I unlocked the car at the door handle, the fob was in my pocket. My 5 year old daughter got in her car seat, and I tried to start the car. It would not start. I took out the real key and tried to use that and the alarm went off. Nothing I did stopped the alarm, the display in the car started flashing partial screens. I got the other key fob and tried that. No joy. I called Jeep, they told me I need to bring the car in, which means towing it.
I called AAA to tow it in, the tow driver suggested pushing the fob up against the start switch.I did, the car started and now seems to work well. Called Jeep they said still bring it in for them to 'fix'.
Got to Jeep, asked why he did not suggest the 'push the fob to the start button' thing. He said "It almost never works". What a crap answer. I went into the sales area and talked with a sales guy about the problem. He said he never heard anything about it and did not know about the 'push the button with the fob' trick. Well, it turns out that the manual says to do this if the fob battery is dead.
Service manager tried to blame it all on me taking the fob too close to a strong magnetic field?? Really, both fobs?? In our pockets the whole day??? Worked right in the morning, but not later in the evening???
So I was stuck with no car last nite. Actually rented a car to deal with my kids birthday stuff today, and no one knows what's going on.
I unlocked the car at the door handle, the fob was in my pocket. My 5 year old daughter got in her car seat, and I tried to start the car. It would not start. I took out the real key and tried to use that and the alarm went off. Nothing I did stopped the alarm, the display in the car started flashing partial screens. I got the other key fob and tried that. No joy. I called Jeep, they told me I need to bring the car in, which means towing it.
I called AAA to tow it in, the tow driver suggested pushing the fob up against the start switch.I did, the car started and now seems to work well. Called Jeep they said still bring it in for them to 'fix'.
Got to Jeep, asked why he did not suggest the 'push the fob to the start button' thing. He said "It almost never works". What a crap answer. I went into the sales area and talked with a sales guy about the problem. He said he never heard anything about it and did not know about the 'push the button with the fob' trick. Well, it turns out that the manual says to do this if the fob battery is dead.
Service manager tried to blame it all on me taking the fob too close to a strong magnetic field?? Really, both fobs?? In our pockets the whole day??? Worked right in the morning, but not later in the evening???
So I was stuck with no car last nite. Actually rented a car to deal with my kids birthday stuff today, and no one knows what's going on.
Not OK Jeep, figure it out !!!
- Dave N., Alameda, CA, US