Today I met my friends at a restaurant to eat. I locked my Camry by pressing the button on the outside door handle and it worked perfectly. About an hour later, I tried opening the door and it wouldn't unlock. I took my door key out of the smart key fob and unlocked the doors manually. I then tried to start the car and got the message "Key Is Not Detected". I held the smart key infront of the push button start and waited for it to beep, then started the car. The message center displayed "Key Is Not Detected" the entire time I was driving. I figured that the battery was dead in the smart key, so I stopped by Radio Shack and bought a new battery, replaced it, and tried to use it to unlock and start the car. Same thing happened again. I drove home, once again, with the message "Key Is Not Detected" the whole way home. When I got home, I went inside and got my second smart key. I tried to use it on the car, and the exact same thing happened. I have done research, and I haven't been able to find any answers as to what could be causing this issue. I can't even lock or unlock the car by pressing the buttons on either of the smart key remotes. It's a 2007 Camry Hybrid with every option available and 114,000 miles on it. Any help would be much appreciated.

- Mario

 

Call service department?

 

They are all closed today. Does anyone know if there is a way to reset the system? Is it okay to auxiliary battery that's mounted behind the right quarter panel in the trunk, leave it disconnected for a while, then reconnect it?

 

In the computer world that's called a cold-boot or cold-restart. This is the same as unplugging the power source from a computer or satellite receiver. It resets all the flip-flops that stores the binary 0's and 1's in the CPU that makes the computer work.

Your 12 volt battery is operating your ECU that runs your TCH. It's in the sleep-mode when it's not activated until you power it up. So disconnecting it when asleep should be ok. You might leave it disconnected at least a minute before reattaching the cable. I would do this on the negative side of the battery, lots less chance of shorting the positive side to ground by accident.

 

Yes, go ahead, disconnect the battery, then have "Check Hybrid Drive" message on...

Can't you simply pull ECU fuse out?

You should not have even bothered with batteries. Display starts showing "key battery low" WAY before it actually dies. You need to re-synch your ECU and keys. Dealer. Not aware - and I looked - of any guidance on how to DIY for those cars.

 

I looked a few weeks ago in the manual and see 6 different fuses that powers the ECU. Each had a code behind like ECU-. Evidently each fuse powers a different section of the ECU. It's made up of many sections, hybrid, ignition, fuel injection, abs brakes and etc.