I recently purchased a 2002 IS300. My wife and I both love the car! However, it came with only 1 master key, so we had a duplicate master key and a valet key made at a dealership. All was well... until yesterday.

For some reason, the older master key fob stopped working remotely. I could not open doors and trunk or close doors with the buttons. At first, I thought it was a battery issue. But I noticed that the red light still works when I press the buttons. Then I tried the new master key -- presumably with a fresh battery -- and it would not work remotely either!

For the life of me I cannot figure out what I did wrong! At one moment the fob was working, and the next moment it just stopped working. I was carrying groceries so I tried to work the key still in my pocket (pressed next to my mobile phone) while slamming the trunk shut. After that, the car just would not respond to either fobs!

Obviously, I am taking the car in for service, but has anyone had a similar experience or does anyone have any idea what I could have done wrong?

 

sorry to hear about your key issues... i haven't experienced anything like that in either of my IS300's i've owned or in my RX300... thats definitely a warranty issue... good luck.

 

sounds like the lexus guys only set up the new keys to work and cleaned out any of the old ones info. take it back.

 

or maybe you can try to program the old keys again? i know there is a way to program lexus keys, you can ask around

 

I agree with rominl get it reprogrammed

 

Thanks for all the responses.

The car is at the dealership. After several hours, the repair people still cannot figure out what is wrong. One moment all the remote functions of both old AND new keys worked and the next moment they didn't. They are baffled. The keys/car are refusing to "take" the new programming.

For now, I have a loaner (RX330). Nonetheless, it is very annoying -- after all, I bought a Lexus hoping that it would be highly reliable. My other choices were Volvo S60 and BMW 3-series, which I nixed because of their medicre relibility rating in Consumer Reports. Hmmm, maybe I should've bought that Acura TL Type S...

 

Your programming problems seem to be an isolated case. I hope you really aren't questioning the reliability of your Lexus. If you look on it on a brighter note...at least Lexus is trying to diagnose the problem and has given you a loaner vehicle in the process. It could be worse where Lexus could have refused to work on it and let alone not even offer you a form of transportation. Don't let that one experience sour you. It could be worse.

Good Luck.

 

i wouldn't really go too deep into that. every manufacture always have problems, even my gs4 there are problems. but as long as they are not big problems and lexus are willing to fix, that's all i am looking for. on the other hand, you never know what you get by getting say a bimmer

 

Do you have any equipment (especially any non-factory equipment) inside or outside your car such as 2-way radios, radar / laser detectors, special cell phones with non-standard frequencies, or ANY electronic device that could be generating a signal that could be interfering with the radio signal in the key fob? If you do, remove it, deactivate it and see if that helps.

 

No, I do not have any device that could be interfere with the fob frequency.

The service department just informed me that a new "body control module" was ordered for my car. ETA is Monday. I am supposed to drive the loaner until my car is fixed.
Why would Lexus refuse to work on it? The car is under warranty.

 

I'm only giving you a hypothetical example. Other car makers would leave you in the dust whereas Lexus has been providing you with improvisions and great customer satisfaction from what you've told us all.

 

Certainly the Lexus dealership/service department has provided satisfactory service. But I don't know that Acura or BMW dealer would not have provided the same kind of service (loaner car and warranty repair). In fact, I am pretty sure they would have under the same circumstance.

I am still hopeful that my problem is an extremely isolated fluke, as larger statistical sampling (say, surveys by Consumer Reports) seems to demonstrate the IS300, and Lexus overall, to be extremely reliable compared to Volvo, BMW and Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Still, it FEELS ironic to me that we picked a Lexus over the others for supposed relibility, only to have a bizzarre problem within weeks.

 

UPDATE:

The body ECU had to be replaced completely. The old one simply stopped responding to the radio signals from the key fobs. No cause could be identified.

Since the car is under warranty, the service was free. I drove a loaner (RX330) while it was being replaced. Now my wife wants an RX330!

One thing that is a bit odd. Previously, I had 18 preset FM stations (6 with "FM," 6 with "FM1" and 6 with "FM2"), but now I only have 12 (6 with "FM1" and 6 with "FM2"). What is that all about? Did the body ECU affect this? All old presets were erased, of course (as was the previous clock setting).

 

Glad to hear they were able to resolve your problem! As for your presets...that's odd. Perhaps you bring it to their attention.

 

glad that it's all resolved