Any way to increase range of key fob?

[KenJones]

2025 Trailhunter. There is much to love. However, some quality-of-life issues sour my enthusiasm for such an expensive purchase. The first time I parked it in a huge parking I lost it. The scenario is my grandson's football game (band-geek, not player) and after the game, it's dark. The parking lot is a huge rectangle. No marked rows or sections. No problem, I think. Just use the fob to get an alert. Nothing. Huh! I did the under-the-chin in the direction I'm thinking it is. Nothing. So, I had to resort to trying to recall my walk-in and relied on my inherent male internal spatial direction-finding. I saw it long before the fob would work. My thinking is that, for a $70K+ vehicle, that is pretty terrible. I was thinking it was just mine, but apparently this is common. It could be that Toyota has nerfed the remote to favor arm-twisting and keeping the $15-a-month remote connect subscription, which is coming up soon. This sticks in my craw.

Back when this was coming to light, I could find nothing on increasing the range. I figured if I waited, then surely someone would come up with a solution. So far, I'm not seeing anything other than 3rd party aftermarket solutions. I don't want yet another fob to carry around. I have seen that 2024 and older 4Runners have a little hack, but that doesn't work on 6G. I don't particularly want to have to go outside to stand right next to it to do the remote start. I might as well get in the damn thing.

Yes, this is a bit long-winded, but I need to get this off my chest. Anyway, is there any solution, hack, or bodge to increase the fob range to something remotely equivalent to every other vehicle out there? I used to drive a black company vehicle that I could remote start from the building, at least 100 yards away. It was nice because by the time I went down there, it wouldn't be 150° in there.

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[Dead Horse]

2025 Trailhunter. There is much to love. However, some quality-of-life issues sour my enthusiasm for such an expensive purchase. The first time I parked it in a huge parking I lost it. The scenario is my grandson's football game (band-geek, not player) and after the game, it's dark. The parking lot is a huge rectangle. No marked rows or sections. No problem, I think. Just use the fob to get an alert. Nothing. Huh! I did the under-the-chin in the direction I'm thinking it is. Nothing. So, I had to resort to trying to recall my walk-in and relied on my inherent male internal spatial direction-finding. I saw it long before the fob would work. My thinking is that, for a $70K+ vehicle, that is pretty terrible. I was thinking it was just mine, but apparently this is common. It could be that Toyota has nerfed the remote to favor arm-twisting and keeping the $15-a-month remote connect subscription, which is coming up soon. This sticks in my craw.

Back when this was coming to light, I could find nothing on increasing the range. I figured if I waited, then surely someone would come up with a solution. So far, I'm not seeing anything other than 3rd party aftermarket solutions. I don't want yet another fob to carry around. I have seen that 2024 and older 4Runners have a little hack, but that doesn't work on 6G. I don't particularly want to have to go outside to stand right next to it to do the remote start. I might as well get in the damn thing.

Yes, this is a bit long-winded, but I need to get this off my chest. Anyway, is there any solution, hack, or bodge to increase the fob range to something remotely equivalent to every other vehicle out there? I used to drive a black company vehicle that I could remote start from the building, at least 100 yards away. It was nice because by the time I went down there, it wouldn't be 150° in there.

My tinfoil hat agrees with this. The three-press timing has to be perfect too...Which is some janky shit. Can't do it from inside my house, 10 feet from the thing. Infuriating.

I'll 100% buy an aftermarket remote starter with better FOB in a year or two when they're available for a reasonable cost.

 

[Turbo8]

I can confirm this works.. lol

 

[samsamdar]

Modern Toyota fobs are so trash lol. The range is awful and the buttons are super hard to actuate. I swapped to the AJT designs fob and the actuation is def better. Range is still trash though. Waiting for better aftermarket options.

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