2nd copy of car keys and fob?

On Sat, 22 Jul 2017 23:09:37 -0500, Paul in Houston TX wrote:

> [...] the key but it is in a safe place.

After my Dad first locked himself out of his '69 Pontiac, he always put a
spare set in the air breather outside of the air filter. (In those days,
one did not need to release the hood from inside the car.)

Things went okay until my brother locked himself out of the car one day,
and used the spare set, but by mistake put it back in the air breather
inside of the air filter.

A few weeks later, my Dad was driving the whole family on a sinuous gravel
road, and an impatient lead-foot in a pickup truck was tailing us way too
close because we were going too slow for him I guess. When we got to the
next fairly long strait stretch, my Dad slowed down and pulled to the right
to let him go by. But instead of just pulling to the left and advancing
ahead of us in a reasonable manner, the pickup gunned it, presumably to
make us eat more of his dust than necessary and shower our windshield with
a few pounds of road gravel.

I'm not sure of the exact displacement of our Pontiac, (389""" IIRC), but
it did have a 4-barrel V-8. And there was still enough room on the
straitaway for my Dad to go by the pickup truck and shower him with a few
pounds of road gravel.

However, flooring the gas pedal had the effect of causing the spare keys to
fall into the open throttle, effectively blocking it wide open. My Dad had
the time to *try* to lift up the linkage rod under the pedal (to no avail),
but with the straightaway coming to an end had to start controlling the
engine power by turning the ignition off and on repeatedly. Of course, he
could have simply turned it off completely, but he did not want to 'lose
face' with the stranger driving the pickup truck.

Every time he turned the ignition 'on', there was a huge flaming explosion
as the unburned fuel-air mix was ignited, until we were far enough ahead of
the pickup and luckily had reached the place where the new road made a
sharp turn, but the old road leading nowhere was still passable.

In case little kids might be reading this, I won't repeat here what was
said to my brother when my Dad found the cause of the carburator
malfunction.

On 7/23/2017 11:32 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:

> I just bought a new 2017 Toyota (would have gotten the 18, but they are
> butt ugly).

Yes, they are. Looks like the grafted part of the ugly Lexus grill on
the front of it.




>
> The key fits inside the fob. It is a flat piece of metal and there are
> some notchies on the side. I have not had time to check it out,but
> think that key has some kind of electronics in it also. That way you
> can use the key if the battery in the fob goes bad. The book says the
> fob battery will only last about 2 years. I guess it is sending out a
> signal all the time. The push button to unlock the doors on the other
> car and truck fobs are 10 years old and still work.

Sounds like the same setup I have on my Genesis. I don't think the key
has electronics. I've had the car for 22 months and just put the second
battery in the fob. My wife has never used hers and I just put the
first battery in that one.

In rec.autos.tech, on Mon, 24 Jul 2017 00:10:44 -0400, Mike_Duffy
> wrote:

>On Sat, 22 Jul 2017 23:09:37 -0500, Paul in Houston TX wrote:
>
>> [...] the key but it is in a safe place.
>
>After my Dad first locked himself out of his '69 Pontiac, he always put a
>spare set in the air breather outside of the air filter. (In those days,
>one did not need to release the hood from inside the car.)

I remember.
>
>Things went okay until my brother locked himself out of the car one day,
>and used the spare set, but by mistake put it back in the air breather
>inside of the air filter.
>
>A few weeks later, my Dad was driving the whole family on a sinuous gravel
>road, and an impatient lead-foot in a pickup truck was tailing us way too
>close because we were going too slow for him I guess. When we got to the
>next fairly long strait stretch, my Dad slowed down and pulled to the right
>to let him go by. But instead of just pulling to the left and advancing
>ahead of us in a reasonable manner, the pickup gunned it, presumably to
>make us eat more of his dust than necessary and shower our windshield with
>a few pounds of road gravel.
>
>I'm not sure of the exact displacement of our Pontiac, (389""" IIRC), but
>it did have a 4-barrel V-8.

I only had one of those, a '58 Ford... well it was my mother's and the
salesman told her it was used by the state police.

> And there was still enough room on the
>straitaway for my Dad to go by the pickup truck and shower him with a few
>pounds of road gravel.
>
>However, flooring the gas pedal had the effect of causing the spare keys to
>fall into the open throttle, effectively blocking it wide open. My Dad had
>the time to *try* to lift up the linkage rod under the pedal (to no avail),
>but with the straightaway coming to an end had to start controlling the
>engine power by turning the ignition off and on repeatedly. Of course, he
>could have simply turned it off completely, but he did not want to 'lose
>face' with the stranger driving the pickup truck.

ROTFLWTIME

>
>Every time he turned the ignition 'on', there was a huge flaming explosion
>as the unburned fuel-air mix was ignited, until we were far enough ahead of
>the pickup and luckily had reached the place where the new road made a
>sharp turn, but the old road leading nowhere was still passable.
>
>In case little kids might be reading this, I won't repeat here what was
>said to my brother when my Dad found the cause of the carburator
>malfunction.

So after you stopped the car, I presume you could get the keys out and
it was normal again?

On Mon, 24 Jul 2017 02:58:42 -0400, micky wrote:

> So after you stopped the car, I presume you could get the keys out and
> it was normal again?

Yes. Normal except my Mom didn't speak to my Dad the rest of the way home.
I suppose that for her, the safety of the kids was more important than a
masculine expression of roadway etiquette. Us kids were not worried,
because that was was the first car we had with seat belts, and we always
buckled-up, even on twisty low-speed gravel.

A week later, you could still see black patches where the explosions had
blown away the loose gravel from the hardpacked sections.

On 7/22/17 8:48 PM, micky wrote:
> How many of you carry a 2nd copy of your car keys and fob, when you're
> in town?
>
> When you go out of town?
>
>
>
> Before I had a fob, I carried a second car key for 10 or 20 years, but I
> stopped a while ago. I have a spare housekey and carkey buried in my
> yard somewhere, but I've never trusted magnetic keyholders for cars. I
> thought either it would fall off or someone would find it, since there
> are so few good places to put it. So I carried the dupe in my pocket.
>

My recent model upscale ride has keyless ignition and proximity sensors.
With the fob in my pocket, locked front doors open when I grab either
handle and the trunk opens when I touch its hidden sensor.

--
Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time or money
making it.

On 07/23/2017 11:32 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:

> Really burns me up that the duplicate keya are so expensive. With all
> the inexpensive electronic gear out that is much more complicated
> someone is making a killing on the duplicate car keys.
>
> I just bought a new 2017 Toyota (would have gotten the 18, but they are
> butt ugly). It has the keyless start where you just push a button, and
> even the doors will lock and unlock with just a touch of your hand if
> you have the FOB with you.
>
> The key fits inside the fob. It is a flat piece of metal and there are
> some notchies on the side. I have not had time to check it out,but
> think that key has some kind of electronics in it also. That way you
> can use the key if the battery in the fob goes bad. The book says the
> fob battery will only last about 2 years. I guess it is sending out a
> signal all the time. The push button to unlock the doors on the other
> car and truck fobs are 10 years old and still work.

Maybe things have become more complicated and more expensive recently,
but it's my understanding that I can program a new key for our '02
Chrysler with some kind of "key-dance" routine as long as we still have
one already-programed key.

Perce

On 07/24/2017 06:54 AM, Wade Garrett wrote:
> On 7/22/17 8:48 PM, micky wrote:
>> How many of you carry a 2nd copy of your car keys and fob, when
>> you're in town?
>>
>> When you go out of town?
>>
>> Before I had a fob, I carried a second car key for 10 or 20 years,
>> but I stopped a while ago. I have a spare housekey and carkey
>> buried in my yard somewhere, but I've never trusted magnetic
>> keyholders for cars. I thought either it would fall off or someone
>> would find it, since there are so few good places to put it. So I
>> carried the dupe in my pocket.
>
> My recent model upscale ride has keyless ignition and proximity
> sensors. With the fob in my pocket, locked front doors open when I
> grab either handle and the trunk opens when I touch its hidden
> sensor.

Having keyless ignition without proximity sensors seems annoyingly
useless. You have the key in your hand to open the door, but where do
you put it then if not in the handy storage slot? Drop it on the floor?
Put it in a nonexistent pocket? On the seat where it can drop down
into the memory hole between the seats? In my purse where I have to
spend time finding it when I have to lock the car when I leave?

Friend's Lexus has the prox sensors, but you have to push a button on
the key to lock it when you leave. The side mirrors obligingly fold
down when it's locked so you know that it's locked.

One more useless thing that will probably immobilize the car when
Something Goes Wrong.

I do like having a modern key, though. Although I thought it was kind
of dumb before I had it, just pushing a button (sometimes exactly the
wrong one) to open things is nice.

Speaking of infinity holes... My husband's wallet fell out of his suit
pocket and into the memory hole, where we didn't find it for two years.
We thought it was stolen out of the house and caused major nuisance.

--
Cheers, Bev
"Incontinence hotline, can you hold?"

micky posted for all of us...


>
> How many of you carry a 2nd copy of your car keys and fob, when you're
> in town?
>
> When you go out of town?
>
>
>
> Before I had a fob, I carried a second car key for 10 or 20 years, but I
> stopped a while ago. I have a spare housekey and carkey buried in my
> yard somewhere, but I've never trusted magnetic keyholders for cars. I
> thought either it would fall off or someone would find it, since there
> are so few good places to put it. So I carried the dupe in my pocket.

It depends on the car regarding keys and fobs.

I would not hide it behind a license plate. If they want to steal the car
they will switch plates and find the key.

I have newer cars and keyless start with fobs. I haven't really thought
about losing the key/fob. You just gave me agita worrying about it.

--
Tekkie

On 7/24/2017 12:28 PM, The Real Bev wrote:

> Having keyless ignition without proximity sensors seems annoyingly
> useless. You have the key in your hand to open the door, but where do
> you put it then if not in the handy storage slot? Drop it on the floor?
> Put it in a nonexistent pocket? On the seat where it can drop down
> into the memory hole between the seats? In my purse where I have to
> spend time finding it when I have to lock the car when I leave?
>
> Friend's Lexus has the prox sensors, but you have to push a button on
> the key to lock it when you leave. The side mirrors obligingly fold
> down when it's locked so you know that it's locked.

My Genesis can be locked by touching a button on the handle. One touch,
all doors lock. You can open the trunk just by standing in back of the
car for 3 seconds. I've found that to be very handy at times.

The Lexus doors should lock with the handle too. Maybe that model does
not or your friend does not know how to do it.

With all the technology in cars, it is very possible to not know of some
features. Or dual function buttons that do different thing in different
modes.
>

On 07/24/2017 10:43 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> On 7/24/2017 12:28 PM, The Real Bev wrote:
>
>> Having keyless ignition without proximity sensors seems annoyingly
>> useless. You have the key in your hand to open the door, but where do
>> you put it then if not in the handy storage slot? Drop it on the floor?
>> Put it in a nonexistent pocket? On the seat where it can drop down
>> into the memory hole between the seats? In my purse where I have to
>> spend time finding it when I have to lock the car when I leave?
>>
>> Friend's Lexus has the prox sensors, but you have to push a button on
>> the key to lock it when you leave. The side mirrors obligingly fold
>> down when it's locked so you know that it's locked.
>
> My Genesis can be locked by touching a button on the handle. One touch,
> all doors lock. You can open the trunk just by standing in back of the
> car for 3 seconds. I've found that to be very handy at times.
>
> The Lexus doors should lock with the handle too. Maybe that model does
> not or your friend does not know how to do it.

He probably does, he just told me how to do it when I went to his car to
get something. He calls my Corolla the cheap Lexus.

> With all the technology in cars, it is very possible to not know of some
> features. Or dual function buttons that do different thing in different
> modes.

The Lexus was a nice car to drive. If my mom had asked my advice I
would have told her to get one instead of the POS 88 Caddy which
replaced the POS 78 Caddy. Not as much fun to drive as the S2000,
though, even if I botched half the shifts.

--
Cheers, Bev
SAVE GAS, FART IN A JAR