

Glad I didn't run into that one! I was close to giving up figuring my Genie opener wasn't compatible after many attempts with same "no dice" result.Glad I stuck with it and kept searching as that is way easier than pulling out remote each trip.