Has anyone had this issue with their Defender key fob? After working fine for 4 months of ownership... the key fob won't work to start the vehicle. in order to start the vehicle i have to hold it under the steering column. Yes, I have changed the battery.

The background: 8000 miles on the 2022 defender. Owned it for 4 months. First cold day "up north" triggered "low tyre pressure" warning light, so I drove into a local Valvoline Oil Change store and asked if I could pay them to add air to my tires. They cheerfully said yes, it's a free service. They topped off all four tires for me. They asked if they could register me and my defender into their system for future service. My response was I will use LR dealer for all service, and I doubt they will have OEM filter anyway. VOC staff searched their online parts and agreed with me, they don't have the right filters. VOC staff asked if he can look under hood to see where the filter is, and type of oil needed. Popped hood, they looked, and then closed hood. Garage door opened they waved me out and of course that's when for the first time ever my Defender wouldn't start. The error signal said smart key needs to be held next to detector (or something like that, sorry that I didn't take a photo). I'll do that tomorrow.

Holding key under stearing column does work so I am able to start and drive the vehicle. I went directly to a local hardware store and bought a replacement battery for the key fob...and installed it. No bueno. Key still not being detected wirelessly. Had to hold under steering column again. Drove home and swapped keys, my other key has never been used since the first day when I bought this new car in Aug. I did test both keys out on day 1, but then but a key in storage for safe keeping. Second key doesn't work either. same problem.

Thoughts on what happened and how to solve the issue?
does adding air to tires trigger a sensor reset of some sort that affects the key fob reading? Does opening the hood cause a reset?
Of course, I did call my local LR dealer to ask for advice from the service folks. They were unable to field my question over the phone so instead I scheduled an appointment, but earliest available is two weeks away.

Also, I should repeat that I did put in fresh batteries today, on the off chance that both batteries were week after four months of ownership.

Thanks for reading

 

Wow your LR dealer isn't very helpful. My service advisor knew exactly what the problem was when it happened to mine. They reset mine and it didn't happen again, however, it requires a fix, under a Recall/TSB. Some of the parts for the fix are on backorder. They ordered them back in early September, and I should have them all by December. 7 in total are required. Few forum threads have mentioned this issue. Never saw anything back in September though on any threads.

 

Also, it has nothing to do with the key fob itself. I had the intuition to test both fobs. Same for both. Plus, the button on the doors for the proximity access wouldn't work either. So figured it wasn't the keys. I would also say, never take a LR Defender to a local place. These vehicles are far too complicated for the avg mechanic or partsman. I would just say it happened randomly to you, rather than doing anything with a hood being opened. My LR dealer does air for free, I wouldn't even trust another place for that haha.

 

Thank you Royalist,
it’s a relief to learn that this can be reset.
So did you get it solved via a reset and Also are replacing some components via a recall for a more permanent solution (7 parts)?

I will drop in on my dealer tomorrow and ask for help ASAP.

 

Exactly, yes.

 

No chance you have that TSB / Recall info do you? I'm dealing with it now. Dealer is being very helpful but didn't immediately know of a TSB on the issue. I figure if I could come armed with some info I could at least start there.