well, FWIW, i was angled off the passenger front when i got good range.
i'll see if i can do some testing later today.
-darbs.

 

PM me I will try to help any I can. Also post your findings and pics here our electronics experts can see.

 

better be, i need a fix

 

Has anybody discovered a fix or a DIY for this issue yet? I've tried some of the aforementioned things. I had to purchase a new master key about a month ago and that didn't seem to help much. It's so confusing to me how my 'home link' can open my garage door from over 5 houses away, but my keyless remote works sporadically from 10 yards away.

 

ummm.... they use the same emitter? i don't think so?

 

No, but it would be nice if they did. Plus, my garage door receiver might be better able to pick up a signal from Home Link, than the factory car alarm receiver can from the key trasmitter. Oh well, there's always aftermaket.

 

Well, it seems to me as a non-engineer, that it boils down to two factors:

1. Strength of transmitted signal

2. Sensitivity of receiver

Clearly the HomeLink with greater power resources is able to generate a more powerful signal than what the transmiter and tiny battery contained within the head of the ignition key are able to produce.
The receiver of your garage door opener is hard wired to 110V house current, the one in the car has to make do with 12v from the car's battery and cannot draw too much current or you would have dead battery issues if you didn't use the car for a few days.

 

well, simply say, the homelink is just emitting signals, whereas the antenna for the remote keys are accepting signals, so they should be different systems if i have to guess?

 

This issue has been bugging me too. Have a '98 GS4 - did the chin thing, wife lauged and worse - no dice.

One guy said that they were working on a solution to this - any progress?

 

my key has as good or actually better range than my homelink. I have to be in my driveway about 20 feet from door for homelink to work.

 

Try this for bizarre. I have a garage with 2 automatic doors. They are located side by side. One door will respond to its siginal either from the HomeLink or the battery powered garage door opener from the end of the driveway while the other door won't respond until I am practically up against the garage door with my bumper. Same make/model receiver, similar location, same power source. Why they respond differently makes no sense to me, but thats how its always been, even before we got the LX or the GS with HomeLink.

 

i just thought of something i dont know if it will make a diff. or not but it might be worth a shot, i just talked to my friend at lexus and he told me that the keyless receiver is the same from 98 on up to 2005 for all the gs's. so i was thinking what if i was to buy the newer one and see if that improves the range??? anyone tried this yet??? feed back please.

 

By newer one do you mean from the 2006? If all others in the 2nd Gen GS were the same (from 1998 to 2005) why would changing result in any improvement in reception? After all, same is same, right?

 

yeah i agree, if they are the same, then there is no reason to change it to newer yrs. something must be different. i am still thinking about taking apart the c pillar, locate the antenna and extend it. any down side?

 

i'm just thinking that they knew about the prob. and they did improve the range on the 01 gs's so thats why i was thinking about buying the newer year one.