Jetstream

Please help!

We have a 2007 IS 250AWD, are the original owners, it's mainly my wife's car. We both know that the FOB batteries have to be changed every few years or whenever they start to die, but this seems like something different... About a month ago my wife went to go pick up our daughter from school and the car wouldn't start, "key not detected." We know of this issue when the battery gets low, and the trick about holding the FOB to the start button, and then pushing the start button. Well she tried this, numerous times with no success, and started to panic. After some time it finally started, no idea what was done differently if anything...

Anyway we called Lexus and they said it was probably the batteries, so we had both FOB's batteries replaced and everything had been fine, until today. She got stranded again as the car reported "Key not detected" she tried the FOB trick many times, again with no success, would get out of the car, walk away, come back, try again, nothing. After trying about 10 times it finally started, but again no idea what was done differently if anything... She continues on her day, and makes another stop later, same exact thing, again car won't start, it doesn't see / find the key and she tries the silly trick numerous times until it finally (for whatever reason) decides to start.

When I get home I check out her FOB, looks fine, test the new battery and it sill has a strong charge, the contacts inside the FOB appear fine. The Incident a month ago was with her FOB, after we got the batteries replaced we switched FOB's following the advice of a Lexus service guy who said "The FOB's do have an overall life expectancy within their chip, and are rated for X amount of starts" which I'd never heard before. So today's issue was with my old FOB, hence both FOBs are exhibiting this problem

So now we have an issue brewing... I don't blame my wife for not trusting the car now, especially when the stupid trick to bypass a low FOB battery doesn't work, at least not consistently, maybe 1 out of 10 times, which is unacceptable. Lexus say's they'll "investigate" for $149 per hour, which is less than helpful. I'd appreciate any advice, anything at all please? Every search I've done just talks about doing the FOB trick or replacing the battery or both, which we've done, hence this seems like something else


Thanks in advance for any advice!

nosurprise

iTrader: (1)

I don't think there is any wear and tear on the FOBs lol Since both FOBs can't start the car, I would think the issue is with the car. Does the puddle lights light up when you approach the car with the FOBs?