Keyless Entry Malfunction
 

2006 3s 5 door. 25k miles. The car just started giving me some crap with regards to the keyless entry.

One night I turned the car off, pulled out the key, and the overhead lights didn't come on. I opened the driver's door and the car beeped at me. I got out, closed the door, and the keyless entry wouldn't respond. I got back in the car, put the key back in the ignition, turned it forward to ignition on, slowly and deliberately turned it back off and pulled out the key and everything worked as it should; overhead lights came on, I opened the door, no beep. Got out, closed the door, and it locked with the remote.

I changed the battery in the remote to be sure, but it has been doing this sporatically for a week now. Quite random. Sometimes it'll work fine getting out, but won't unlock when I get back to the car, other times I'll have to lock it with the key, but it'll unlock with the remote when I return.

It seems like if I turn the key back and remove it slowly it occurs less frequently, but it still happens. Any ideas? It's not the RFID in the key, since it always starts without issue, and the remote works fine, even from a pretty good distance. The problem seems with the car itself and is related to the ignition switch, or something that gets signal from the ignition switch, like the remote reciever or some sort of security control module. Any ideas? It should be covered under warranty, but I'd like to know if others have had similar problems.

Many people have had this problem before, so don't feel bad. :D The problem lies in either the ignition switch itself, or the little deely that tells the car that there's a key in the ignition (I think they usually just replace the ignition switch). Basically it's sticking and making the car think there's still a key in the ignition when it isn't. That's also why the remote won't work. If you have a key in the ignition then the keyless remotes don't work.

Just take it to the dealer and reproduce the problem and they should replace it for you without giving you a hassle.