Unlock buttons on exterior door handles

btwilli91 · April 13, 2020

Hey all! I am new here, but have a very frustrating item on our new (to us) 2018 GMC Yukon XL Denali. The buttons on the exterior door handles that lock and unlock are driving me crazy. I think these are called passive entry buttons (not sure on the actual name). Both buttons on the passenger side work just fine, but neither of the ones on driver side work. They depress, but nothing happens. I have checked all fuses that may be associated with this system and they are good. I have went thru settings on infotainment system with no luck either. Please tell me someone else has seen this problem and can help me out! Thank you so much!

SARNCAN · April 13, 2020

Hey all! I am new here, but have a very frustrating item on our new (to us) 2018 GMC Yukon XL Denali. The buttons on the exterior door handles that lock and unlock are driving me crazy. I think these are called passive entry buttons (not sure on the actual name). Both buttons on the passenger side work just fine, but neither of the ones on driver side work. They depress, but nothing happens. I have checked all fuses that may be associated with this system and they are good. I have went thru settings on infotainment system with no luck either. Please tell me someone else has seen this problem and can help me out! Thank you so much!

You might only have a bad Key fob battery that needs to be replaced. Have you tried replacing it? Being a little far from the receptor, or weak signal can disturb its functionality.

btwilli91 · April 13, 2020

5 minutes ago, SARNCAN said:

You might only have a bad Key fob battery that needs to be replaced. Have you tried replacing it? Being a little far from the receptor, or weak signal can disturb its functionality.

Thanks for the advice. I have tried with both key fobs and neither work. What would be the chances of neither not working? Also, if key fob were there problem, the passenger side probably wouldn't work either would it?

SARNCAN · April 13, 2020

Thanks for the advice. I have tried with both key fobs and neither work. What would be the chances of neither not working? Also, if key fob were there problem, the passenger side probably wouldn't work either would it?

I believe I have read some post regarding bad received signal with remote start. Could be something similar that needs a trip to the dealer.
Regarding difference from right to left side, I assumed the distance from the receptor to the key fob is different. But I think if the remote start works fine from far a way, then you need to check the dealer

btwilli91 · April 14, 2020

3 hours ago, SARNCAN said:

I believe I have read some post regarding bad received signal with remote start. Could be something similar that needs a trip to the dealer.
Regarding difference from right to left side, I assumed the distance from the receptor to the key fob is different. But I think if the remote start works fine from far a way, then you need to check the dealer

I'm thinking a dealership visit as well. I was hoping to avoid that, but as I've researched more and more, I'm not finding much information. I'm going to give this post a few more days to see if anybody else will hit me back. Thanks for the ideas!

jollymae · September 2, 2020

Did you ever find an answer to this problem? We are having the same issue with our 15 suburban. Passive entry buttons work on passenger side by neither work on drivers side.

jollymae · September 2, 2020

On 4/13/2020 at 8:39 PM, btwilli91 said:

I'm thinking a dealership visit as well. I was hoping to avoid that, but as I've researched more and more, I'm not finding much information. I'm going to give this post a few more days to see if anybody else will hit me back. Thanks for the ideas!

Did you ever find an answer to this problem? We are having the same issue with our 15 suburban. Passive entry buttons work on passenger side by neither work on drivers side.

btwilli91 · September 2, 2020

16 minutes ago, jollymae said:

Did you ever find an answer to this problem? We are having the same issue with our 15 suburban. Passive entry buttons work on passenger side by neither work on drivers side.

As crazy as it may sound, I took mine into the dealership and they had no idea what it could be. So, they took off interior door panel to find out what may be going on and a plug was simply unplugged. Plugged back together and everything worked fine. We bought the vehicle used, so cannot speak to it's previous life, but the fix was much simpler and much less invasive than I was afraid. Hopefully yours will be as simple as well!

jollymae · September 2, 2020

21 minutes ago, btwilli91 said:

As crazy as it may sound, I took mine into the dealership and they had no idea what it could be. So, they took off interior door panel to find out what may be going on and a plug was simply unplugged. Plugged back together and everything worked fine. We bought the vehicle used, so cannot speak to it's previous life, but the fix was much simpler and much less invasive than I was afraid. Hopefully yours will be as simple as well!

Thanks for the response! We just bought ours used as well and can't speak for much of it's history. Fingers crossed it could be something so simple for us!

btwilli91 · September 3, 2020

23 hours ago, jollymae said:

Thanks for the response! We just bought ours used as well and can't speak for much of it's history. Fingers crossed it could be something so simple for us!

Best of luck!

mikemcclain8 · December 4, 2020

To JollyMae, the amplifier for the keyfobs is located on the passenger rear side and may be the issue. Try leaving the keyfob near the right rear of the vehicle and walk around and press the buttons on the driver side to see if they work. The keyfob is required (detectable by the car) for those buttons to work so maybe they aren't being seen by the receiver/amplifier.