Comment by Crosseye_Jack

Comment by Crosseye_Jack 17 hours ago

With practice raking doesn't take that much time and "usually" comes with the benefit of not tripping the alarm that the door was opened (because the car "thinks" the door has just been unlocked with a key).

<EDIT> Seems HN has different experiences with their cars then my own, So I'll concede the idea that the alarm doesn't trip when using the key. It seems the cars I've had in the past are the exception to the rule. </EDIT>

The thing is, in the real world, no one really looks twice when someone gets into a car unless they are using obvious brute force to get into the car.

Kirby64 16 hours ago

Not true for most alarm systems. If the car is locked, then any opening without the key fob unlock button will trigger the alarm in my experience.

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xeromal 16 hours ago

My 2001 seqouia's battery recently died. I unlocked the car with the key and when I hooked up the jumper cables the alarm went off until I turned the ignition to on. I was surprised it was that good

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testing22321 17 hours ago

I had a non electronic key cut for my Jeep so I could zip tie it under the frame for emergency use. It will not start the engine, but does open the door locks. When I open the doors with it, the alarm goes off.

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HPsquared 17 hours ago

I think that mechanical key behaviour depends on the car. I'm pretty sure my BMW sets off the alarm if I use the mechanical backup key, but it turns off when I put the key in the ignition slot.

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Crosseye_Jack 16 hours ago

Yeah, I think it is car dependant. But the car I use (gave up my own car, but the family has a shared "work horse" car we are all insured on.) is a 10 year old UK Ford fiesta and that car doesn't trip the alarm if the door is unlocked with the key, and its not the transponder in the key, cause one of the keys to that car doesn't have a transponder and the keys get mixed up from time to time (So you only know you have picked up the wrong key only when you insert the key into the ignition and the immobilizer light is a solid red light - 3 keys, one with a fob, 2 without a fob, one of which has a failed transponder chip in it, these two keys look the same and not one of us has been arsed enough to take both keys to the car, figure out which doesn't work and label it :-P).
(One day, when I can be arsed, I'll rekey the car and reprogram it with fresh transponders, but today is not that day!)

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- dornan 16 hours ago
  
  Put a piece of tape or some paint on the handle part of the no-transponder key so you don't mix it up any more. Less effort than the "full-arse" solution.
  
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  Crosseye_Jack 16 hours ago
  
  We keep saying we are going to do something like that, but we keep forgetting because we normally in "Go do task" mode when we grab the keys. Its not too much of an issue because we will normally grab the fob key, it only becomes and issue when one of us forget to put the fob key back when being done with the car.
  But "reprogramming" a key (more like adding a key) on that model of ford just involves doing a dance with the fob key then inserting the key with the new transponder. So we plan to get all keys working on the car at some point. I was just going to order a new chip but my bother was complaining about the key barrel being a bit loose on him so just doing to replace everything at some point. Its just more about not being lazy about it :-P
  Thing is, its what we call "the work horse" car of the family, it gets used about once a week to do tasks no one wants to do in their own cars (or when I need to do something in a car), so its not really a high priority thing to fix, but if we are going fix it might as well do it "right")
  
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