OK to lock FOB in car and walk off with key?

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user 340

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Is it OK to lock the RAV4 EV from the outside with the key and leave the electronic part of the FOB inside? I'd like to do this to minimize risk of damaging the FOB when I go off to ride or race my bike or go swimming. I'd guess that this is OK from reading the manual, but I'd like to make sure that this won't run down its battery or enable people to open doors by pulling the handle since it is close by. TIA for any info.
 
I do this in my Prius as well as the Rav 4 EV when I go to the gym, or run etc.

Cannot open the doors with the fob inside. The sensors for activating the unlock are outside the car, they will not read the fob when it is inside the car.

Only way to open the car is with the valet key or the second fob.

Test it will the windows down.
 
BSki said:
I do this in my Prius as well as the Rav 4 EV when I go to the gym, or run etc.

Thanks. Glad to hear that this works in the real world without problems.
 
I was surprised to find that you can't leave the car on and lock the doors from the outside, even if you take the FOB with you. This bummed me out, as I used to do this with my Leaf all the time for short stops to leave the A/C running on hot days and such.
 
I would think the only real issue would be if someone breaks into the car, they'd essentially have the key already... but that sort-of refers to another thread where theft of the car is probably low.

fooljoe said:
I was surprised to find that you can't leave the car on and lock the doors from the outside, even if you take the FOB with you. This bummed me out, as I used to do this with my Leaf all the time for short stops to leave the A/C running on hot days and such.

You can't? Wow that's kind of stupid. Although my Prius did the same thing, it's as if the key stops communicating when the car is running. I suppose they want you to use the remote climate.
 
My prius Plugin has an AC button on the remote that turns on the AC for 15 minutes and locks the doors.. Wish the Rav had that.
 
BSki said:
My prius Plugin has an AC button on the remote that turns on the AC for 15 minutes and locks the doors.. Wish the Rav had that.

Toyota Entune app for the Rav4ev has "Remote Climate" function which allows you to turn on the climate (AC when hot, heat when cold). You have to sign up and register for entune. And then, I'm not sure but it won't turn on the climate if your battery is less than half full. I've only tried it a few times when it was 90F outside. Seems to work ok.
 
occ said:
BSki said:
My prius Plugin has an AC button on the remote that turns on the AC for 15 minutes and locks the doors.. Wish the Rav had that.

Toyota Entune app for the Rav4ev has "Remote Climate" function which allows you to turn on the climate (AC when hot, heat when cold). You have to sign up and register for entune. And then, I'm not sure but it won't turn on the climate if your battery is less than half full. I've only tried it a few times when it was 90F outside. Seems to work ok.

It won't turn on the Remote Climate if the battery is below 51% or there was a recent charge interruption. The charge interruption doesn't indicate anything in the UI, but I've found that it just doesn't want to send the signal to the car around those times. Perhaps with an Entune APP upgrade.

In response to Bski... I agree with you about that. I wish it was just on the key fob.
 
I wonder, if I could reprogram one of my Prius keys to the Rav4, if the AC button would work...
 
BSki said:
I wonder, if I could reprogram one of my Prius keys to the Rav4, if the AC button would work...
IF it did work, and used direct RF, it would be an improvement over the cellular connection used by Entune. It might be worth the money you would have to pay for a PIP key if you used it regularly.
 
miimura said:
BSki said:
I wonder, if I could reprogram one of my Prius keys to the Rav4, if the AC button would work...
IF it did work, and used direct RF, it would be an improvement over the cellular connection used by Entune. It might be worth the money you would have to pay for a PIP key if you used it regularly.

I have two PiP keys, I could use one to test, but no idea how to reprogram it.
 
BSki said:
miimura said:
BSki said:
I wonder, if I could reprogram one of my Prius keys to the Rav4, if the AC button would work...
IF it did work, and used direct RF, it would be an improvement over the cellular connection used by Entune. It might be worth the money you would have to pay for a PIP key if you used it regularly.

I have two PiP keys, I could use one to test, but no idea how to reprogram it.
The RAV4 EV is my first Toyota so I don't know. On my Acura it was some obtuse sequence of key turns and remote button presses that got the car to accept a new fob. I would ask a Toyota technician how universal the SmartKeys are first.

It all really depends on how much code reuse is done in Toyota vehicle engineering. My opinion of best practice is that a system should not respond to anything that is not part of an explicitly supported feature. Therefore, in my world, there should be no code path from the SmartKey module to the remote climate function, only from the cellular terminal. However, in Toyota's world, there may be a generic SmartKey module that is programmed for the full feature set of all Toyota vehicles. I just don't know.
 
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