nissan keyless
My key fob for my 2012 Nissan Sentra – with physical key removed

When cold weather hits, which it has here in Salt Lake City, there are times when my keyless fob doesn’t work quite right. Which happened last night when I was visiting my daughter downtown.

For those times, the keyless fob actually has a physical key as part of it. It’s annoying when you are spoiled by the keyless entry and then you go to unlock the car and it doesn’t work.

nissan keyless
Physical key partially removed

The physical key slides into the key fob in the back, which provides the loop that stores other keys on it [of which mine has a LEGO stormtrooper attached]. To remove it, just slide the small little latch/switch and the key comes out.

nissan keyless
The driver’s side door with the keyless entry next to physical key entry

In addition to just pressing the lock or unlock button on the key fob, I can also walk up to the car and press the black button on the door handle. Each press locks and unlocks the driver’s side door only [a toggle]. Whereas each press of the unlock button on the key fob unlocks all 4 doors at once and each press of the lock button locks all 4 doors at once.

Although, now that I’m testing it for this blog post, pressing the lock button on the door handle locks all 4 doors.

I like doing the door press because from an OCD level, I know that I locked the door(s) when I walk away from the car. Sometimes, as a precaution, I also press the lock button on the key fob. Yeah, I’ve become that person.

nissan keyless
the physical key inserted into the key slot

When the key fob doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Pressing the buttons doesn’t do any locking or unlocking. Which at that point, I get the physical key out of the key fob and unlock just the driver’s door. Then I can use the power locks to unlock the other 3 doors.

Fortunately, I have a second key fob for those times. Most of it is related to the battery needing placed in the key fob. But even when it’s cold, even the secondary key fob doesn’t work. It’s a small glitch that happens about once a year. So I just have to suppress my frustration and learn to deal with the temporary old school way of locking and unlocking my car.

Anyone else have similar key fob stories? Do share below.