Smart keys question - water and your keys

G

grousegrove

Member
I'm shopping for a 2016 Tacoma and it seems the Offroad models all come with the smart-keys and push button start. I haven't had those before, so forgive me if this is a naive question: if your key gets wet, does it still work? And if it doesn't, does that mean you're screwed? The salesman told me he'd never had that question before and he didn't know the answer.

I ask because I am a fisherman and hunter and soldier and do a lot of things around water and wet places. Next time I go wading or surfcasting or I get soaked in a downpour I don't want to wind up unable to start my truck. Do you have to care for the keys as you would a cellphone? How wet can they get?
 
Id imagine they can get wet from a downpour since their circuitry is sealed but i doubt it can be submerged
 
Well waterlogged keys or not, after much thought I bought one today! Won't take possession of mine till its delivered in next few days--very exciting! It'll be a V6 Double cab 4x4 OffRoad, in quicksand, with lots of interior niceties. It'll be a great daily driver but I'm looking forward to dirtying it up!

Still interested in the question about the keys, though. Many thanks to anyone with insights or experience on this issue
 
If u pull the button off there should be a keyhole to use the physical key that comes out of the fob.
That is for emergencies. I know dodge has that feature but haven't done the research on the toyotas. I would suspect every push button start has that capability.
Hope that helps
 
Thanks. You're correct there's the physical key inside the fob, that would get you into the truck and as explained to me it's designed so that if the fob batteries run out you could get into the truck and the little bit of remaining signal would be enough to use for ignition if you physically touch the fob to the push button. However I think if there was absolutely no signal from the key the push button start wouldn't work. I'll try and talk to a technician to confirm this. Nobody said anything about a physical keyhole under the pushbutton. That would be a good idea.

Unless that or some other hack can be used to to start the vehicle in such a situation, it's a vulnerability I will have to learn to live with. It will have to be a planning factor to keep the fob from ever getting wet if I'm in a remote area.
 
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