Check to see the antenna wire coming out of the garage door opener in the garage to make sure that’s not curled up and is clearly visible (straight hanging away from the garage door opener). There is nothing to check in the vehicle that I am aware of, I don’t know where the antenna in the vehicle is if there is one and if that needs cleaning etc.


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Yes, the garage door opener's antenna wire is still hanging straight down from it.

Even when the Homelink button "didn't work" from outside the garage, it still worked to close the door once inside the garage. So it still works, but seems to be losing range somehow.

For lack of other ideas, I unscrewed the car's radio antenna and cleaned the contact area, but I doubt that is actually used as a transmitting antenna.

The system diagrams I found suggest that the transmitter is in the overhead console:

Toyota Venza: Parts Location - Garage Door Opener System - Service Manual

www.tovenza.com

Toyota Venza: System Diagram - Garage Door Opener System - Service Manual

www.tovenza.com

Not much info other than that. Just the box and the dome fuse, and not clear but seems to imply that it uses the car's battery.

Curiously, the only mention of range is in the programming instructions:

To ensure correct programming into the HomeLink®, install a new battery in the hand-held transmitter prior to programming. Failure to install a new battery into the hand-held transmitter will affect both the range and accuracy of the HomeLink® in your vehicle.

Toyota Venza: Programming HomeLink® (for U.S.A. owners) - Garage door opener - Owners Manual

www.tovenza.com

Worst case, I'll try reprogramming, but for the time being I don't feel like adding a new variable.

 

Did you replace the light bulb in your garage door motor unit to LED when this started? Is it a cheap not brand name LED? About 8 years ago I replaced my garage motor light bulb to a cheapo LED bulb to get more light in the garage and it interferes with the signal. After that I replaced it with a $10 Philips outdoor LED bulb and the signal is fine after that.

 

Good point, and yes I have GE-branded LED bulbs in the garage door opener. I thought about this, but: 1) the LED bulbs have been there since before the Venza, and 2) the bulbs are off when the issue happens.

Typically it is when arriving home that the opener doesn't work well (with the LED lights off at that point), and requires getting the vehicle closer and closer to the door, whereas previously it worked from the street. Once inside the garage (and with the garage door opener LED lights now on) it closes the door just fine. Of course the vehicle is directly under the garage door opener at that point.

 

My next question would be do you have LED bulbs in the interior dome light of the venza? The LED bulbs could interfere with the signals as well. Could try pulling the three led bulbs out and test the range. Just a thought.

 

I haven't touched the bulbs in the dome light, and they seem to be incandescent. But more importantly, the dome light is never on when the issue occurs.

 

Years ago I had a house with 2 older garage door openers, similar problem with range. I found a forum somewhere online to take a pencil and wind the antenna wire around it and pull the pencil out, leaving a tightly coiled antenna wire, that drastically improved my range on each opener.

 

Interesting. I installed remote lock system on an old BMW. Per manufacturer, to get longer range, I made antenna wire 3x normal length.

 

I have a "SkyLink" remote garage door opener system, bought dozen years back, for next to nothing, closeout, at the local Radio Shack. Keypad controls both garage doors; each door with separate receiver for that opener. First, left-hand door wouldn't respond to the keypad; later 2nd door had, same symptoms. Replaced keypad (transmitter). No Joy. Finally, saw the light and replaced the receivers, then, everything good again.
POINT: It may not be the Veneza -and it's transmitter- that's the source of the problem.

 

I inspected the circuit board on the garage door opener (it's old, probably from the 80s) and reflowed the solder on a couple of spots that had developed "cold solder," or cracked, joints.

Checked that the antenna is making good contact with low (<0.5 ohm) resistance. I hesitate to try curling it as the insulation is not very flexible anymore and I think it would crack and break.

Also programmed the Venza's Homelink opener again after installing a fresh (9V) battery in the garage door opener's original transmitter.

Result: I don't really notice any difference. The Venza's opener still has a shorter range than the original transmitter.

One bizarre observation: parked on the street in front of the garage, the Venza's opener repeatedly failed to open the door when pressing the button with the index finger (palm pointing towards windshield), BUT it consistently worked when pressing with the thumb (palm towards ceiling). So strange. The original transmitter had no problem at the same spot.

 

You might try adding some length to the receiving antenna on the opener... Just peel away a little insulation at the end, and add on a foot or more of speaker wire? Romex? Basically whatever's handy. It may be that the reciever is not as sensitive as it was originally.
No risk involved maybe it will work.

Or, maybe this could solve your problem
Link aftermarket Reciever
Note that this Reciever is not rolling code!

 

You might try adding some length to the receiving antenna on the opener

I may try that eventually as a pragmatic solution.. but again, the issue is that the Venza's opener has a shorter range than the original transmitter, so I'm not ready to place the blame on the receiver.

 

Another idea, try programming another button in the venza to open the garage as well. I have had random situations where the left button does not work after repeated pressing it, but as soon as I use the middle button, the garage door opens. I have no idea why. Just a thought. And yes I programmed two buttons to work with the garage opener.

 

Haha that's exactly what I did but didn't have a chance to test it yet. I normally use only the middle button, but I programmed the first and third buttons too to see if there's a difference.

Btw, when you say "repeatedly pressing it" do you mean you just "click" the button? or press and hold for a second or two? I have always had to press and hold; just pressing it without holding has never worked.

 

Yes usually i press snd hold for at least 2 seconds each time.

 

There is one thing I would add, I re-capped my garage door opener board , the cap went bad, it wasn’t a bad job to do. It was an early warning sign of a range problem with homelink. I bought a 4 pack of Panasonic capacitors off eBay, try to buy quality caps if you do such a repair.

 

There is one thing I would add, I re-capped my garage door opener board , the cap went bad, it wasn’t a bad job to do. It was an early warning sign of a range problem with homelink.

Were your caps visually swollen or leaking?

I tried looking at the components on the board and nothing looked obviously bad. Unfortunately, one of the screws that holds the board to the housing is spinning freely and I couldn't remove it to free the board to inspect the other side as closely as I would like.

Keeping in mind though that the original opener transmitter is still working at a better range than the Venza's built-in transmitter.

 

I replaced my capacitor because the range was almost nil when the door was open with the light on,I had previously replaced the bulb and lens with an led option, a genie led bulb. The lens was an amazon purchase. I did this as a last resort to replacing the opener or mother board, the caps were cheap by comparison. It’s coincidental that I had recently bought the ES350, but that was the problem.

 

Ok, but was there any visible deterioration to the caps?

The range is still decent with the original transmitter, so it's not clear to me that there's anything wrong with the opener.

 

I was able to determine mine was bad by turning off the light and then-the range improved, I bought the caps off of eBay, the old cap didn’t look obviously swollen but it was 21 years old. Mine had the problem mainly when the door was open

 

I see. In my case, I haven't noticed a difference with the lights on or off, and the door open or closed.

 

Yea for me the tell tale symptom was with the door open and light on, I did notice after the cap replacement that my range improved, hard to see a visible difference in old vs new cap

 

Same here

 

Did you find a fix for this? I have the same issue in a Toyota RAV4.