[countryguy]

Every day I stop at the post office to pick up my mail - I leave the car running, exit with FOB in my pocket, shut the door, it honks twice, run in get my mail, get back in the car. Most of the time I can now drive off BUT every so often (and it was happening more often recently) I would get the message on the dash 'no key detected'. I press OK on the left steering wheel and drive off. Today I stopped at the post office and shut the car off as I knew I was going to be longer as I was picking up a parcel. I come out, swing my foot under the rear bumper to open the tailgate and nothing happens. Try again..still nothing. Put the parcel down, take out the FOB, push the button to open the tailgate and nothing so I go in the car and use the button on the dash. Once the parcel is loaded and tailgate close I get in the car to start it and I get 'no key detected'. I take the key out of my pocket, wait a few seconds, try again..still nothing. I sat there for 5 minutes and could not get the car started. So then I start looking in the owner's book to see how to start the car when the FOB is not working..thinking that maybe the FOB battery is dead. I can't find anything in the manual. So I call Lincoln concierge....the woman on the phone is of no use whatsoever...she is just reading the manual too. She keeps telling me I will have to call roadside assistance and get the car towed to the dealer. I ask her to put me through to Lincoln tech....she refuses and says she can't do that. By now I am really pissed. I am late for a lunch date. Since the post office is just 5 minutes from my house and the friend I was having lunch with is also 5 minutes away, I gave her a call and asked if she would come get me, drive me to my house so I can get the 2nd FOB to try it. She does that but even with the 2nd FOB I get the same 'no key detected'. I try using the app on my phone to start the car and that works however it won't let me shift into Drive because 'no key detected'! I am livid at this point. So I go to my friends for lunch, calm down a bit and then call the Ford dealer. The service guys explains that when the FOB is dead, there is a small opening in the storage bin between the 2 seats, near the bottom and to place the FOB in the opening. I should then be able to start the car and drive. My friend drives me to my car, I try this and it works! Yay! So I drive 25 km to the Ford dealer so that they can see what's going on. Of course when the service advisor tries it, both FOBs are now working!!!! WTF? The technician comes out, I explain everything that happened and he just says, he has never heard of this. He suggests, I keep the FOB that I normally use at home and instead start using the spare FOB to see if the problem happens again or if anything else unusual occurs. He said that the FOB batteries normally last about 5 years and mine are not even 2 years old yet and besides it would be unusual for both FOBs to fail at the same time. I am going on a long trip in 2 weeks and I sure hope this car doesn't leave me stranded somewhere!!!

I sure wish that the Lincoln concierge would have known about how to start the car when the FOB is not working. Seems like a basic function that they should be aware of.

 

[overdrive]

Hope that is not a bad batch of FOB for I know they should work fine along with the battery for at least 5 years. Sending you luck that it will be fully functional on your trip.

 

[5.0 Candy REDCS]

"The service guys explains that when the FOB is dead, there is a small opening in the storage bin between the 2 seats, near the bottom and to place the FOB in the opening. I should then be able to start the car and drive."
Are you sure this is NOT in the owners manual?....it clearly should be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh man!

 

[KenZ]

"The service guys explains that when the FOB is dead, there is a small opening in the storage bin between the 2 seats, near the bottom and to place the FOB in the opening. I should then be able to start the car and drive."
Are you sure this is NOT in the owners manual?....it clearly should be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh man!

In my 2015 MKC Manual - Page 159. In a section called "Starting and Stopping the Engine".

 

[Mojo]

I had a similar issue

A while ago I experienced a similar problem. The fob did not work and it was like the car was just dead, no power at all. It was late at night and my car had been in the airport parking garage all week. After several tries and lots of swearing I opened the fob to remove the key inside. Once the fob was opened the car operates as designed. I reseated the key, closed up the fob and have never had the problem again. Weird.

 

[countryguy]

Yes I found that afterwards! It really wasn't very easy to find. You would think they would have had it in the section where the functions of the FOB are explained.

 

[Mojo]

Too true. I work for a software company and all of my customers are car dealerships, that's how I found out about the key in the fob.

 

[5.0 Candy REDCS]

Thanks for this info you guys....I'm sure one day it will come in handy...

 

[Shark]

2015 MKC 2.0 ecoboost. FOB’S won’t work, car completely dead, can’t get into it at all! What the heck? Any suggestions?

 

[countryguy]

You can use the key that is stored inside of the FOB to manually unlock the doors. Have you tried using the keypad on the driver's door pillar to unlock the doors (will only work if the battery is not completely dead). If you can unlock the doors and get into the car, you can put the FOB into the slot at the inside bottom of the console between the front seats and then you should be able to start the car, if the battery is not dead. If none of these suggestions work, then the only thing left is to call road side assistance and get the car towed to the dealer.

 

[Shark]

Key pad dead too. Hoping it is a dead battery. I will have to tow to the dealer. Thank you for your reply!

 

[countryguy]

BTW, have you had the TSBs done to correct the problem of the battery going dead? This is a known issue for the 2015s. The approach lighting causes the battery to go dead because it keeps checking to see if the key FOB is in range. There are 2 modules in the driver side rear passenger door that need to be replaced. Also, tied in with this is the chimes for the seat belts, hatch closing, etc. revert back to the Ford sounds rather than the pleasant Lincoln sounds when the battery is going dead. There is another fix for that too.