If your doors are locked, the trunk should not be locked out if your remote was left inside the trunk. The car will beep and keep trunk unlocked.

If your door is unlocked, the trunk will lock if remote was left inside.

 

Thanks so much for checking.

Just to confirm, before I hit up the dealer, there is no weird setting or trick which may have inadvertently deactivated this feature, right? I didn't see anything in the manual about such.

 

Nada, nothing, nope.

 

Here is a scary thought:

If the trunk release power switch inside the glove box is in the OFF position all these magical automatic stuff won't work.

Page 3-20 in the manual
<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

 

Okay. Just tried something. I used our spare key (which never gets used) and tried to lock it in the trunk. That worked! It belched and refused to close.

So...our normal key seems to be the issue. We've only had the car for a little less than three-months. Could the battery be low already in that fob, and lead to this problem? If so, then it still pretty much defeats the purpose of the protection. We've never plugged the key into the slot inside the car. Should that be more of a regular occurrence?

 

This is actually an interesting thought. Anyone care to try this out and see what happens?

 

sneather: This is from the manual. The keyport does NOT charge the keyfob. The car should tell you if the keyfob battery is running low, and you wil need to change it.

The Intelligent Key port does not charge the Intelligent
Key battery. If you see the low battery
indicator in the dot matrix liquid crystal display,
replace the battery as soon as possible. (See
“INTELLIGENT KEY BATTERY REPLACEMENT” in

the “8. Maintenance and do-it-yourself” section

 

The slot in the car is only a storage place - it serves no other function. Some think it recharges but it does not.

 

What page is that paragraph located about the key port not charging the key? I'd love to see what other info is in that section. Thanks.

Have any of you lost the charge in a fob in an unusually short period? Granted, everything else works fine. You can arm/disarm the alarm from a distance, open all the windows, etc.

Weirdness...

 

OK, found that section. Page 5-10.

But I'm still curious about the key doing some things, and not others.

 

Just a clarification. Correct that it does not recharge the Intelligent Key but it's not just a storage place. If your fob battery gets too weak for the car to communicate with it the slot has electronics around it that will allow it to communicate with the weak fob signal. In other words it will pull in the FOB signal as long as it's not completely dead.

The problem here is not likely due to a weak battery but obviously the trunk lockout feature is not working - it sounds like a dealer trip is needed.

 

If the problem can be replicated repeatedly, take it in for service. If it cannot, I don't know what to tell you - maybe it was a freak occurence and won't happen again.

 

No, the anti-lockout system DOES work. Fortunately. I thought I had mentioned that above. Last night I performed a test, using the second key FOB (which we keep as backup) and it wouldn't let me lock it in the trunk.

Therefore, it would seem to indicate that the key that we normally use has a problem. The weird thing is that it performs every wireless task that it should, without fail. It just seems to be the anti-lockout feature that is whack. That's why I was asking about battery strength. But, again, the car is only about three-months old, so I would be a little surprised if that key's battery were already dying.

 

I got my car in January of 08 and in March of 08 the battery in the fob needed to be replaced. You have absolutely no idea how long the fobs have been sitting, transmitting signals, before you got the car. The fobs aren't made at the same time as the car, so they could be substantially older. I'd take the car into the dealership and see what they can figure out, because there is definately a problem.

I turned the trunk switch off in the glovebox and then put my key in the trunk. It beeped at me and popped the trunk open, so I think thats how it is supposed to work.

 

Actually, if I'm not mistaken, our key fobs use active and passive RFID. Because it is passive, the reader built into the slot will power the key to retrieve the fob's ID and let you start your car. Meaning your fob will start the car even if the battery is completely dead.

Passive RFID is also how stores can detect shoplifted items – the RFID tag used on merchandise is powered solely by those big flat things by the doors. It's also how high-tech car thieves steal your fob code just by sitting next to you at your local cafe or restaurant with a laptop and RFID reader, and then drive around the parking lot transmitting that code until the car is found.