I agree. Autos with keyless start and run systems should have a kill switch in a standardized location. To do otherwise is dangerous. And that kill switch should duplicate the mechanical key-switch by having a direct mechanical link that cuts off power to the ignition. Interrupting the coil circuit of a relay (that might be stuck) is not positive enough. Pressing and holding the start buttom for a few seconds just won't do either. Hang onto your hats and crash helments; There's more in the pipeline. A few well known auto companies are developing steer by wire- that's right - No mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the steering linkage. Steering is accomplished by all electric drives or an electric-hydrulic arrangement. Does this mean you loose steering if you loose electrical power? I don't know, but I'd have to know a lot about any such systems before I drove it, and then I'd like to restrict it to a track, not a public road. Right now, it seems like a disaster waiting in the wings.

Way back when, a freind of mine had a '53 Chevy and learned the same lesson the hard way. At the time, it was popular among budding car buffs to de-chrome their cars. My friend de-chromed his to the extent of removing the door handles. Hidden inside the doors at place where the door panel was flexible was a micro-switch. It could be operated by slapping the heal of your hand on the door. The switch operated a solenoid that unlatched the door. One day at work, he left rhe light on and discharged the battery. When he came out from work, he could not get into his car. His car also had a hood latch cable rather than a conventional external operated hood latch. What did he do? He found that by laying on the ground he could reach up behind the grill and pull the hood latch cable enough to unlatch the hood thus saving him from having to cut a hole in the body work. The battery was jumped and the doors unlocked. The door handles were put back on.

As I always try and point out, testing during a failure is the only way to be 100% sure about what is wrong, and then especially to prove that the car is genuinely repaired. That being said, the Ford factory scan tool, such as the IDS that I have will access the PATS system and even allow me to monitor which button is being pushed on the drivers door pad. The seals on the door button pad fail and eventually the contacts start to corrode and you can end up with symptoms that would match your description. Another symptom associated with this button pad corrosion is the interior lights can come on by themselves, which occurs if the BCM senses that one of the buttons has made contact. On my scan tool I would see either a NO for no button pushed or 3/4 as in if the BCM thinks it sees the 3/4 button pressed. A false or incorrect response from the keypad while monitoring the scan data is all I would need to confirm the pad is failing. The odds are better than 90% you will need to replace the key pad on the drivers door.

I don't think your keypad will work with the new opener but I don't understand why your remotes do. Anyway try programming the thing this way. Press and immediately release the smart/learn button on the opener and then walk over and key in your 4 digit code and press enter. The "press and immediately release" is important and if it is going to work with the new opener it should now.