Reminder...
Camry battery fobs go into sleep mode to preserve battery life. Leaving the fob within 3 feet of a florescent light or a charging device, such as a cell phone, will prevent it from going to sleep and shorten battery life.

 

That might explain why my spare died almost as quickly as the fob i always used.

The fob was in a desk drawer, above which my wifes cell phone would charge nightly.

 

Is it an actual charging cell phone or just a cell phone sitting next to you wallet and key fob?

 

Charging...the action emits some type of wave that the fob picks up and thinks it's a car, thus no sleep

 

A few strokes with a pencil eraser on the battery contacts can work wonders too. It takes only a small amount of crud/oxidation to cause problems. That thing's been in your pocket for HOW long?

CR1632 = 10 for $8, delivered, eBay.

 

i just started getting the 'Low Key Battery' sign this week! Bought my TCH in Sept. '07. I used to keep my cell phone and keys in the same pocket or at least close by to each other, until someone told me that doing so would drain the battery faster! Looking at the poll, not sure if it's true because majority of the people are within the 2-3 year category!

 

You might be slightly mistaken...
Camry battery fobs go into sleep mode to preserve battery life. Leaving the fob within 3 feet of a florescent light or a charging device, such as a cell phone, will prevent it from going to sleep and shorten battery life.

Now, if you charge the phone in your pocket, that's another story.

 

I bought a Timex Radio Controlled watch. Some call it a Atomic watch. It turns on around 1 am nightly to correct the time.

I keep my key-fob in my right pocket and the watch in the left at night when I'm sleeping. Evidently the watch kicks the fob on.

About 6 months after buying the watch my fob lost it's range. It got so bad I had to install a new battery. This helped about 6 months and then I needed another battery. All this time my wife's fob worked well, in fact well over 2 years.

I decided to keep the radio controlled watch away from the fob. I bought a rather nice $10 similar looking face watch from Walmart. This one is just a simple digital battery watch. I have had it a good while and my fob works fine now.

 

I guess anything that emits a certain type of wave or frequency is perceived by the fob as a car, so the fob wakes up. According to the manual, three feet is all you need to separate the fob from these devices to prevent it from waking.