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Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2018 10:42 pm
by CharlieOneSix
There was a program on ITV tonight about how keyless car crime could be reduced. I was amazed that the two key relay boxes the crims use to steal keyless cars can be bought on the internet for £90.

It seems the problem is that keyless key fobs such as mine never switch off. The solution is to modify the key electronics so that the key switches off after a certain time by means of a motion sensor, thereby making the relay boxes useless.

So simple - I know I can buy a Faraday bag to block the signal but why the hell aren’t the motor manufacturers rushing out key upgrade kits?!

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 12:53 pm
by OFSO
The answer is to not purchase a keyless entry car. When I bought my new Mondeo I deliberately chose NOT to buy a version with keyless entry. Or lane change control. Or touchscreen inputs. Or anything I really really did not need. Because it's all crap that after the first few days, you find you don't need and wonder why you paid the extra thousands for.

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 1:32 pm
by Sisemen
Try buying a car without the modern fruit.

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 1:41 pm
by CharlieOneSix
I only have keyless start not keyless entry and the model of car did not offer a standard key-in-ignition alternative. The scrotes bit of kit effectively makes it keyless entry though. I now have two Faraday bags, one for the main set of keys and one for the spare. They work well although there are reports of them becoming ineffective after a few months of use. We shall see.

Audi seemed lukewarm when I suggested that as an upgrade they put a motion sensor in keys which would deactivate the key signal after ten seconds of no movement. What a surprise.

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 2:30 pm
by Undried Plum
My keyless car is trivially simple for a car thief to steal. If I'm outside the car, but within a few metres of it with the fob in my pocket, any thief can simply jump in and drive away.

Then the thief's problems start.

Firstly, the car automatically transmits its position and velocity vector to me and to Tesla. Very simple for the Tesla techs to guide the police to intercept the car.

Then the thief will have a problem when eventually he stops. The car will not move again until I tell it to. I can even toot the horn remotely from my phone!

As the vast majority of Tesla car maintenance is done at Tesla depots and there are almost no backstreet garages or shade tree mechanics who work on these things, there isn't a ready black market for Tesla parts so it isn't suitable for the usual pikeys and other scrapyard scrotes.

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 2:34 pm
by Sisemen
Does your Tesla go Undried Plum? =))

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 3:50 pm
by Ibbie
Don't flatten the battery with it locked either. You wont get in it. Lifting ( not towing) and taking to aTesla maintenance venue is required.

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 4:10 pm
by Undried Plum
The computers run off the 12v battery, so recharging it would fix that problem quite easily.

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 5:20 pm
by llondel
How do you gain access to the 12V battery from outside a locked car?

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 5:23 pm
by Undried Plum
Good question. Never had to tackle that prob.

How does Tesla do it?

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 10:55 pm
by ExSp33db1rd
I keep my keyless entry ( not start ) on my belt. The screws holding it altogether worked loose unknown to me - following a battery change at the retailers - and the innards fell out. I could still enter and star using the metal keybit, but went back to the retailer and a new electronic innards cost me $400, which was cheaper than a genuine Honda replacement. Thinks ... did the retailer deliberately not totally tighten the screws ? Cynic ? Moi ? Any rate, I now check them frequently.

Just wait until we get driverless cars, we'll bemoan the fact that we never had it so good. Harold Macmillan was right.

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2018 12:04 am
by CharlieOneSix
I was reading my car’s handbook and it says that when a battery change is required it should only be done by a garage because of all the systems associated with it. Jobs for the boys or am I being cynical?

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2018 12:24 am
by ExSp33db1rd
Yes. My key man needed the car parked outside so that he could programme all the digital crap into the key with some WiFi/Bluetooth gadget that he had.

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 6:05 pm
by barkingmad
Good old-fashioned hi-vis steering wheel locks are still available in car accessory shops.

So what’s the problem.......?

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 6:37 pm
by ribrash
barkingmad wrote:
Mon Sep 30, 2019 6:05 pm
Good old-fashioned hi-vis steering wheel locks are still available in car accessory shops.

So what’s the problem.......?
+1

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 9:45 pm
by Smeagol
Problem is that idiot car marketing people (not the engineers, they only design what they are told) have created a problem that need not exist. Cars were getting pretty secure and car theft dropping significantly until 'keyless entry' came along at the request of nobody. So now to secure ones car one has to revert to secondary steering wheel locks.
Solution - dispense with Marketing Executives by the most expedient method.

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 9:59 pm
by Capetonian
My 2004 VW Golf diesel will probably need replacing as it is considered too 'polluting' for our enlightened times. Apart from electric windows and mirrors it has no 'mod cons'. I have had it for about 8 years and in the 3 years have done an average of less than 2000 miles/year in it. This year I have filled it 4 times, sometimes I forget how to release the fuel filler cap as I've driven so many other cars in between.

If I have to scrap it, I will be looking for a slightly newer car, definitely German, ideally an Audi A3 2.5 TdI, with a metal key that goes into a lock on the door and then into an ignition. It will have no bleeping peeping buzzing warning noises, no fancy systems, just basic.

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:45 am
by llondel
Smeagol wrote:
Mon Sep 30, 2019 9:45 pm
Solution - dispense with Marketing Executives by the most expedient method.
That's the B-Ark, isn't it?

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 5:23 am
by Rwy in Sight
Capetonian wrote:
Mon Sep 30, 2019 9:59 pm
My 2004 VW Golf diesel will probably need replacing as it is considered too 'polluting' for our enlightened times. Apart from electric windows and mirrors it has no 'mod cons'. I have had it for about 8 years and in the 3 years have done an average of less than 2000 miles/year in it. This year I have filled it 4 times, sometimes I forget how to release the fuel filler cap as I've driven so many other cars in between.

If I have to scrap it, I will be looking for a slightly newer car, definitely German, ideally an Audi A3 2.5 TdI, with a metal key that goes into a lock on the door and then into an ignition. It will have no bleeping peeping buzzing warning noises, no fancy systems, just basic.
I admire you for not enjoying the flexibility and easiness of pressing a button to unlock the doors a system reliable enough to be in use for more than a decade.

Re: Keyless Car Theft

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:28 am
by unifoxos
Considerably more than a decade, I think my first car with remote locking fitted as standard was 1990, and I had been fitting my own for some time prior to that. Who wants to stand in a dark car park with rain pissing down trying to find the hole to fit the key into, while his pax stand there getting wet?