Today I thought I'd demonstrate to my wife how to use the small emergency key in our 2010 Outlander's FAST FOB, but I ended up being the one getting a lesson-- a lesson that I have not yet passed.

I moved the FOB a considerable distance away from the vehicle, took the emergency key out of the FOB, went back into the garage and inserted it in the driver's door key slot mechanism. When I unlocked the vehicle, the theft alarm system went off. I opened the door, sat in the driver's seat, removed the plastic cover from the ignition and inserted the key. I turned the key out of the detent position and the alarm stopped. But when I continued to push in and turn the ignition switch, when it reached the point engaging the starter, the engine turned over only a small fraction of one rotation and the starter stopped running/turning.

I rotated the switch back to the detent position and tried again. This time the starter motor did not run at all.

I removed the emergency key, installed the plastic cover, brought the FOB back into the vehicle and the vehicle started normally.

I repeated the entire process using the emergency key with the exact same result -- a blip of the starter motor on the first turn and then the starter motor not running at all thereafter.

Because of the apparent failure of the "emergency key system", I'm going to make damned sure that those FOB batteries are always fresh! But I've got to figure out what's going on here, hopefully without having to take the vehicle to the stealership to be financially raped.

Anyone experienced the above situation and, if so, what was the problem and the fix?

Thanks.

 

Inside the fob there is an RFID chip not dependent on the battery.


This chip is interrogated by the car immobilizer at the moment of starting if the fob is not present near the key the start sequence will be interrupted like you noticed.


In fact the fob should be installed on the reversed key when starting so it is close enough to be read just like the early smart key of the year 2000.


Unless you remove the battery you cannot demonstrate this exercise.
Obviously not an option is you want to save the programming.

 

Generally, the Owner's Manual is a great source to learn about your vehicle. Many people think that they manage without reading it. I suggest you should read it from 3-25 and 3-42. As mentioned by Claude_A the FAST key fob must be near the key (better yet, insert the emergency key into the FAST key fob as demonstrated in the attached picture). Good luck!

 

Dear Teachers, thank you very much for the lesson! You are both absolutey right.

I removed the battery from the FOB and followed the correct procedure, especially the part about putting the FOB onto the end of the inserted emergency key and only then turning the ignition switch. The vehicle started as normal.

When I inserted the emerg key into the door lock, I also put the FOB on the key before turning to unlock the door. After unlocking, maybe unfortunately, I removed the assembly before pulling the door handle to open the door. The theft alarm went off and did not shut off until I inserted the assembly into the ignition switch. Then the alarm turned off.

I've already put the battery back into the FOB and the emergency key back into the FOB, as normal, and I don't want to go through the procedure again. But do you happen to know if the door would have opened without the alarm going off if I had kept the key+FOB in the door lock?


Thanks very much again, guys.

 

I guess the answer again can be found in the Owner's Manual (pages 3-68 and 3-69). Briefly, according to the manual the alarm will go off but you can shut it off by inserting and turning your emergency key from LOCK position.

 

Like some other sections of the manual, I found the sections in the manual that addressed how to use the emergency key to be somewhat confusing -- the one about how to open the door/hatch lid and the alarm in particular.

I confirmed exactly what's what by getting up off my lazy retired ***, once again removing the battery from the FOB, inserting the emerg. key+FOB in the door lock, unlocking the door, then, while keeping the key+FOB in the door lock, pulled the door handle to open the door.

The alarm sounded, which I then cancelled by inserting the key+FOB in the ignition switch and rotating to the first position.

Therefore, there is no way to enter the vehicle using the emergency key without the alarm going off, which I guess might be a good thing, although I can't think of exactly why at this moment.

Because I've always been religious about changing FOB batteries at least once per year, yesterday was the very first time that I had ever tried to use the emergency key to start our vehicle, which we've had for what, 4 or 5 years now. This is something that we should have figured out how to do on Day 1 of our ownership. Regardless, now my wife and I know exactly how to use the emergency key and how the vehicle will react to its use.

Many thanks again.