CAR KEY....Revived!
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IBjones
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All the roller locks are like that. Every stolen bike call I responded to in Houston the cable was never cut. The combo was just "picked" by rolling the dial and feeling for the shear line. Reason is, carrying burglar tools to cut the cable was faster, but made it a felony in Texas, picking the lock without burglar tools was just a misdemeanor. Three felonies and you're "habitual" under the 3-strikes law, and "out of business" so to speak for many many years.
I've seen those "fire safe"boxes like they sell at WalMart opened that way. Tumbler locks work on the same principle. Move the tumbler up/down with the pick until you feel the shear line. I worked off-duty at a warehouse one time 9pm to 6 am. Boring as hell. So I carried a set of lock picks with me and goofed around opening all the doors to have something to do. Hundreds of them in the warehouse. Fastest time was 4 seconds, and I think that was just an accident. Most all the others were in the 45 second time range. The Medeco brand locks are the hardest to pick, some of them I never got into after like 20 minutes I gave up. Most of those were on the executives offices. That's the difference in the $24.95 door knob and the $99 door knob at Lowes.
The only reason the realtor safes are so secure isn't because they're secure. It's because everyone knows the house is supposed to be empty so if they see you standing on the front porch fooling with the safe combo for 15 minutes, they know to call the cops. That's why realtors hang them on the front porch door knob and not the back door knob. Besides, any decent thief isn't going to stand on the front porch under the porch light and fool with the safe combo for 15 minutes. Only harmless weed-head dumb neighborhood kids looking for a place to get high do that. Real crooks go in thru a busted back window or just go around to the back door out of sight and kick it in.
I have major problems with this. Every car I have bought in the last few years will not allow the FOB to be locked in the car. The locks simply wont engage. I don't have the push button proximity system either. It just knows that the FOB is in the car. I wish there was a way to take the FOB on the dive but I have experimented with several underwater rated boxes and every one has leaked if you're doing even a semi deep dive. I have had to hide them around the car somewhere and hope that no one finds them. I would love to hear what people with this problem do. I don't know if the hitch would be too close.
My first idea is to ask the dealer to turn off/diasble that feature.....
I also wonder if one of those "RF blocking baggies" might do the trick.
This sounds like a case where a dive light with no batteries would be your best bet for an underwater "box" for your fob.
Or maybe one of those bags that is made to let you use a smartphone as an underwater camera? Or maybe even a GoPro underwater housing? The Dive housing is rated for 200'/60m....
IBjones
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A receiver hitch safe would work. Proximity keys have to be within a couple of feet of the ignition for them to pick up the RF signal from the key. They work like those little stickers they put on merchandise in stores. You walk by the antenna on your way out of the store and if the metal in the sticker hasn't been deactivated at the register the alarm goes off. If the ignition can't receive the signal from the key it won't start the car.
When I was a cop we had a problem with lost keys or officers forgetting and taking the only chip key (proximity key) home after their shift. A dumb key wouldn't start the car only unlock the doors. Was costing lots of money to have new chip keys made every few weeks when one got lost.
What we ended up doing was taking the chip key and duct taping it under the steering column. Left it there permanently. The car thought the chip key was in the ignition because it was close enough to receive the signal from the key, so we could use the dumb key to unlock and start and drive the car. If the officer took his key home or lost it, no problem, we just cut another dumb key, cost 40 cents.
The proximity key doesn't have to actually be *in* the ignition, it just has to be within a couple of feet of it.
You might try getting one of those lead-lined camera film bags on ebay. Once you put your fob in there, the lead lining would block the signal from the fob and your car wouldn't know the fob was inside the vehicle.
On my 2016 Ford F150 I can leave the keys (with fob) in the truck, even in the ignition, and lock the doors manually by pushing the lock button on the door down. I do that when it's hot outside and I have my dog in the truck and need to go inside a store for a few minutes and I want to leave the motor running so the AC stays on. Yours might work the same. The fob might not lock the doors but you might be able to lock them manually.
frndrfoe
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Maybe this? Key Valet | Key FOB
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Yeah I was gunna say that. You also may have to deal with turning off the car alarm after using the metal key to open the car between & after dives. My new chip key can be made here in Destin but I won't have it tomorrow when we meet at Panama City Beach. Will have to ask you to stow my only key with you when we dive the jetties!
Unrelated but out of curiosity-- Has anyone recently bought a new car and requested a simple metal key that opens and starts the car with no chip? Is this possible today?
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