Engine won't start... dead keyfob battery culprit?
 

Friday night, when I came back to my car, my keyfob appeared to have died. I tried unlocking the door with the buttons on the keyfob, but got nothing. Fine... I pulled off the door handle panel, and manually unlocked the door. I waved the keyfob next to the Start button, pressed it and drove away.

I stopped briefly at a hotel to drop a friend off and turned off the engine. When I came back, I again placed the key by the Start button and pressed it. The starter started revving... and revving... and revving... after 10 secs, the starter stopped and the engine wasn't running.

I repeated that process 3 more times, and finally on the 4th try did the engine finally start.

When I got home, the keyfob was back to a working state and was locking and unlocking the door via the keyfob button and using the door handle.

Next day, I went to the car, and the keyfob was dead again. I got inside manually to get my jacket and locked the car manually. When I returned to the car an hour later, the keyfob was working again. WTF?

Could a dying keyfob battery cause me that much grief and cause the engine not to start, and is there something else wrong? This is a 2006 IS 350 that was manufactured around Feb '06, so the keyfob is not even 2 years old yet.

There are plenty of stories of batteries dying in less than 2 years on this forum. Try your spare, see if it works fine. If there's a problem with the spare, may be a more serious problem.

i was told by the dealer when i first bought my car that the waving the keyfob infront of the start button only works one time and that you should reserve that time to go to the dealer to get a new battery.

The person who told you that was wrong. You can hold (not wave) a keyfob with a dead or missing battery in front of the start button as many times as you wish.

uh i dont think this has anything to do with ur key... if ur engine was able to rev... and u pushed the start button :S... i think ur cars battery may be dead