Here are the symptoms; tell me if you think my diagnosis makes any sense.

Occasionally, the "key reminder chime" with sound continuously when I open the driver's side door to get into the car (with the fob in my pocket).

Occasionally, the horn will honk three times when I exit the car and close the driver's door (with the fob in my pocket).

Occasionally, when I press the door handle pad, the door will NOT unlock (even though the fob is in my pocket) - the red LED on the top of the door gives a long flash. To get into the car, I need to hit the unlock button on the fob. These symptoms are repeatable with both fob 1 and fob 2. There is no indication on the DIC of a low fob battery condition. This happens at various places, including in my garage, which would rule out a common source of radio interference.

My assumptions: there are at least two antennas for the low power "passive" portion of the keyless entry: one inside the car, and the other outside. The keyless entry controller compares RSSI values between the two antennas to determine whether the fob is inside the car out outside it, i.e. when the RSSI at the inside antenna is greater than the RSSI at the outside antenna, the controller concludes that the fob is inside the vehicle.

My diagnosis: the outside antenna on my car is defective/weak, producing (at least intermittently) a low RSSI reading, fooling the keyless entry controller into believing that the fob is inside the car when it is, in fact, outside.

What do you think? Anyone else having these sorts of problems?

 

Sounds right to me but I would have the dealer or someone check it out.

 

Hey man, thought the Dough Boy died!

Occasionally, the horn will honk three times when I exit the car and close the driver's door – not shut down properly – interior light on, not in rev (6 spd)

Occasionally, when I press the door handle pad, the door will NOT unlock (even though the fob is in my pocket) - the red LED on the top of the door gives a long flash. To get into the car, I need to hit the unlock button on the fob. I had this prob. Solved by Silicone spray in the door lock pooka 2-3 times a day, every day until it clears.

Good luck man.

 

that sounds like the same symptoms that happen if you don't have the car in reverse... when it does this, check the DIC and see if it says 'shift to reverse'.. you may be in 5th.. you also may be draining your battery.
"-)

 

Are you carrying the fobs to any other cars in the same pocket?

 

The 3 horn honks is the 'you left your FOB in car' warning setting I believe (I have it set to on, saved me from leaving my keys inside a few times . So that would back up your theory that one of the antenna's is malfuncitoning.

I tried carring both FOBs with me and noticed there seemed to be a bunch of recognition issues when having both FOBs present. So if you're carrying both I'd try just only having 1 on you.

Else I would take it back and have it looked at.

 

I also on ocassion have had the chime sounding when I opened the driver's door. If you leave a map light or something on, this is not supposed to be a problem because the car is supposed to shut down the draw on power after around 15 minutes. Unless that isn't working too, or you're returning to your car before the shutdown period. I have not figured out why my chime sounds. Your diagnosis sounds reasonable to me. I don't think the chime sounding is serious enough for me to take it in. And since it only happens intermittently, I doubt the dealer could figure it out either. Especially since the car is so new to them also. I also had the horn sounding intermittently when I exited the car. I "fixed" this by disabling the FOB reminder feature in the DIC options. Also not serious enough to me to take it to the dealer. My best guess is electronic components are very prone to interference, etc. Gotta go now and reboot my computer.

 

I cannot stress this enough: THE CAR IS IN REVERSE AND PROPERLY SHUT DOWN.

Also, the DIC will say "PLEASE SHIFT TO REVERSE" or something like that when you forget (I saw it happen at the dealership - when these things happen to me, there are no messages on the DIC.

I'm not carrying both fobs with me, and I'm not leaving a map light on or anything like that.

As far as the door latch needling lubrication, I don't see how that can be the issue. When I press the door pad, the door doesn't even TRY to unlock - the sound of the door lock motor is not heard, the window does not index, and the red LED on top of the door gives a long flash. This is precisely what happens when you walk up to the car and attempt to open it when you do not have a fob.

In short, it seems to be telling me "sorry, you are not authorized to enter this vehicle," not "I tried to unlock but the door is stuck." Clearly the car sometimes has trouble "seeing" the fob when it's outside the car.

 

I, too, am not in any rush to bring my car to the dealer. And, like you, I had to disable the fob reminder option because the honking was getting annoying. However, the engineer in me still wants to know what's going on.

I work for a company that makes wireless monitoring equipment. We have some pretty sharp RF guys and they have some pretty slick test equipment, including an RF spectrum analyzer. Maybe they'll help me gather some more information, determine if there is some kind of interference, etc.

Thanks for the input, everyone, and stay tuned!

 

Mine blew the horn this morning when I got in it. Started blowing almost as soon as I got the door open and continued to blow, for about 1 second each time, until I pressed the starter.

The only thing I've done differently, lately, was to get in the car last night to check on the AUTO VOL key that someone asked about in another thread. I started the car and turned on the XM radio. Then I pressed and released the AUTO VOL key. I then pressed it 3 or 4 times to verify that it only alternated between "AUTO VOL ON" and "AUTO VOL OFF."

I killed the engine, then turned off the radio. After I got out of the car and shut the door, I went to the front of the car and verified that it flashed the DRL lights to let me know the car was locked. I also looked to see that it turned off the map lights.

The car is an auto tranny with base suspension. I never took the car out of PARK last night. It was in PARK when I got in it this morning. I don't use the parking brake.

 

Mine does something like that too. It seems to happen when I have the fob in my pocket, Stop for gas. Turn off engine, leave door open, pump gas, return to car, shut door - it then beeps 3 times - however, if I start car before shutting door it doesn't.

 

My car does the exact same thing. I know I have done everything right leaving the car. The one thing that just occured to me is that the car might not lock after the horn sounds if it thinks the key is in the car. I haven't experimented with going back to the car without the fob to see if it opens.

Your diagnosis sounds correct. I am bringing the car in for the recall on Monday and will have the issue checked. Also, on occasion, the temperature reading on my heater/ac seems to take quite a while to register correctly. Along with that, the temperature on the unit seems to change when I get out and back in (only on occasion) Getting that checked out too. I will let you know what the dealer has to say about the fob when I get it back, hopefully Tuesday.

 

No "might" about it - the owner's manual specifically states that the car will not lock if it thinks the fob is inside the car.

Thanks, looking forward to your report.

 

Which temperature reading are you talking about that takes awhile to register correctly? If you're talking about the outside temperature reading, you probably need to read pg 3-28 of the owner's manual. It says that if the outside temp. goes up, the displayed temp. will not change until the vehicle's speed is above 10 MPH for 5 minutes (and? or?) the vehicle's speed is above 32 MPH for 2.5 minutes.

It also says that if the temp. goes down, the outside temp. will be shown when you start the vehicle. If the vehicle has been turned off for less than 3 hours, the temp. will be recalled from the previous vehicle operation.

 

I posted earlier in another thread about my experiences with the "honkin'"
Today, with wife in car+HER FOB, I stop the car get out, closed the door(she stayed in) and NO honkin' !?

We made another stop, she stayed, I got out and HONKING!!!!!!
I'm looking at her shrugging my shoulders until she noticed ONE difference between the two situations.

The first time my window was down, the second it was UP!!!
The car thought I was locking "a" FOB in the car since the window was up!

Window down = NOT locking car.
Window UP = Locking your car.

Whata ya think?

 

As Vinny Barbarino would say..."I'm ssoo confused!!!"

 

You are correct about the temp gauge that I am reading. Mine just seems even slower to correct than the manual states. Only happens from time to time. The other strange thing is that the selected temp changes also from time to time. I get out and its on 70, I get in and its on 67, or 73 or whatever. I use the memory on the seat also, so I would think things would be consistant. Just little gremlins I guess.

 

You guys are worrying me with this keyless entry discussion. Hopefully this is not a real big issue.

 

No "might" about it - the owner's manual specifically states that the car will not lock if it thinks the fob is inside the car.

see my post: FOB & cell phone in car - I got locked out

My car locked me out with the FOB inside!

 

Mine too has done this when I have both FOBS around..