Garage Door Opener Weak Signal

[percy]

I have to be right on top of my garage door to get the door opener in my 2010 LS 460 to work. In my old LS 430, it worked before I even got to my driveway. Anyone else have this problem? Is there a fix for it?

[eightyfour]

Check the position of your garage door antenna.

[LEXIRX330]

My 04 rx330 I could open my garage door 1/4 mile down the road! :) my GX 460 I have to be in my driveway! I know what you are talking about...have no idea of a solution but if you figure it out please share. Not that it matters but BMW is the same and the last Mercedes was like that too. I used to love my rx330 because as soon as I could see my house I could open the door.

[needone]

My 2010 460L has about i/3 the door opener range that my 2007 460L and my 2003 430 had. Best range is now about 125 feet.

[doorman]

Hello, i am in the garagedoor biz. Short range can be caused by other frequencies jamming you door signal. These are a few I have come across ,, battery chargers, wireless doorbells and cable tv amplifiers. Try un pluging

anything in your garage or house that you think may be interferring. Dont rule anything out.

Good luck

[HankJ]

I have the same condition after switching from my 2004 LS430 to my 2008 LS600hL. I was told that it is a security feature so that the door doesn't open too soon and allow the bad guys to beat you to the inside of your garage.

I've just adapted to it, and now its not so bad.

Cheers,

Hank

[LennyF]

Garage door opener security:

I park my 08 ES350 in the driveway in front of my garage. Even without the key/remote and the car turned off, the garage door opener button is always hot. It seems to me that this is a security issue. With most cars that I know of, the ignition must be on for the garage door opener button to work.

Any comments on this?

[Jeff in TX]

Hello, i am in the garagedoor biz. Short range can be caused by other frequencies jamming you door signal. These are a few I have come across ,, battery chargers, wireless doorbells and cable tv amplifiers. Try un pluging

anything in your garage or house that you think may be interferring. Dont rule anything out.

Good luck

"doorman" is giving some very good advice here. Desensitization issues are frequently related to Radio Frequency Interference from malfunctioning electrical equipment. In addition to the possible sources that he cited you should consider: malfunctioning fluorescent lights (avoid using the CFL bulbs in your opener), malfunctioning sodium vapor security lights, arcing high voltage power lines, nearby radio and radar transmitters, nearby cell towers nearby military transmitters. The frequency that the garage door openers use is not regulated. To better understand the regulation issue look at this link: http://www.tdsupplies.com/articles/395_MHz_Military_Radio_Remote_Interference.html

I have the same condition after switching from my 2004 LS430 to my 2008 LS600hL. I was told that it is a security feature so that the door doesn't open too soon and allow the bad guys to beat you to the inside of your garage.

I've just adapted to it, and now its not so bad.

Cheers,

Hank

No offense intended, but I think your source is not well informed on this subject.

Garage door opener security:

I park my 08 ES350 in the driveway in front of my garage. Even without the key/remote and the car turned off, the garage door opener button is always hot. It seems to me that this is a security issue. With most cars that I know of, the ignition must be on for the garage door opener button to work.

Any comments on this?

On all the cars that I am familiar with, the remote garage door opener works whether the ACC or IGN power is on or not. All the cars that I have owned that had this feature built into the car worked this way. There are two ways to secure your garage door opener: lock your car or disable the remote operation on the garage door opener local control panel (that is the reason for the "LOCK" feature on your local control panel).

[Bill Richard]

Folks,

I have had a similar problem with my 2010 RX350. I could not open the garge door sometimes when my bumper was almost touching the garage door. Several times, I had to get out and open the door with the keypad. I went to the dealer and complained and they said it works on our tester, we cannot do anything for you. I complained to the Service Manager and they graciously offered to replace it, which they did. It now works better, I have not had to exit the car to use the keypad, but it is still very inferior to the remote control that comes with the garage door opener. I still have to be very close to the door to use the Lexus opener and it often takes several tries as I sit there.

My wife uses the remote opener that came with the same Sears garage door opener and she can open the garage from about 100 yards away...so much for the interference theory. Here is an interesting tidbit...I can open my second garage door easily from over 100 feet away. It is a different and older Sears opener than the one I have trouble with. Why does this one work so well? This is the reason, I believe. I replaced my troublesome garage door opener 2 or 3 years ago, when it failed. All of a sudden, the remote I had would not work for both garage door openers. I called Sears and discussed this with the service department. I was told that the US Government made them change frequencies for garage door openers because they usurped the current frequency for other reasons so the new garage door openers actually use a different frequency than the old ones. That explained why both doors worked well with their respective remotes, but would no longer work for each other's remotes...a feature I like because it meant you only had to have one remote in each car.

When I received my Lexus from the dealer, I was amazed that the remote would work for both doors..just think, it could hold different security codes in memory and could tune to different frequencies. As an engineer, I know this was quite a feat from a cheap mass produced little pc board.

The amazement was over as time went on and I found out how intermittent was the ability of the opener to operate the door with the new opener on the new frequency.

Here is what I believe is the cause of the problem. I believe that the Lexus remote is transmitting on the old frequency, indeed it works very well on my older garage door opener. The only reason why it works at all on the new door is because these little transmitters are very cheap and they transmit on the primary frequency plus harmonics of the primary frequency (think a blast of energy kind of on the right frequency plus some spurious transmissions). The harmonic signal must overlap the new frequency enough to energize the receiver on the opener and allow the signal to be decoded. This explains why the opener is so intermittent because the transmissions of harmonics are much weaker in power with each harmonic signal farther away from the primary. In other words, the only reason why it works at all is by luck!

I have not told Lexus, because, who do I tell? The Service people would not get this or be able to do anything with it. I hope some smart Lexus engineer, who cares, reads this and measures this with a spectrum analyzer. It is an easy problem to understand, hard to fix.

So I say this to all of you. The problem is real, it is not your imagination, it is not interfence. Lexus does not have a fix and is not addressing it that I know of.

[Jeff in TX]

Bill,

We are indeed fortunate to have credentialed/degreed engineers like you helping us here, at no cost. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and experience with us.

I am sorry you are experiencing problems with the remote operation of your garage door opener. I know that can be frustrating.

Because of my limited formal education – I barely made it through high school – I have to count on observation to help me with problems like you are having. I have owned five Toyota vehicles and one Lexus vehicle and one Lincoln vehicle that were equipped with the three-button HomeLink system. They have worked flawlessly. I have seen my neighbors, over the past 20 years, in two different neighborhoods, use these devices with no apparent difficulty. I don’t recall any of my friends or fellow employees mentioning that they were having problems with their garage door openers. I don’t see many reports of problems in any of the Internet forums. And I don’t see many of those garage-door repair service trucks around – they are sort of like the Maytag Repairman. This seems to be mature, reliable technology that works very well for the masses.

Your concern that your opener is operating on “harmonics” seems to me to be pretty unlikely. All of the remotes for the US market, since the beginning, have operated in the 300-400 MHz band and that would put the 2nd harmonic at 600-800 MHz and the 3^rd harmonic in the 900-1200 MHz band.

Here is a link that might be helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garage_door_opener

All of the transmitters, both the handheld that come with the garage door openers and those built into cars, must be FCC compliant and that requirement specifically limits radiated harmonics.

Because of product evolution and the need for legacy compatibility the opener-controls that are built into cars must support several different frequencies and formats. In addition these devices also support gate openers and codes like X-10. That device that is built into cars is able to satisfy this but must be tailored by the owner for specific situations.

The devices that are built into cars are able to learn the frequency and format requirements for specific devices by being trained with the handheld remote that came with the device. The three buttons on the opener-controller in the car operate three independent transmitters and each button must be trained for the device it is intended to operate. The newer garage door openers, those manufactured in the last 15 years, use a rolling code format and contrary to popular belief, the car never knows the security code for the opener for these newer devices. It puts out a pseudo random code ever time it transmits (so, no concerns about holding security codes in the cars memory).

I think you can be pretty confident that your car is okay when it operates the dealers test set okay.

One common problem with this sort of arrangement is where to seek help. Each party to this is only responsible for their part. The garage door manufacturer is only responsible for his part and Lexus is only responsible for their part.

It seems to me that the most likely cause of your problem is that the opener-controller in your car has not been properly trained as to the correct frequency of your opener.

Most of the gate/garage openers that are built into US and European cars, including the Toyotas, are manufactured by the HomeLink division of Johnson Contols.

HomeLink has a great Internet site for getting the operating instructions for your built in opener-controller and their technical support people are very helpful and gracious. You should give them a try.

Here is a link to the HomeLink site: http://www.homelink.com

[LennyF]

Hello, i am in the garagedoor biz. Short range can be caused by other frequencies jamming you door signal. These are a few I have come across ,, battery chargers, wireless doorbells and cable tv amplifiers. Try un pluging

anything in your garage or house that you think may be interferring. Dont rule anything out.

Good luck

"doorman" is giving some very good advice here. Desensitization issues are frequently related to Radio Frequency Interference from malfunctioning electrical equipment. In addition to the possible sources that he cited you should consider: malfunctioning fluorescent lights (avoid using the CFL bulbs in your opener), malfunctioning sodium vapor security lights, arcing high voltage power lines, nearby radio and radar transmitters, nearby cell towers nearby military transmitters. The frequency that the garage door openers use is not regulated. To better understand the regulation issue look at this link: http://www.tdsupplies.com/articles/395_MHz_Military_Radio_Remote_Interference.html

>I have the same condition after switching from my 2004 LS430 to my 2008 LS600hL. I was told that it is a security feature so that the door doesn't open too soon and allow the bad guys to beat you to the inside of your garage.

I've just adapted to it, and now its not so bad.

Cheers,

Hank

No offense intended, but I think your source is not well informed on this subject.

Garage door opener security:

I park my 08 ES350 in the driveway in front of my garage. Even without the key/remote and the car turned off, the garage door opener button is always hot. It seems to me that this is a security issue. With most cars that I know of, the ignition must be on for the garage door opener button to work.

Any comments on this?

On all the cars that I am familiar with, the remote garage door opener works whether the ACC or IGN power is on or not. All the cars that I have owned that had this feature built into the car worked this way. There are two ways to secure your garage door opener: lock your car or disable the remote operation on the garage door opener local control panel (that is the reason for the "LOCK" feature on your local control panel).

I’m aware of the “lock” feature, but that locks me out also if I use it. The garage door opener button in my daughter in law’s BMW only works if the ignition is On or in Acc position.

[pj8708]

I've had the same diffculty in getting my 2013 ES350 to link with my new garage door opener. Thanks to all of you who have posted here, I think I now know the problem.

Great forum!

Paul

[Jeff in TX]

Hello, i am in the garagedoor biz. Short range can be caused by other frequencies jamming you door signal. These are a few I have come across ,, battery chargers, wireless doorbells and cable tv amplifiers. Try un pluging

anything in your garage or house that you think may be interferring. Dont rule anything out.

Good luck

"doorman" is giving some very good advice here. Desensitization issues are frequently related to Radio Frequency Interference from malfunctioning electrical equipment. In addition to the possible sources that he cited you should consider: malfunctioning fluorescent lights (avoid using the CFL bulbs in your opener), malfunctioning sodium vapor security lights, arcing high voltage power lines, nearby radio and radar transmitters, nearby cell towers nearby military transmitters. The frequency that the garage door openers use is not regulated. To better understand the regulation issue look at this link: http://www.tdsupplies.com/articles/395_MHz_Military_Radio_Remote_Interference.html

>I have the same condition after switching from my 2004 LS430 to my 2008 LS600hL. I was told that it is a security feature so that the door doesn't open too soon and allow the bad guys to beat you to the inside of your garage.

I've just adapted to it, and now its not so bad.

Cheers,

Hank

blockquote>

No offense intended, but I think your source is not well informed on this subject.

Garage door opener security:

I park my 08 ES350 in the driveway in front of my garage. Even without the key/remote and the car turned off, the garage door opener button is always hot. It seems to me that this is a security issue. With most cars that I know of, the ignition must be on for the garage door opener button to work.

Any comments on this?

On all the cars that I am familiar with, the remote garage door opener works whether the ACC or IGN power is on or not. All the cars that I have owned that had this feature built into the car worked this way. There are two ways to secure your garage door opener: lock your car or disable the remote operation on the garage door opener local control panel (that is the reason for the "LOCK" feature on your local control panel).

I’m aware of the “lock” feature, but that locks me out also if I use it. The garage door opener button in my daughter in law’s BMW only works if the ignition is On or in Acc position.

I am aware that some of the European models work this way - I helped my neighbor sync his BMW to his garage door opener a few weeks ago. I have no idea why these two diverse operation modes were chosen. I don't know whether you are seeking a solution or just venting your frustration, but it is what it is. I understand the security risk that the unlocked car presents. If you are wanting suggestions on how to deal with this, you could disable the BMW by erasing it from your opener and replace that function with one of those remote keypads and screw it to the wall. Or you could place the remote keypad in the BMW and that would require a 4 digit code to operate. Or you could buy two keypads, one for the wall and one for the BMW.

[mmaz]

I've read through all the existing remarks, and I think I have something to add which is different, and may help dissect the issue:

We own a 2001 RX300 and a 1999 ES300. The RX has always worked from afar (150+ feet), and still does. The ES has gradually stopped working from afar over tha past 8 years or so, and now only works within 25'. I have erased the ES opener and re-entered the code according to Lexus instructions to no avail.

We have a 30 year old Overhead Door brand garage opener with a 9" wire antenna that hangs straight down from the unit, and an aluminium garage door. If our RX didn't still work from afar I would think the issue could be from things other than the ES sending unit but, given the RX still works fine, it must be the ES sending unit. Anybody have any new insights given this input, or suggestions on how to begin "fixing" the ES sending unit?????? Thanks

Mike in NC

[txjeff]

I know this is a really old thread, but I have similar experiences to others but mine is fairly unique.  

I have a 10 year old house with a single garage door opener and two cars.  A Dodge Magnum that is 14 years old and a 2010 Lexus IS 350c that we've had for about 3 or 4 years.  And a prior car was a Mercedes SL.  The Dodge Magnum and Mercedes had no problem ever with opening or closing this original garage door opener.  The Lexus for at least 2 years had no problem backing out of the garage and pushing the Homelink and closing the door.  BUT, in the past year or so, since my wife has been driving the care regularly, she showed me how it no longer works if you are in the driveway and facing the garage.  But only if you are backed out and parallel to the house, then it works.   ????  This is really bizarre to me.  It's as if the transmitter antenna for the Homelink is suddenly unidirectional out the left side of the car rather than a broad sphere of signal.  It works farther away from the garage than 5 feet away from it?  Nutty.  And, since this is a change in Homelink effectiveness, I have to believe something has gone sour with the electronics in the car.  It frustrates my wife, but I could live with it.  I believe it does work if she pulls into the garage and pushes it to close the door.  Only in the driveway is it a problem.

Oh, and the comment about something that would interfere with the signal like charger or cable or something, there is nothing like that in our garage.  And other cars worked fine, and still do.  Only the Lexus was ever odd.  

[txjeff]

I did the program using handheld remote again after clearing codes in Lexus, and the won't open in driveway problem went away.   But only for about 30 seconds.  Because further experimentation between handheld remote and Lexus opening and closing the door, all of a sudden, the opener simply stopped responding to any remote commands of any kind.  Unplugging the GD opener and replugging to reset did little to resolve.  I had to reprogram the handheld using Learn.  That worked ok, but now I'm back to beating myself with Homelinks for both cars that I cleared again and none are working.  WTF?  I'll figure it out.  One car is an 05 Dodge Magnum with a Homelink and one car is the Lexus 2010 IS 350c.  I will beat this problem.  I remember the first time I messed with programming these on both cars it was a major PITA, in spite of the simple sounding Youtube's that show you just how to do it.  LMAO

[JFW37]

Garage door opener on my 2020 RX350 works when car is inside the garage, but doesn't work from outsiide when the door is closed.  Portable openers work fine.  Opener on my 2013 RX350 worked fine.  My guess is that I have a very weak signal, or the antenna is not properly connected.

[IVAces]

I was experiencing the same issue with my 2006 GX470 after replacing one of my two openers last week.  After reading through the responses that you've all kindly contributed, I decided that adding a foot of wire to my opener's antenna might resolve my issue, and sure enough, it did.  After struggling to get the door closed this morning sitting in the driveway, I was able to open it from 180' away (with no line of sight) after the mod.

[RX400h]

I'll have to give that a try. Did you use bare copper wire? 180 feet may be a bit dangerous. Years ago when our openers were working from 100 ft away, I had my car under the open door while doing something in the garage. My wife was returning in our Lexus when she pressed the door opener without seeing the door. Luckily I was close enough to run over and "catch" the door before it slammed into my car. The door would've reversed but not after putting a ding in my car's trunk lid.

Currently neither of our cars can be further than a foot or two from the big door. The small door is powered by a Craftsman door opener and that remote activates the door from 70 feet away. The only potential "noise" near the garage is a WiFi booster in the nearby room.

[IVAces]

8 hours ago, RX400h said:

I'll have to give that a try. Did you use bare copper wire? 180 feet may be a bit dangerous. Years ago when our openers were working from 100 ft away, I had my car under the open door while doing something in the garage. My wife was returning in our Lexus when she pressed the door opener without seeing the door. Luckily I was close enough to run over and "catch" the door before it slammed into my car. The door would've reversed but not after putting a ding in my car's trunk lid.

Currently neither of our cars can be further than a foot or two from the big door. The small door is powered by a Craftsman door opener and that remote activates the door from 70 feet away. The only potential "noise" near the garage is a WiFi booster in the nearby room.

No Dave, I used a 12" piece of stranded harness wire of the same gauge leftover from a radio install, carefully stripped off 1/2" of insulation from one end of both pieces and twisted them together.  Now the opener responds immediately to a button press.  Prior to the mod, I had to press and hold to get it to work - if it did at all.  

It sounds as if you're having EXACTLY the same problem that I was experiencing.  We have a home office adjacent to our garage with a desktop, modem, router, etc. in it which wasn't interfering with the old opener's operation.  I had been having issues with my car since the install, and suspected it was an issue with it's electronics (couldn't get it unlocked with my remote the other day 🙂), but then my wife couldn't get the door closed from outside the garage yesterday morning from her 2020 Mazda CX5 after opening it on her return from her yoga class.  That was when I started looking at the new rolling-code opener as the culprit.

We have a very narrow garage with doors at both ends, so a vehicle is never parked under a door as there's barely enough room to get a car in. ☹️

Good Luck!!!

 

[RX400h]

Thanks, Don. I will give that a try, this weekend and report back.

Dave

[IVAces]

Fingers crossed Dave - looking forward to your update!  Further testing on mine indicates that my range is around 500'.

Don

[RX400h]

Don, I added a 6-8 inch long wire to the garage door opener's antenna and the increase in range is impressive. We used to have to be within a few feet from the door but now, it opens from even before we turn into the driveway. Both cars have this improved range. 

Thanks a bunch for your suggestion. 👍

[IVAces]

On 7/18/2021 at 7:28 PM, RX400h said:

Don, I added a 6-8 inch long wire to the garage door opener's antenna and the increase in range is impressive. We used to have to be within a few feet from the door but now, it opens from even before we turn into the driveway. Both cars have this improved range. 

Thanks a bunch for your suggestion. 👍

Outstanding Dave - so glad it worked for you as well!!