Many Pacifica owners received three key fobs when they acquired their vehicles. I wrapped one in aluminum foil and put it in a small metal box and keep it in the console just in the event we lose a fob while traveling. Yes this won’t help unlock the door but at least once getting in the van we have a working fob to start up and drive.

 

If it's in van, and you lose your other one, how are you opening the van? Locksmith? Also, you can just take the battery out of the fob and not have to wrap it and put it in the box.

 

You didn't get the chimes and message on the instrument panel that the fob had left the vehicle? Mine does every time I leave the van with the fob and the engine running. I don't know if the message stays on after the van is put into gear.

 

He was listening to the radio. It wasn't distracted driving, it might be the first case of distracted parking. 😁

 

i would take one of the key fobs and pull the battery out of it and then hide it in the spare tire area (rear left) and in the even this happens you can pull that key and touch the start button with the key (with no battery) and the van will start. But if someone finds they key it wont work as it needs to literally touch the start button to be recognized. An unsuspecting person who may find it will probably not know that and attempt to start but it wont.

 

Wait a minute. You have a spare tire. We were told that spare tires don't come with Pacificas.

 

#_# my van is the opposite.. unless the key is in the center console it will start chiming the key has left the vehicle constantly. New batteries and everything and at times two fobs in the same van and still it "misses" the fobs. This started happening really often after they changed my main drive battery but I honestly doubt it has anything to do with that. I'm guessing the little module is hosed or something.

 

who would have thunk it.... I never tried it but i just figured that the vehicle would Not go into gear if the key fob was not detected? Maybe you had already put into into D before the keyfob got out of range? Dang it now I have to go test this..... we need more details of this flaw or safety feature whatever it is!

 

I assume I wad already in L by the time she was gar enough away to lose the fob. That said in my driveway it detects the fob leaving the van almost the second the door closes.

 

Happened to me a couple of years back. Was going to drop off my daughter at the train station and she decides she doesn't want to drive after starting the van. So I drive, drop her off with the key in her pocket, and stop to fill gas and only after that I realize that I dont have the key, which is on a train. I ended up blocking the gas pump for an hour or so until I had a friend pick up the spare key and head back on my way again. learnt my lesson after that

 

The no fob horn and alerts only work when you have the van in park. I assume he had the van in drive when he dropped his wife off. I highly recommend putting the van in park when people are getting in and out of the vehicle.

 

I'll explain a bit more detail - arrive at lessons early, put van in park and ACC mode to listen to the radio while we wait for 10min. Next wife and kids get out of van while I close doors not realizing the fob is in her pocket, I dod use the buttton to close slider and it may not have latched yet as I shifted to L with foot on the brake. No honks or messages as the doors close or maybe while the pass door is closing I have my foot on brake and shift to L. They walk away as I drive off and continue approx 1-2 miles to the store with no dings or dash messages. I arrive, shut the van off and think I lock it by pressing on the door handle as I leave. Come back 20min later with groceries and am able to open hatch and doors as they never locked but unable to start the van.

 

This happened to my in-laws too, when a valet walked away with the key in his pocket. They didn’t realize it until after they stopped at a store on the back home and tried to restart the vehicle.

 

Maybe I'm a bit spoiled, but with the memory seats I know if I have my key with me or not. I know that not everyone has this feature. Also if the car is already in drive when the key exits the vehicle, what would you have the car do?

 

If the vehicle was in drive, then you have to take into consideration that the vehicle could still be in the roadway if you were just quickly dropping someone off. In a situation where the vehicle is still in drive there should definitely be an obvious alert on the dash and warning tones to indicate that the keyfob has left the vehicle, the same as if I, as the driver, were to get out of the vehicle when it was in park.

As to whether or not it should engage auto-park at that point I'm undecided as there are many factors to consider. Perhaps auto-park and turn on the hazards if the vehicle was in drive when the fob left it. No matter what, the alert tones should be enough to grab the driver's attention, at which point the driver could summon (via horn honk or other means) whomever just exited to return with the fob. Again just throwing thoughts out there.