Call Of The Week - Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor - Mark In Las Vegas - The Case of the No Shutting Off Toyota Highlander - [phone] 24/7 Hotline

Each week on Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor Radio Show, we spotlight one standout caller as our Call of the Week. It’s chosen for the originality of the problem, the clarity of the conversation, and the value it brings to you, the listener—whether it’s a tough diagnosis, a smart question, or just a great exchange. These calls remind us why we love talking cars and helping people. If you’re a podcast subscriber, think of this as your quick sample of the full show—insightful, entertaining, and maybe just the nudge you need to stay tuned for more.

This week’s standout call comes from Mark in Las Vegas, who raised a concern about a 2016 Toyota Highlander that can be left running and unattended—with no audible warning when the driver walks away with the key fob. Mark’s stepson discovered the issue after repeatedly leaving the car running and returning an hour later to find it still idling. Ron walks through possible causes, including a failed chime speaker, missed personalization settings, or even past aftermarket wiring changes. It’s a great reminder that even smart key systems need smart diagnostics—especially when safety’s at stake.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Let's go see. Let's go to Vegas and talk to Mark. Mark.
Welcome to the car, doctor, sir, sixteen Toyota Hollander.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
How can I help? Hi? Ron, Thanks again for taking
my call. I really appreciate your time. So my step
son has this sixteen Highlander and he calls me yesterday
and says he keeps walking away from his vehicle with
it running, and he goes into a store for an

(00:43):
hour and he comes out and it's still running. And
I said, well, don't you isn't there a warning noise
when you get out of the car with your key?
That's a push button start? Right?

Speaker 1 (00:54):
He has the key in hand, right, Mark, Right, He's.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Got the key fob on him, and he walks away
from the car and if you know, he I guess
he pushes the button to lock it. He just assume
that it locks it, but it really doesn't. Because it's running,
it won't lock. But he's walked away several times and
the car just you know, just sits there and runs
and runs. And so I said, well, you know, send

(01:20):
me a video exactly what. I can't believe that it
doesn't make a warning sound when you walk away. So
he sends me this video and he walks away, He
starts his car up in his driveway, takes the key,
puts it in the garage, comes back and there's no warning, noise,
nothing comes back, and he's able to drive the car
with it running. Now it does say, you know, key

(01:43):
not detected, but he can just get in the car
and drive it around. Now. Granted when he stops, he's
not going to be able to restart it, but I mean,
that's a really it seems crazy to me that somebody
he'll leave his car running, somebody gets in the car
and just drives off with it.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Point where you said there was a warning message. My
my first thought was are all the keys accounted for?
And I only mentioned this for anybody else because I've
had situations where people lose their key and they don't
realize it's in the car and the car doesn't know
you didn't shut it off. And you know, my test
for that is, go sit in the car without a key.
Can you start the car? If the answer is no,

(02:21):
then that's that's not it. So that's not it with you.
So yes, it absolutely should either there should be a
there should be a chime speaker or some sort of
audio audio warning in the vehicle. So it's which absolutely,
So there's either there's either something's broken in this car

(02:44):
that it's it's not doing that. Maybe the chime speaker
is broken all right, Maybe the internal speaker is just
has just failed. Maybe there is a setting, you know,
let him, let him look through the driver information setting, right.
You know you've got that screen that you scroll across
at the top and there's the little cogged wheel in
that settings and you go down into there. You know,

(03:04):
maybe there's a personalization setting there. You know, maybe there's
a software update for the vehicle. You know, it's got
to be diagnosed. But yes, that's those are legitimate concerns,
and that is a legitimate problem because you know, it's
it's the worst scenario of this is you pull the
car into the driveway and some of these cars are
so quiet. Oh, pull the car into the garage, close

(03:25):
the door, get out of the car, leave the car running,
and walk in the house.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yep. Yeah, that's right. That's what I was worried about.
And that's you know, that's not the original owner, right,
he's only had the car a couple of years, So
I thought about that too. Did the prior owner. I mean,
I can't imagine anybody would want to shut that feature off.
I don't even think they would allow that. But I
don't know, I don't know. I guess he's going to
have to. You know, he said, try to find anything

(03:50):
on YouTube. I couldn't find anything on YouTube about it, so,
you know, I got to call the car doctor.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
I appreciate that, brother. The other the other question I've
got is is it after Is it after market mode
start or alarm? Or is there anything after market in
the car where somebody was possibly changing wiring from what
was originally there? Could somebody have defeated the system trying
to put an aftermarket accessory in it? So you always
have to think about.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
That too, that right, right that that we probably won't know.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Right, you know, Well, as it looked.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Like the original Toyota thoughtob okay, okay, but I don't know.
I I that's exactly what you're saying, is what I thought.
It has to make some kind of a.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Warning, It has to make some it has to make
some kind of a warning. Sound absolutely yeah, absolutely sorry,
that's the.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Way you answered my question.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
So well, I'm glad, I appreciate it. I'm glad to
have the opportunity, Mark, I really am. Something like that
concerns me because that's a safety factor with a with
a you know, a younger driver or newer driver, and
you just you know, you want them to all have
good experiences.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
So okay, all right, sir, thank you so much. Ryn.
I always appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
You're very welcome anytime, Pal. And uh, you know, if
he gets a solution, drop us a line. Let us
know what that is.