Garage door opener problem

[Twisted Sid]

Skip to last paragraph for the short version...

I have a genie excelerator garage door opener that came with the house when I bought it 2 years ago. Bought a new remote for it then and it has worked fine since, that is until the last week or so. Loss of range and sometimes it will not open the door at all. At first it seemed like the battery in the remote was going bad so I replaced it with a new one and no change. Then I bought a new style replacement remote and it seemed to work for about 1/2 a day and then started doing the same thing as the old one.

I started to look online at different things and came across the idea to extend the antenna wire to the outside of the garage with coax. I did that yesterday and it seemed to work. I tested it by walking down the drive way in 10 foot increments and range was back and better then ever. I got to about 150' and all seemed well, that is until today.

I go to leave my house and open the door with the remote inside my truck, all works fine. I back out of the garage and hit the button and nothing, it wont shut. I hold the remote outside the window and still nothing. At this point I'm beyond frustrated and get out of the truck holding down the button on the remote. As I get out I turn the truck off and the door begins to close. I hit the button a few more times and it works fine and I close the door and leave. I get back home a few hours later and pull into the driveway holding the remote button down and its back to not working. I turn the truck off push the button and the door works...

So GJ, what the hell would cause this to start happening? If my truck is running my opener remote will not work. The second its not running anymore, everything is fine. My truck is a 94 toyota and the only thing that has changed on it since the problem started, is new fuel injectors. There has to be some kind of interference going on but I dont see how it would just start. I'm lost on this one.

 

[scarpozzi]

Can you get your truck resprayed with some lead-based paint?


Are there any other electronics in your car that could be affecting the particular range of the opener and jamming the signal? Do you have the factory radio or an aftermarket? Any new appliances in the house that might be causing issues? Your truck, being metal, could be acting as a receiver for signals from within your house and jamming the remote signal that way.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/6/27...or-openers-stop-working-wireless-interference

Also, if you have wifi in your home, see if you can establish what the frequency of your opener is....then try changing channels on your wifi access point or router....or any other wireless toys you may have on when you're not home.

See if you can change the frequency of the opener and get around whatever interference you're getting.
http://www.ehow.com/how_6156105_change-frequency-garage-door-opener.html

 

[Gary S]

I agree. The truck is putting out RF interference. Either replace the truck, or park it outside.

 

[scarpozzi]

I agree. The truck is putting out RF interference. Either replace the truck, or park it outside.

I'm not certain the truck is the source of the interference. There could be interference coming from the alternator or computer. I'm not sure if you could throw a capacitor somewhere in the line or check to make sure there's not something wrong with grounding.

The other idea I had about wifi signals could very well be the issue. It just depends on the frequency band the radio uses. Wireless G uses 2.4 Ghz and I think N uses the 5 Ghz range. See if you can narrow down the frequency used and go from there. If you can change what it runs on it, could totally fix the issue if your 4Runner isn't plain jamming the signal.

 

[upndown]

Have you tried the transmitter using a different vehicle? Is your wife having issues with hers? Something changed! In my 35+ years I've run into a few Outside Interference situations, but never anything like you describe!

 

[jkwilson]

Bad plug wire is the most common cause.

 

[Twisted Sid]

Can you get your truck resprayed with some lead-based paint?


Are there any other electronics in your car that could be affecting the particular range of the opener and jamming the signal? Do you have the factory radio or an aftermarket? Any new appliances in the house that might be causing issues? Your truck, being metal, could be acting as a receiver for signals from within your house and jamming the remote signal that way.

Also, if you have wifi in your home, see if you can establish what the frequency of your opener is....then try changing channels on your wifi access point or router....or any other wireless toys you may have on when you're not home.

See if you can change the frequency of the opener and get around whatever interference you're getting.

i dont think anything in the truck could be doing this. always with me in the truck is my cell, the pioneer radio and amp, and my portable ham radio (that is always off). no other electronics. nothing new in the house. same wireless router ive had for 2 years.

I agree. The truck is putting out RF interference. Either replace the truck, or park it outside.

ummmm, no.

I'm not certain the truck is the source of the interference. There could be interference coming from the alternator or computer. I'm not sure if you could throw a capacitor somewhere in the line or check to make sure there's not something wrong with grounding.

The other idea I had about wifi signals could very well be the issue. It just depends on the frequency band the radio uses. Wireless G uses 2.4 Ghz and I think N uses the 5 Ghz range. See if you can narrow down the frequency used and go from there. If you can change what it runs on it, could totally fix the issue if your 4Runner isn't plain jamming the signal.

the trucks electrical system is working 100% fine with no problems. and i know it doesnt have any grounding issues.
looked all over the opener and online and i can not change the frequency

You might want to try seeing if your truck radio is working okay and/or if there is any difference in background static etc. with and without the engine running on AM and/or FM. You might even hear noise while listening to a CD. If there is a difference then you know 100% that your truck is actually the cause of the interference noise.

Here are some thoughts/procedures that you might want to try in no particular order of importance.

Start pulling individual non-essential fuses while the truck is running and the radio is on just to rule those circuits out as possible causes of noise. Your problem will most likely be alternator or ignition system noise and with the recent fuel system work I would look there first, but it could just be a coincidence and it is always nice to rule out as much as possible when starting to troubleshoot a problem.

Are there possibly any small missed/damaged ground wires that were not reattached when replacing your fuel injectors?

Electric fuel pumps can create electrical noise and your recent fuel injector changes could have affected the resistance pressure the fuel pump sees a little bit and ended up creating a new electrical noise. You might want to try running just the fuel pump without the engine (ignition key in "run" position usually gets you a couple seconds of the fuel pump running before it shuts off) to see if the fuel pump might be the noise cause.

Any ground wire that you did unhook when replacing the injectors might not have received a solid connection when reattached, so you might want to take them off again, check the wire ends for corrosion or fraying, sand them a bit, and then try again and see if that helps.

You could try removing the alternator drive belt and then running the engine to see if the problem goes away. If it does that would be an indication that your problem might be noise generated from a slowly failing alternator.

You could try wrapping aluminum foil around your plug wires, alternator housing, fuel injector wires, and fuel injectors and then grounding it to something in the engine bay to see if that makes any difference in your radio reception or garage door opener. If it does, slowly begin removing individual pieces while listening to the radio (or trying the garage door opener) to see if you can isolate the problem down to a single bad plug wire etc.

Another option for testing would be to take a small hand held radio and listen to it while slowly moving it around the engine bay (and walking around the vehicle as a whole) with the engine running. See if you can locate a general area in the engine compartment or around the vehicle where the radio noise is the worst and do further troubleshooting there.

The new fuel injectors could just be a coincidence. Things like cheap car chargers can also cause lots of interference noise. If you have a cell phone charger, etc. plugged into the cigarette lighter or other power source, try removing any or all of them and seeing if the problem goes away before trying any of the other harder things.

The last thing I can think of right now is to keep an eye on the weather outside. Some vehicles will only have a problem like this right after it rains, after driving through water, etc. Water infiltration into an electrical component somewhere can cause temporary issues until it dries, so if your problem ends up being of the intermittent type instead of being constant that is where I would start looking as well.

like stated above, no electrical issues in the truck. the raido itself doesnt work because of an internal problem that has been there for 5+ years and i have no antenna to get any stations anyway. the CD player also doesnt work because there is a CD stuck in the carriage. the only thing that works is the aux in but thats all i use anyway. i might try the handheld radio idea, i just have to find a handheld radio.

Have you tried the transmitter using a different vehicle? Is your wife having issues with hers? Something changed! In my 35+ years I've run into a few Outside Interference situations, but never anything like you describe!

only have 1 remote and the remote works if i get out of the truck and walk 10 feet away or if i turn it off. although before i extended the antenna, it wouldnt even work standing infront of the door.

Bad plug wire is the most common cause.

i have no miss fires and the wires are less then 2 years old.

just to throw everyone off a little more, today it worked FINE. both opening and closing the door from inside he truck while its running.

 

[Twisted Sid]

nope, no water or dampness. i live in the mojave desert. hasnt rained for about 2 months. its just been windy.