Driving in the rain stops remote unlock and alarm disable

[Anonymous]

Month old MR2 (my 1st), new member and first posting   s:D s:D

When I've been driving in the rain, park and lock the car I find I can't remote unlock the car and disable the alarm for a while afterwards. I either have to wait for about 1.5 hours for something to dry out or drive off with the alarm/indicators going off.

This only happens after I've driven in the rain not just parked up outside the house so I assume some water spray from car in front is getting in to the frunk and affecting the alarm or water is coming off the tyres in to any electrics that might be in the wheel arch area.

I've searched this excellent forum for ideas but I can't find any threads specific to this happening after driving in the rain.

I've tried:
- sealing the alarm connectors under the spare wheel (I'm waiting for the next drive in the rain to test this theory out)
- the online MR2 repair manual to try and find out where the key fob car sensor or alarm components are.

Are there any other alarm components outside of the frunk? Where does it connect to the remote lock sensor?

I'm stumped on this one. Any thoughts?

For now if I've been driving in the rain I'll have to lock the car with the key in the door until I can work this one out.

[Anonymous]

Did you buy from a dealer? If so take it back.

If you bought privately you may need to consult an auto electrician.

Oh, and welcome.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the welcome    s:) s:)  

I bought it privately. The car's immaculate except for this annoying fault.

Thought I'd see if there's any thoughts on this forum before getting Toyota to look at it. As an electronics engineer I'm frustrated as hell that I can't work this one out - and more so if I have to pay a garage to do it!

[Anonymous]

Paul, please read the sticky about pre cats, also please check your tyres, you should have all four the same and have a staggered set up with wider rears, this is very important.

[Anonymous]

I know this sounds stupid but have you tried changing the fob battery for a decent one?

[Anonymous]

LofB - not stupid at all as I tried that first! red key led flickers but no action until later when something must have dried out.

Nelix - I must look at the pre-cat sticky and check the car for whether one is till fitted. I had heard they can be a problem Tyres are all good.

[Anonymous]

Then i would look in the passenger side under the dash area and check your roof is clicked in place properly and watertight as a few have reported leaks near windscreen in this area.

[Anonymous]

Thanks - I popped out this morning but it wasn't raining enough for a good test. The passenger side by the fuse cover is dry. I'll try again in the morning as the weather is supposed to be horrid.

[Anonymous]

Oh well - it's not dry now!
Lots of rain overnight and although there's no water in passenger foot well there's definitely a bit of water inside the passenger fuse cover. I'll search the many threads on this and see if fixing that sorts the central locking and alarm issue.

[nathanMR2]

Does this only happen outside your own house? If you drive somewhere else when its raining do you still have the same thing?

I had issues with my locking, but only when i parked it outside my own house. It took around 25-30 presses to eventually get it unlocked or locked!

I found that my wireless door bell buttom was stuck down. Apparantley their on the same or simular frequency and it scrambles it (this can also happen when the door bell batterys are low). I changed the batterys in the house door bell and its been fine since. It can also be affected from other peoples houses in the area too.

[roger]

I think you are saying that when parked outside your house and its not raining everything is OK. So it works in the dry everywhere, but doesn't work in the wet anywhere?

However Nathan's comments are not new, here's a similar post from years back. http://www.mr2roc.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=12192&hilit=wireless+remote Could the rain thing just be coincidence?