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Twigman

Battery and key fob issues

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This morning i was again locked out of my 86.

I opened the door with the blade key - alarm goes off - will not respond to either key fob switching the alarm off.

Put both keys inside car and no indication on the dash that the car acknowledges the presence of any key. :(

Alarm keeps going off  - only way to stop it is to relock the car with the blade key.

I phone Toyota - they suggest the battery is flat.

Really?

I drove the car 60 miles yesterday - it was good as gold and it was hardly a chilly night compared to some recently. Why would the battery lose that much charge overnight.

Eventually I manage to ignore the alarm long enough to get the bonnet open and disconnect the battery.

It showed 12.38V on my multimeter.

Phoned Toyota again - they reckon 12.38V indicates that the battery is dead.

Toyota: "When did you last use it?"

Me: "Yesterday i did about 60 miles"

Toyota:" How long before that?"

Me: "A couple of days"

Toyota:"Well there you are then"

Me:"What?"

Toyota:"Your car isn't in daily use"

Me:"So what?"

Toyota:"So you should expect the battery to go flat"

Me:" I should what? I only used it YESTERDAY - how's it gone flat overnight?"

Toyota:"You probably had the heater and radio and lights on yesterday"

Me: "So what?"

Toyota:"So you'll have drained the battery"

Me:" So the car's charging system can't cope with the car's systems in normal use?"

Toyota" All cars are like that"

Me:"Rubbish...I can leave my Mazda for a month with the alarm on, get in it and it'll crank and start first time, every time....I only left the 86 for 1 night"

Toyota:"Oh"

 

Fucking useless twats!

 

In my many years experience cars have even been able to crank at 12.38V - that's normally about 1/2 charged - only when it gets down to <11.9V is a battery normally flat.

So why would it have stopped recognising both key fobs?

Surely 12.38V is ample to keep the security system working?

Toyota suggested I bring the car in for them to have a look at.

How am i supposed to do that when the car has stopped recognising both my key fobs?

They didn't have an answer for that and suggested that wasn't their problem.

 

So I have left the battery charging all day and hope that once it's back in the car that they key fobs are once more recognised.

 

The fitted battery is one of the 48Ah batteries  - i belive they are now fitted with 65Ah batteries instead.

How might I blag one of these 65Ah batteries?

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Sounds like your battery has bitten the dust.

Mine was driven practically every day then one afternoon it refused to unlock with the fob and the blade key just set the alarm off, then the windows stopped dropping slightly when opening the door... then the alarm died after 15mins. Locking it with the blade key didn't turn the alarm off for me permanently, only temporarily.

Got a jump start, drove home about 36 hours later it struggled to start, but started, got the battery replaced then :D

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5 minutes ago, GT86-Ian said:

Thats dealers of any make for you.

Not in my experience.

 

I've never experienced such ignorant nonsense from any dealer ever

 

I'm 52 and have owned a fair few cars over the years so I'm hardly green when it comes to dealers.

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That's weird. 

I had the same issue over Christmas; sometimes couldn't get in, sometimes nothing would happen when I put my foot on the clutch and press the start button; and would be just flashing the key symbol on the dashboard. So I thought maybe it's the battery in the fob. Then on boxing day it wouldn't start. So every day after work I was putting it on charge and had an appointment at a dealer today to test it/change it. I had it on charge all over the weekend and New Year's (which was probably a mistake). The guy come out and said the battery is good; test showed "state of charge" 12.72V. 

I also have a 48Ah battery. 

This will be the first time I haven't put it on charge overnight, so fingers crossed it starts tomorrow. 

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4 hours ago, Twigman said:

It showed 12.38V on my multimeter.

You can't really use a multimeter to gauge the state of a car battery - you need a proper battery tester that will place it under load.

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3 hours ago, Cerastes said:

I had the same issue over Christmas; sometimes couldn't get in, sometimes nothing would happen when I put my foot on the clutch and press the start button; and would be just flashing the key symbol on the dashboard.

If the battery is dead you'd expect it to try and turn over, mine just clicked away, dash goes dim etc. Yours sounds like what happens when phones are too near the fob or some other interference.

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Battery was showing 13.4V when I put it back in this morning.

My key fobs are back to life.

So paranoid driving it to work that I drove with no heater, no radio and no lights....

 

This is no way to 'enjoy' a car - constantly worrying if it'll start next time you get in it.

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All this stuff puts me in mind to have a replacement battery in the shed on standby... My original battery is coming up on 4 years old now.

FWIW, the battery is a consumable, but I'd hope that the original fitted item would survive the warranty period, and perhaps more importantly fail gracefully. After two weeks on the drive, the starter definitely cranks slowly, makes me wonder about leaving it any longer than that.

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15 minutes ago, nerdstrike said:

 

FWIW, the battery is a consumable,

That's as may be but the fact that they now fit 65Ah batteries as standard is surely an admission that the 48Ah battery (like mine) is inadequate - then we get into 'fit for purpose' arguments

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15 hours ago, knightryder said:

If the battery is dead you'd expect it to try and turn over, mine just clicked away, dash goes dim etc. Yours sounds like what happens when phones are too near the fob or some other interference.

Maybe it was very weird. But then on boxing day it definitely was a flat battery. 

 

@Twigman You're right, that is no way to enjoy the car with radio and air con off. Maybe keep a booster in the boot? Adds weight and takes up some space but might be a worthwhile addition. 

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48aH Panasonic battery replaced under guarantee January 2015 (not quite 2 years old). The 65ah Toyota battery replacement recently failed completely and would not hold a charge at all.  

 
Very efficient Yeomans Toyota did not even bother to check the battery and after one hour I left with a new Toyota battery (65A again) fitted under guarantee.  No quibble at all, so very pleased. Smile 
 
But it suggests that a three year life for these "replacement" 65A batteries may be the extent of their ability.  The dealers only comment was that they have a lot of trouble with batteries on our cars.

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27 minutes ago, Subota Boy said:

48aH Panasonic battery replaced under guarantee January 2015 (not quite 2 years old). The 65ah Toyota battery replacement recently failed completely and would not hold a charge at all.  

 
Very efficient Yeomans Toyota did not even bother to check the battery and after one hour I left with a new Toyota battery (65A again) fitted under guarantee.  No quibble at all, so very pleased. Smile 
 
But it suggests that a three year life for these "replacement" 65A batteries may be the extent of their ability.  The dealers only comment was that they have a lot of trouble with batteries on our cars.

 

27 minutes ago, Subota Boy said:

48aH Panasonic battery replaced under guarantee January 2015 (not quite 2 years old). The 65ah Toyota battery replacement recently failed completely and would not hold a charge at all.  

 
Very efficient Yeomans Toyota did not even bother to check the battery and after one hour I left with a new Toyota battery (65A again) fitted under guarantee.  No quibble at all, so very pleased. Smile 
 
But it suggests that a three year life for these "replacement" 65A batteries may be the extent of their ability.  The dealers only comment was that they have a lot of trouble with batteries on our cars.

A dealership to be cherished knows the batteries are a problem and just changes it 

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So 10 days on and the car is fine with just having charged the battery that day.

no new battery...yet.

 

 

I wonder why, that night, the battery discharged?

Weird

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1 hour ago, Twigman said:

So 10 days on and the car is fine with just having charged the battery that day.

no new battery...yet.

 

 

I wonder why, that night, the battery discharged?

Weird

Thanks for update. Mine seems to be ok too, after I put it on charge every day after work. It seems to be holding ok. 

I also try to get it changed under warranty because I still have the 45Ah and obviously want the larger one, but they won't change it unless they find a fault with your current battery. I took it to local garage to get it tested and they tested it ok too. 

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