Har

Here is the senario:

My wife and I both have our key fobs and we are riding and enjoying our new ES350. I park the car and my wife wants to leave her purse (with key fob in it ) in the trunk.

Will we be able to lock up the car and re-open the car when we retunr with my fob?

Does it make a difference if my wife's fob is in the glove box, under the seat or in the trunk?

If noone has the answer I may have to try this out when parked in my Lexus dealers parking lot.

Also, Has anyone used the "emergency key" which is embedded in the fob to get in and start the ES350? Do you pry out the START button and then use the key? I have a concern that some day I am going to go for a dip in the ocean with my fob in my pocket and be out of luck. Is it possible to get a metal key made to carry when at the beach or boating?

Thanks for your insight.

PS Why is it called an fob? Free On-Board?

Kaius88

If the FOB is inside or around the car, every door (including trunk) is basically unlocked. Only way to lock the glove compartment and trunk is with the metal key. That's why when you park your car with a valet, give him only the FOB without the metal key. You can safely put your valuables in the glove and trunk and he will not have access to them, provided you lock them up BEFORE you hand over your car to the valet.

Har

So it sounds like my wife is SOL when it comes to leaving her fob in the car when she is with me.

Ingram4868

I know there is a button in the glove box that will disable the remote openers. I've never tried pushing the button and placing the other key fob in the trunk to see if anyone can open it. Let us know if you test it.

We also worried about this with our Avalon so we just use one key and pass it back and forth for whoever wants the car. Our other fobs stays in the house as a backup.

Inocen1

This is something I hadn't thought about. Thanks for bringing it up. Definitely a bit of a possible theft issue if you aren't careful about it.

ng123ray

i've buzzed through the manual and i found out there is no way of starting the car withough the key fob... the car can detect when it has low battery and the signal is weak and all. but if your key fob gets soaked and there isnt any power to it; there is no starting your car. you can get in the car with the key holes under the door handles, but as far as starting... the manual says to contact yoyur lexus dealer as soon as possible... which i thought would kinda suck if you were runnign through heavy rain to get to your car...

ng123ray

i have found out a way to lock oen of the keys inside the car but it does require the other key fob. you only use the remote locking on the key fob and it would lock the other key fob in the car with no problems. i have not yet foudn a way of locking the key fob inside the car without the use of another key fob. which would really suck because i want to go to a waterpark soon since it's so hot... does anyone have any ideas? perhaps manually locking the door with the key leaving the key fob inside?

PaJaHa1

Regarding the keyfob:

The thing is a monstrosity, and the valet key makes up about 3/4 of it's weight. I wish they would have issued a separate valet key and made the fob smaller.

One annoying thing I noticed is that if you have 2 Lexus fob's (different models) in the car at the same time, it will not start. This is an annoyance because there are 2 cars in the family and there are situations that come up where I need to carry both. Anyone else encounter this?


Har- did you know that you can program each keyfob (for you and your wife) to link up to the memory seats? The car can detect via the fob whether it is you or your wife that is getting into you car and adjust everything accordingly. I realize that all this saves you is the touch of a button, but it's just one of those cool "little things."

Har

Interesting that you should mention customizing the fob to my wife and me. We have done it and now my wife and I run to the car to see who's seat settings lock in first.

We also have an 2005 RX330 which I typically drive and I wondered what would happen if I did have two fobs one for my new 400h (dream)and one for the ES350...now I know. On the weekends I leave either the RX key or the ES fob at home because I can't stand having both in my pocket at the same time. I had a Volvo rental on a recent trip and their metal key folded into the electronic portion of their "key" which was nice and compact.

Nextourer

Depending where the interior sensors are, you can lock the car with one of the fobs inside as long as one of the sensors don't "see" it. If it does, then you have to use the metal key from the other fob and lock the car manually.

If you want to lock your own fob as ng123ray wants to, simply keep the fob in the glovebox or centre console, take the metal key with you and manually lock the car with the metal key.

If the battery signal is weak (not sure if this method works if the fob's dead), then place the fob near the start button and start the car within 5 seconds (I can't remember if the car will beep when you place the fob near the button)

fob isn't an acronym in this case. It's carried over from "remote keyless entry fob" as in the piece of plastic you used to use to unlock the car remotely is called a fob.

Hope that answers everyone's question.

Ingram4868

The term "fob" goes back at least to the days of pocket watches. The fob was at the end of the watch chain and it was the piece (usually leather) you pulled on to get it out of your front vest pocket.