Yesterday, the wife comes out of the Post Office and can't get the door to unlock with the key fob. She stood directly in front of the door and the fob would not activate the locks- no lights flashed either like they normally do. Fortunately she is not as blond as her sister and was able to use the key to get in. Later, within the next hour, she tried the key fob and it worked fine.

This morning she gets in the car and the radio is turned off and all the presets are gone and the clock is off by 4 or 5 hours. Vehicle starts and drives normally. Radio works as well

It's a 2003 Mazda Tribute, 3.0, AWD, automatic.

Any thoughts, ideas?

Tim

 

Sounds like no power from the battery. 3 or 4 years has been my norm for factory batteries to fail. I'd have it load tested. But also check the cables/connections. Not just for build up around the terminals though that could cause the problem - not getting a good connection/ground. I had a negative cable go bad though it looked good at the terminal. When I flexed the cable you could hear the corrosion within the cable.

The battery could be getting quirky or a sporadic bad ground causing the issue.

 

Certainly the battery is a consideration. I won't be able to check until she gets home from work which is late this evening.

It's the key fob part that doesn't mesh with the battery. Why would it not have enough juice to unlock the vehicle but still start right up?

The scary part is that I may have to let her drive my truck if we can't figure this out and the symptoms show up more often-she isn't quite as particular as I am regarding where she parks . She works 35 miles from home and has to commute through across the Golden Gate bridge. It's a beautiful commute when you don't have car problems.

 

You didn't say anything about whether it started up or not, except on the "next morning" part.

It could still be a battery issue. They can act really strange sometimes. When I married my wife, she brought an old Chevy into the marriage. One day it started right up. I stopped two miles later and a few minutes afterwards it wouldn't start. I messed with it and could only get it to start randomly. Too poor for a voltage tester, I had a 12 volt bulb with wires taped to it (poor man's tester). I connected to the battery and it blew the bulb. I took the battery and had it tested. It was putting out well over 20 volts. It had shorted out and I was lucky (or maybe unlucky for that old rust bucket) it didn't short out anything else.

Let us know what you find.

 

Starting properly at this point with no other symptoms. The wife thought it may have been just a tad slow to start at one point the other day. Two hours later it started right up.

The car goes to the dealer on Friday for a $14.95 oil change special, which includes a battery test. Hard to argue with that price as the oil & filter cost more than that. She did get the extended warranty so I really don't mind if the dealer gets their hands on it.

I wanted to have the tranny flushed too but the cost was $190 and the last time it was on special for $65 + fluid(the dealer messed up and charged for only one quart last time as well- I did check to make sure it was full just in case).

I'm really tempted to start that maintenance schedule of pulling the tranny drain plug at oil changes. Didn't that suggestion come from you Bananaboat?- thanks.

Tim

 

Dealer changed the oil and checked the battery- all is fine with the battery.

However, the do recommend about $1,000 worth of service