Had to use the actual key

[Kream85]

Well today my wife was unable to get into the car today. She walked up as normal and put her hands behind the handle and the car didn't unlock. She tried to use the key fob but that didn't work, neither the unlock or lock button seemed to have any effect on the car. However, the car did register the trunk to be opened and the button presses were registering on the key fob. Needless to say I'm happy I showed her the real key in the fob just last week. Any thoughts, insights?

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[t3hub3rk1tten]

Weird. If the trunk button works (which is an actual button) and not the door handle (which is not), then it seems like the problem is the front key transponder or the door handle sensor wasn't working.

Was it raining or had it rained? Was the car washed recently or super dirty? Was she wearing gloves or anything?

 

[hunter44102]

If this happens again, try the -other- key fob. This will rule out whether the first FOB is having issues, or the car electronics are not picking it up / responding. The fact that the handle wasn't working along with the unlock/lock buttons tells me its not the handle sensor.

 

[Swiper185]

I had the same issue ONCE too, kinda bugged out at first but it hasn't happened again since that one time. Does this happen to your wife's civic occasionally? Or was it once as well?

 

[Kream85]

I had the same issue ONCE too, kinda bugged out at first but it hasn't happened again since that one time. Does this happen to your wife's civic occasionally? Or was it once as well?

One time only so far...

 

[brianric]

Was it raining or had it rained? Was the car washed recently or super dirty? Was she wearing gloves or anything?

Door should open with gloves. Mine did.

 

[GSK]

This happened to me today. I walked up to the car as usual, grabbed the handle, and nothing. Tried it again, still no unlock. I tried wiping the handle in case there was something on it, tried wiping my hand in case it was wet (it wasn't), still not unlocking. It finally unlocked when I used the button on the fob, but this was very puzzling. This has never happened before with my 2013 Accord (which I had for 3 years) or with my wife's 2014 Odyssey.

 

[waypastfast]

Same thing happened to me yesterday!

 

[jhaze84]

Everyone who is having issues: Make sure your phone is not near your keys when you try to use the smart keyless entry system. I thought my car was defective until I figured out that my phone was causing interference. Now that I keep my phone and keys in different pockets, my smart lock/unlock has worked flawlessly every time.

 

[RDMerBC]

This happened to me today. Car was dry in a parking garage. The trunk button worked, then nada. It was as if the fob was dead. No button did anything, and grabbing the door handle felt, well, really old fashioned -- it was dead as a door knob.

Car was still locked, so I used the key to physically unlock the driver's door and everything beeped back to life. A bit disconcerting. I imagined the car being completely dead, as the fob enables starting etc. Just what one needs at the end of a hectic work day.

And the walk-away locking works about 90% of the time, parking in the same spot and walking away the same way each time, i.e. under identical conditions. Hard to imagine this went through very rigorous testing by Honda.

Honda clearly needs to up their electronics reliability game. I'll add it to the list for when the car goes in for servicing.

 

[Mocha90210]

This happened about 6 weeks ago. I put some stuff in the trunk, and when I closed the trunk, all of the lights came on, and the car locked me out. I could not unlock the car by touching the door handle, or by pushing the button on the door handle, or by using the remote. It was completely frozen. I had to take the key out of the keyfob, and manually unlock the door (took me back in the 80‘s ... aah, good times ...). When I opened the door, the car alarm went off. So I closed the door, and the car locked itself again. At that point, I was able to unlock the door by touching the door handle.

It's almost as if manually unlocking the door using the key did some sort of reset, and everything returned to normal.

This has only happened once, and would be very difficult to for the dealer to replicate, so I am chalking it up as one of those things.

 

[kenh]

I had exactly the same experience as Mocha90210 this morning. Dry car in a suburban garage. My phone was nowhere near my key fob, so I don't think that is a contributing factor.

 

[MikeATL]

My wife also had a problem with the locking system today. It wouldn't auto lock no matter what she did. She just got the rapid beeping as she tried to walk away from the car. She would open and close the door and the same rapid beeping. She went back inside the car, started it up then shut it down and leave. But the car still would not auto lock while the car would just rapid beeps. She finally had to take the key fob out of her purse and push the lock button to lock it. Another strange problem with this car and we've been getting other issues with the infotainment systems as well(http://www.civicx.com/threads/hu-display-died-tonight.2576/). I'm starting to wonder if Honda released this car too soon, before they got the bugs out.

 

[dick w]

I'm starting to wonder if Honda released this car too soon, before they got the bugs out.

Maybe they didn't want to be producing the 9th gen in 2018?

 

[inv4zn]

My wife also had a problem with the locking system today. It wouldn't auto lock no matter what she did. She just got the rapid beeping as she tried to walk away from the car. She would open and close the door and the same rapid beeping. She went back inside the car, started it up then shut it down and leave. But the car still would not auto lock while the car would just rapid beeps. She finally had to take the key fob out of her purse and push the lock button to lock it. Another strange problem with this car and we've been getting other issues with the infotainment systems as well(http://www.civicx.com/threads/hu-display-died-tonight.2576/). I'm starting to wonder if Honda released this car too soon, before they got the bugs out.

Why didn't she press the button on the door handle?

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