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What gives with the remote control craze?

Tom Greenleaf on Tue December 07, 2004 6:47 PM User is offline

Country of Origin: United States

These stupid things do a lot of harm. Now I notice that passenger doors on many newer cars don't have a key lock for opening the door by KEY!!!! I'm so happy that Zillion dollar car companies saved another $10 bucks!

Just coming out of an ice storm in parts of New England. If one side is frozen you can usually get in the other and warm the car up.

The remotes don't work with a dead battery so you are stuck. You have to smile when someone puts their remote in their pocket and doesn't notice that the trunk just got opened and filled with snow and or ice/rain and with the trunk light on the battery is dead next time you need that car.

I don't own a car remote and none ever had one. I do take care of some ageing folks that cling to these things like they were grandchildren!

What ever happened to just using keys with a car? Just my observation for fun for the day. I'll never change the world but am amused, be well, Tom Greenleaf

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Tom Greenleaf

JJM on Wed December 08, 2004 1:14 AM User is offline

Tom,

The one remote feature I'm gonna miss on the 2005 DTS that I had on the 1991 Cougar since new is the Clifford Avant Guard II system, which not only locked and unlocked the doors, unlocked the trunk, opened and closed the windows, but also remotely started the car. Installing this system required pretty much gutting the entire interior (I still have photos of this horror) with some 60, 70, 80 leads from the control units, and nearly 40 hours of labor (I do nice NEAT work). But the system worked perfectly (and still works) right up until the end.

I never had to worry about frozen locks with this system - start it remotely and let it run for about 10 minutes and you never had to worry about the locks or doors being frozen shut. I heard the new STS now has that as a feature... LOL, I had it 15 years ago. Never had to worry about grinding the starter while the engine was running either.

You almost don't need a key (other than for the PassKey III security) to start the new DTS anyway, a simple momentary twist of the ignition and the engine cranks itself until it starts (similar to what Caddy experimented with in the late 50's on its top of the line models). Apparently, much of the remote start equipment is already in there - all they needed to do was link it up to the remote. Probably worried about lawsuits thought.

Joe

GM Tech on Wed December 08, 2004 7:54 AM User is offline

The new Pontiac G6 has remote start as a factory option- now- I saw it in the service manual- have yet to play with it-

I have remote starts on all my vehicles- great in the winter- can get as far away as 1050 feet to activate- yes I stepped it off - I have installed about 35 units for mostly family and friends- find they make great Christmas presents- you "borrow" their car for a day-a couple of weeks before Christmas- fix a headlight or the like-- install the remote starter system- with no obvious tracks left that you'd been in there- then you wrap up the two remotes- give it to them on Christmas day- and they press the start button- and their car outside starts-- they are generally amazed/surprised and most happy! I did this for my inlaws, parents etc--- also had guys at work do it for their wives-- works out great...........

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The number one A/C diagnostic tool there is- is to know how much refrigerant is in the system- this can only be done by recovering and weighing the refrigerant!!
Just a thought.... 65% of A/C failures in my 3200 car diagnostic database (GM vehicles) are due to loss of refrigerant due to a leak......

Chick on Wed December 08, 2004 8:10 AM User is offlineView users profile

I install the auto-start on all my cars...Getting way to old to sit in a freezing car anymore.. Even if the car is far away, it sounds the horn and turns on the headlights so you know it's working.(There are many configurations you can use, even on the cheap ones)..Although on throttle body injection, I do have to hook up the tach wire, or the car will give all indications of starting, but just doesn't..Gives it three trys, but below zero it's just not enough for altenator put-out...Hooking to the tach is the key..Now I start it and finish my coffee, feed the penguins, and get into a nice warm car.... And thats on an 89 S-10 now....

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Chick
Email: Chick

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Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose

NickD on Wed December 08, 2004 8:20 AM User is offline

It kind of swings from one extreme to the other, on many farm tractors, motorhomes, camping trailers, all were using the same key. For years, GM was only using seven different trunk and door keys for literally millions of different cars. Not very protective. I also have a good friend that is a locksmith, he can get into anything with a key on it in a matter of seconds, it makes the idea of anything with an old fashion key on it is next to worthless and this includes those double bolt locks on your house doors. Electronics does provide a degree of safety with billions of combinations not possible with anything mechanical, but it must have a power source to work.

I go along with GMtech on the aftermarket remotes as at least the owner can do his own programming, while the OE's would let a guy do this with a jumper lead in the early 90's, today you need a scanner with esoteric software to program the darn things and losing a key or making a replacement can be a very expensive proposition. Course. if the least little thing that goes wrong with these things, and the owner can't start his vehicle, even with the right key.

Ha, one way to get around this is to drive a vehicle you wish someone would steal to save you the headaches of trying to repair it.

Ha, make sure your hood latch is in good shape, rust free, and well greased, I let one go a few years back, pulled on the release and the entire cable came out, that was not easy trying to open that hood.

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