I have not seen this type of question posted, but I wanted to know if anyone has experienced trouble with the Corvette's internal antenna sensor, sensing the remote either outside or inside the car? I have replaced the battery twice in six months, so I am pretty sure it is not the remote, although it might be the circuitry in the remote. But I am wondering if anyone has had problems with the actual sensor antenna within the car itself. I sometimes have trouble with opening or locking the doors, even if I am within 3 feet of the car. One time when I was at my local Chevy dealership, they left the remote sitting in the cup holder and they got locked out of the car. They made a new key to get back in, but that should not have happened. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

A cellphone charger plugged in can cause this.

 

How often does it happen? If it happens on a regular basis you may be able to check to see if it happens with your second FOB. If both FOBs do the same thing there could be a possibility something is wrong with the receiver module. If you have access to a Tech 2 you can have the body codes read to see if the module is setting a code.

My car does something similar every now and then. When at the track I leave the FOB in the console but I make sure the windows are open so I don't accidentally get locked out as happened once before. Every now and then when I get out of the car I hear one beep from the horn Vs the three beeps indicating the FOB is in the car. On my car it is so intermittent that it could be nothing more than electrical interference from some other transmitter causing the problem. It hasn't occurred on my car since last year.

Bill

 

Hey ajrubincpa,

I'm sorry your car is having lock/unlocking sensor issues. That has to get annoying, especially when you're in a hurry! When the dealership got locked out of the car, did they look into this for you? I'd be happy to get in contact with your dealer for you. Let me know!

Thanks,

Jeff M
Chevrolet Customer Care

 

Here is the one I learned the hard way...

Placed my fob in my backpack while working.
When I walked up to my car I popped the hatch and threw my pack in and closed it without realizing I left my fob in it.

Needless to say, AAA could not get a locksmith in ATL to open the car.
I now carry a key in my wallet.

If I do it from the doors, I get three horn honks.
From the deck lid... nothing.
That might be a design flaw.

 

When you turn off the car, exit and close the door the car searches for the fob in the passenger compartment to 'see' if you left the fob inside. If you have, it will honk 3 times, if you activated that preference using the DIC.

This feature does not extend to the trunk/rear hatch area.

Locking your keys in the trunk is nothing new and certainly not unique to the C6.

 

Jeff,

Thank you for your responding to my message. I don't think the dealership had time to look into it, since they were already behind schedule with other cars. Also, the recall situation has kept them very busy and it was a Saturday. One other person mentioned that it might have something to do with my cell phone being plugged into the AC for charging, but I think I had my cell phone with me at the time I was away from the car. I also realized that my old car battery was having difficulty holding a charge when this was happening and I don't think I have been having this problem, since I replaced the car battery. However, I also noticed that I was having some trouble opening the trunk lid with the remote, prior to having the battery replaced. I was planning on bring the car back to the dealership in the next few days, since I have an extended warranty on the car. But I wanted to see if I could get some suggestions here first. Do you have any other thoughts? Thanks! Alan J. Rubin

 

MikeERWNC, you are right about this. I think this is a major design flaw, because it has happened to me twice, both times when I was leaving the gym to go home. I left the FOB in my gym bag and threw the bag in the trunk, not realizing that the FOB was in the gym bag. This is a major design flaw, since there is no one that can get you unlocked, without using your own second FOB or key like you did. Even their Emergency Road Assistance cannot help, which is total BS.

 

OnStar can unlock your car and clever locksmiths have been able to snag one of the manual door release levers to get into locked cars.

 

Hey Alan!

We really appreciate your patience and understanding with your local dealership. I hope that replacing the battery has solved this concern for you! Since you're planning on going back to the dealership, please keep us updated with how it goes and if you experience these concerns again. We're always here to help!

Thanks,

Jeff M
Chevrolet Customer Care

 

Just having a charger plugged in will cause this. You don't have to have your phone charging for it to cause problems. I had a cheap dual port USB charger in the center console doing this to me. Took me a while to figure it out. I have since bought a better one and the problem was solved.

 

The phone does not have to be attached to it for it to cause interference.

 

All,

Thanks for the information provided above. I will try the suggestions above and let you know what I find out. Alan

 

There are 5 antennas involved in the Remote Control Door Lock system. 4 transmit very short range signals and one receives anything transmitted by a FOB up to 100 feet away. The 4 transmit antennas are located at the driver and passenger B pillars inside near the door pads, there is one in the glove compartment, and one in the rear bumper area inside near the hatch button. The receive antenna is in the RCDLR which is in the upper center dash area.

Let's start with the issue of the FOB in the cup holder that the dealer didn't want to be bothered diagnosing. To get into the car from the driver's door you push (pull) the door pad. When this switch closes the Drivers Door Module (DDM) sends a signal to the Body Control Module (BCM) that indicates you want in. The BCM asks the RCDLR to check to see if it will be OK to open the driver's door. The RCDLR sends a weak signal from the driver's door antenna to see if there is a FOB within 3 feet of the driver's door. If a FOB hears this it will send a strong signal that the RCDLR will hear and report the results back to the BCM. Door opens.

But there is a problem with this procedure. What if you are sitting in the car with a FOB and the doors locked and someone just comes up and tries to open the locked door? So before sending the challenge signal from the door antenna the RCDLR sends another weak signal from the glove compartment that tells any FOB that hears it to not respond to anything it hears for a few seconds. The intent is the FOB that will unlock a door must be very close to the door so it can hear a door antenna but outside the car so it doesn't hear the glove compartment antenna. So what if you leave the FOB in the cup holder? It hears the first signal from the glove compartment and then even if it hears the door antenna it doesn't respond. But people leave FOBs laying where ever they feel like it all the time. So, add another layer of complexity and have the glove compartment antenna ask if there are any close by FOBs before locking the doors. But what if there are two FOBs? OK, remember which FOBs have responded since the last time you asked and go ahead and lock if at least one FOB is now outside.

Complicated? Yes! But 99.9% of the time this just works and the owner never cares how complex it actually is. So what if there is a strong RF signal in the area and the FOB can't hear the weak antenna signals trying to decide if it is close to where the RCDLR wants it to be? All bets are off. A cellphone transmits a signal strong enough to be heard miles away. Could you hear someone a foot away whispering if someone else was blowing an airhorn in your ear? The same applies to the FOBs. The system depends on FOBs hearing weak signals that only travel a few feet. Any strong signal can interfere with that.

Since the FOB transmits a strong signal that can be received by the RCDLR from more than 100 feet away, almost every issue with the system will be related to the weak signals sent by the other 4 antennas not being received by the FOB or the FOB not transmitting at all. That's why the dealer didn't want to be bothered chasing ghosts. The FOB worked when the car was started. The FOB works, the RCDLR works, and the glove box antenna that is used for starting works. It was just a glitch that the FOB didn't hear when the door lock query was sent from the glove box antenna but it did when the unlock sequence was initiated or it couldn't hear the door antenna. Whatever, it's working now. Pay the bill and go away. Come back if it ever happens again. And I can't blame them for that this time.

 

You don't know how much I wished I'd read this prior to three days ago, when I put my suitcase in the trunk of my car and closed the hatch with the keys still in the suitcase.

At least I was at the airport, where I could rent a car for the hour & 20 minute drive home for the spare set of keys.