Car does not unlock on approach

[DavidZemon]

I read lots of threads where people report the handles not presenting when the keyfob approaches, but I can't recall anyone talking about the car refusing to unlock when the fob approaches. When it's in my garage, where it's been configured to remain unlocked, the handles always present when I approach. But the car NEVER unlocks (and therefore the handles do not present) when I approach the vehicle in a parking lot. Every time I have to dig my hand in my pocket and give the fob that "special rub" to get the car to unlock. It's been over a month that I've had the car and replacing the battery with a new Energizers CR2032 lithium was the first thing I tried. It appears to have made no difference.

Should I take it in for service? I've been through the settings on the car a million times and haven't seen anything that looks like it would change this behavior. Any other easy fixes I should try?

Thanks,
David

 

[murphyS90D]

Do you have the fob and your cellphone in the same pocket? That can prevent the receiver in the fob from hearing the transmission from the car.

 

[DavidZemon]

Nope. Opposite front pockets.

 

[DerbyDave]

If you have something electronic in the console between the 12V charger port and the wireless cell charger, it can block the key recognition. While I was charging my phone in the Tesla wireless charger, the car did not recognize the key in my pocket 6" from the key receiver in the console as I was driving because of interference from the Tesla charger. If I don't charge my phone in the car, all is fine.

 

[DavidZemon]

Wireless charger port? Is that only on newer models? I didn't think my '17 had a wireless charger.
I do have an NVMe SSD enclosure shoved into the compartment with the USB cables. I did have the car for about a week before putting the SSD in there though, and have always had this problem, even including that first week.

 

[evfeh]

I have this happen sporadically in my garage, about 10% of the time I have to touch the handle for them to present. Can’t reproduce it, though.

 

[DavidZemon]

A Tesla tech told me that there is a five minute timer on the unlock (or handle presentation? not sure on the details...). The car won't re-present the handles until 5 minutes after they closed. Perhaps that's what you're running into @evfeh?

 

[DerbyDave]

Maybe try the other key and see if it has the same issue. Might be the key since you replaced the battery. Also maybe a software issue -- probably not though. Try a reboot of the car.

 

[DerbyDave]

I have this happen sporadically in my garage, about 10% of the time I have to touch the handle for them to present. Can’t reproduce it, though.

He says the handles always present.

 

[DavidZemon]

Of course... I feel silly for not trying that. The other one is my wife's and she never drives it. I've no idea why I haven't just swapped fobs with her to see if that helps. Will let you know later today.

 

[DavidZemon]

I did give my wife's key fob a try and it behaved the same way.

Yesterday I took the car in to have MCU2 + FM tuner installed, and I asked them to look into the key fob issue while it was in the shop. They checked the batteries and all of the antennas around the car and everything seemed perfect. They were not able to reproduce the issue.

I asked if any part of this unlock-via-key-fob process passed through the MCU, thinking that maybe replacing the MCU fixed the problem. They said yes, that it is possible because part of the process does involve the MCU.

I think they were right on that last part.

Today I opened the garage door to toss something in a bin (didn't even step a foot outside) and the handles immediately presented! This is a great sign. It used to be that I'd have to actually walk past the driver's door before the handles would present while in my garage. It's really starting to seem as though the horribly slow MCU was to blame for all of my unlock woes over the last few months.

I need to run an errand later today and will report back after that. Hopefully the car immediately unlocks as I approach this time.

 

[DavidZemon]

WOW.

Just.... WOW.

I have to say, I'm still annoyed at Tesla that they even built the car with such a slow CPU to begin with.

But WOW. Everything works EXACTLY like it should. I came back to the car with a bag of groceries in my hand, approached from the rear, touched the button on the trunk (of the car, not the fob) and the trunk opened. Wow. This never worked before (without first fiddling with the key fob to unlock the car). After setting my groceries in the trunk, I walked around and the handles immediately presented.

Same thing on my next stop. No trunk needed, so I just walked right up to the driver's door and by the time I had arrived and started reaching my hand out, the handles were fully presented and ready for me to enter.

Who would have thought that I needed to pay $2,500 to upgrade the MCU to fix this.

In other news, voice navigation finally works!!! It was so horrendously slow before that it was unusable (not figuratively - I mean it literally did not work).

I can't believe we had to pay for this, but nonetheless, I'm glad we did. It's nice to have the car finally working like it should.