proximity key not recognized randomly

[JoeCo]

So last night I remote started my truck prior to leaving a gathering with some friends, and when I went out to leave I grabbed the drivers door handle but it would not unlock. So I used the fob to unlock the door, got in and pressed the start button and there was no issue recognizing that the fob was in the truck to do so. I got home and got out, tried pressing the lock button on the handle and again got nothing at all. Used the fob to lock it and went in for the night. Today everything is back to working normally.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if so what was causing it? I'm taking my truck into the dealer this Thursday to hopefully get warranty work approved for some bubbling paint on my hood, so if something needs to be warrantied for the proximity key I'd like to get two birds stoned at once, as they say. The truck still has a little of the full factory warranty remaining if the proximity system needs a fix.

 

[JoeCo]

No one else has had this happen? It hasn't totally failed me again since then, but partially failed until I took the key out of my pocket, and another time it unlocked the truck before I touched anything. So something seems a little funky, definitely mentioning it when I go in for the corrosion warranty attempt.

 

[RamCares]

No one else has had this happen? It hasn't totally failed me again since then, but partially failed until I took the key out of my pocket, and another time it unlocked the truck before I touched anything. So something seems a little funky, definitely mentioning it when I go in for the corrosion warranty attempt.

Feel free to shoot us a PM if you are interested in the support of a case specialist for your service visit. I am more than happy to get that escalated for you!

Mark
RamCares

 

[Steve-ooooo]

I have similar issue as well on my 2016. Passive entry won't work for a couple of days. Have tried changing battery in fob, doors not work. Locking with the button on the handle always works. After a couple of days, passive unlock will start to work again.

In addition to the above, every once in a while my cruise control won't turn on. I have tried pressing the cruise on/off button really hard, smacking it, flicking it, etc but won't turn on. Sometimes after a few minutes of driving, it will start to work. Sometimes it won't work for a whole day. When it was still under warranty, they replaced the switch but it's still happening.

I chalk it up to software glitches. Would this all be controlled by Uconnect 8.4 system or is there another ecu that controls locks and cruise?

 

[pacofortacos]

Pull your battery out of the Fob and measure the voltage on it, anything less than 3.1 volts will give you an erratic acting fob - at least on my 18 Pacifica this is true.
Acted just like yours, first battery was 2.7 V, replaced with one that measured 3.3V - acted funny a day or 2 later and measured battery voltage was 2.9 V, bad battery.
Bought another new battery and it measured 3.3V and has been fine since, which has been 2 months.

Both normal fob and backup fob batteries were low after 2 years (backup is never used), which is why for a month or so I didn't suspect batteries. Esp. after I changed it, but it doesn't help much if you replace it with another bad battery

 

[kohersh]

The handles have never failed me but on more than 1 occasion in the past 6 months I had placed the keys atop the cc and the cluster told me the keys were not present. Waiving the keys around did nothing. seemed like a lock/unlock cycle from the fob jolted it awake.
Maybe the battery is due for us @JoeCo

 

[JoeCo]

The handles have never failed me but on more than 1 occasion in the past 6 months I had placed the keys atop the cc and the cluster told me the keys were not present. Waiving the keys around did nothing. seemed like a lock/unlock cycle from the fob jolted it awake.
Maybe the battery is due for us @JoeCo

It's certainly worth looking into, mine has been fine for the last couple of days but I'm sure the battery could still be on its way out. If/when it happens again I'll try to test my backup fob to see if it's isolated to the fob I use regularly. Or maybe I'll just buy a backup battery, couldn't hurt to have on hand.

 

[pacofortacos]

The dealer also has a tester to test your Fob, and the battery if needed.

My backup fob battery was low too - worked good for about 2 days then started doing what the main one did.
The weirdest thing was, it only acted up on days below freezing or around there, so between that and the backup fob acting strange I thought there was a problem with the car.
I took it in one morning when it was acting up, they looked at it for an hour and couldn't find a cause - yet it was acting up for them the entire time - after working on it for an hour, the car warmed up and it started functioning normally again.

The only thing that showed any strange activity was the fob, it wouldn't put out a full signal intermittently - but did put out a signal. So, they didn't think it was the fob either.
A couple days later was when I measured the voltage on the fob battery and replaced it - has worked flawlessly since.

 

[chrisbh17]

It's certainly worth looking into, mine has been fine for the last couple of days but I'm sure the battery could still be on its way out. If/when it happens again I'll try to test my backup fob to see if it's isolated to the fob I use regularly. Or maybe I'll just buy a backup battery, couldn't hurt to have on hand.

If your fob is near your cell phone, the proximity range is greatly reduced.

Standard buttons (remote start, lock, unlock) will still work OK. I think it has to do with NFC built into the cell phone and whatever frequency the prox uses.

 

[JoeCo]

If your fob is near your cell phone, the proximity range is greatly reduced.

Standard buttons (remote start, lock, unlock) will still work OK. I think it has to do with NFC built into the cell phone and whatever frequency the prox uses.

Good to know, I was wondering if it could be a fluke like that...I usually wear hoodies (hate winter jackets) and keep both my keys and cell phone in the front pouch pocket. I figured that could create some interference but had never had it give me an issue before. It was interesting, one time when it did it (walked up to truck, grabbed handle but it didn't unlock) give me an issue, I took the keys out of my pocket and grabbed the handle again and they unlocked...so that time at least it seemed directly related to some interference taking place.