When you give your car to a valet with intelligent key and push button start do you leave your key in the intelligent key port, hand the key to the valet?
Manual says never to leave intelligent key in the car??????? My Audi had an separate ignition switch that I left my key in when I gave it to a valet.

 

No, you hand the valet the "intelligent" part of the key (with all the buttons) and you keep the "mechanical" part of the key (that looks like, well, a key). It's right there at the beginning of section 3 in the manual: "Valet Hand-Off".

 

Thanks for response. I read "valet hand off". I wasn't so concerned about locking my trunk and glove box but it is commonplace for me to be in situations where I leave my key in the car and they can move it as necessary but Infiniti says not to leave the key in the car and if I did you say not to leave it in the keyport. Can you start the car with the mechanical key?

 

I see. No, you can't start the car with the mechanical key. Infiniti's warning about not leaving the key in the car is just for common sense reasons - they same reasons you wouldn't generally leave any key in any car. Also, you can't lock the doors with the door handle buttons with the intelligent key inside the car (although you can use another intelligent key outside the car, or the mechanical key). So, in the case of leaving the car with the valet, it would be fine to leave the intelligent key in the car. I don't know that I would leave it in the keyport, but I don't think it would do any harm.

 

You do not want to leave the key in the car mainly because both the car battery and key battery will drain. If you leave the key in the car when it's off, the car will sense that the key is there and from what the dealer told me it will continue to communicate until either the car starts or the door is opened. The car will not go into complete power shutdown mode because of this. There's a warning in the owner's manual not to leave the key in the port with the ignition off and I believe it's for this reason.

Just give the key to the valet - I assume they do not leave the key in the car for possibility of theft.

 

Hmm, good to know. I had assumed (stupid assumptions!) that the intelligent key system would be intelligent enough to not allow the battery (at least, the car's battery) to drain in this scenario. The only time I really use valet parking is at a local multistory parking garage where they always leave the keys in the cars. Anyone willing to take one for the team and test it for us?

 

Will there still be a drain on both batteries if the intelligent key is not left in the port but elsewhere in the car???. Is the drain significant for a short period of time?

 

I was trying to find more detailed info in the service manual but they don't provide that detail. It only explains the communication process when you either hit the door to unlock or when you're in the car and hit the start button. If the car is OFF there should be no reason for the key and the car to continue to communicate - even the lockout feature should only communicate with the key when you try to lock the door with the key inside. I'll look a bit deeper but the dealer told me about the drain - that typically doesn't make it true since they don't often know what they're talking about.

 

I had my key in the car for a bit , 10-15 minutes on the weekend and with the car off I did get the battery key warning light and some beeps. I'm assuming the beeps were reminders that the key is in the car and/or it was being draining.

 

You have to turn off the trunk switch in the glove box to disable the trunk from being opened from the FOB & the trunk release button in the car..
Thats why you give him the remote only.

This way, only you can open the trunk with the key if you keep stuff in the trunk that you don't want accessible to the valet & also the key alone locks the glove box so he can't get to the trunk switch.

If nothing is in the trunk, no biggie..

 

All I can see in the service manual is that the BCM sends out an RF signal every 5 seconds and that signal changes depending on whether the I-key is detected in the car or not. This implies that the I-Key responds every 5 seconds and if the key is removed from the car then the BCM detects that condition and changes it's signal. One example is if the car is running and you hand the I-key out the window (you never open the door) the BCM detects that the I-Key is no longer in the car.

So basically if the car detects the key is in the car (an it will alert you to that) it will continue to send a signal to the key every 5 seconds and the key will respond. Note that the owner's manual has a warning to never leave the I-key in the car and states that the car is continuously communicating with the key.