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I was sat in the waiting room at hospital this week and they had a show on TV talking about this. On the show they mentioned keeping your keys in the fridge as a preventative method.

thanatu55 wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:18 pm I was sat in the waiting room at hospital this week and they had a show on TV talking about this. On the show they mentioned keeping your keys in the fridge as a preventative method.

I'd be a little concerned about condensation on the electronics when taking it out of the fridge into a warm room, although it should really be sealed well enough for this not to be a problem.

Thinking about this a bit more, surely the thieves would only be able to link to your key fob within it's normal effective range? e.g. they would need to be within a couple of metres of the key fob to pick up enough signal to amplify it back to the car. The range of the key fob is very small (for the keyless entry function, not for when you press a button on it, which is significantly further), so as long as your key fob is out of range of the exterior of your building, you should be fine?
Dropping the key fob in a metal box, even without a lid, would probably cut this range down even further - it wouldn't need to be a perfect faraday cage to do the job well enough.
Just my thoughts, and without one of these signal amplifiers, impossible to test.

Edit: Just to add to the above - you can see the thief holding the transceiver as close as possible to the building, particularly the windows (path of greatest reception/least interference) and moving it all around trying to get a signal. This would indicate to me that the range is very short.

Google autowatch ghost imobiliser they can't steal your car even with the keys.

There's alot of chat of Autowatch Ghost on babybmw but my view is take out GAP insurance and hope if your car is nicked it's not recovered. I keep the cars key fobs in shielded pouches now and don't worry about it.

Tim.

Lol - My neighbour is now totally paranoid about his SQ7, so much so that he's now backing it up under the house every night with 2 cars in front, first time in 10 years he's put anything up the drive.

Mike

Can the keyless entry be disabled so that people cannot use this method to steal cars?
I think I would rather have the hassle of using the key over the worry of somebody stealing it.

If the car is on stop/start, once it is out of range and stops, will it start again?

Earlier post mentioned 'good old days of pressing a button on the keyfob' - that is not the good old days! The crims went and got themselves a reader that read from about 50 feet away the rolling code of the keys when you pressed it, and resorted to hiding in car parks, and playing it back to the car with the reader to open it.

Good old days is sticking a key in the strange slot on the door and twisting it to undo the lock.

Gazc wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2017 11:20 pm Google autowatch ghost imobiliser they can't steal your car even with the keys.

I like the look of that. Id like to know how it works with stop start.

Back in the early 90's my mate had a Pug 1.9 GTi that had a little keypad fitted and only his pin would start the car.

Wonder why that sort of system never really took off.

enzed4 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2017 1:31 amThinking about this a bit more, surely the thieves would only be able to link to your key fob within it's normal effective range? e.g. they would need to be within a couple of metres of the key fob to pick up enough signal to amplify it back to the car. The range of the key fob is very small (for the keyless entry function, not for when you press a button on it, which is significantly further), so as long as your key fob is out of range of the exterior of your building, you should be fine?

I might start putting my keys in the loft

Paulr wrote: ↑Fri Nov 03, 2017 2:01 pm Good old days is sticking a key in the strange slot on the door and twisting it to undo the lock.

Yeah, because no one ever had any cars stolen back in the day your love of nostalgia has warped your memory

If you've got it on your BMW and this worries you it's easy to disable in the idrive system. Might be peace of mind for some but obviously you will have to go back to manually unlocking/locking with the key

TitanTim wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2017 7:51 pm

BMWZ4MC wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2017 6:38 pm Have you a link please Tim?

Just enter Defender Signal Blocker into Amazon. I paid £5.49 for the grey pouch.

Sorry I put a link in but it keeps showing my order postcode

For the sake of a few quid has to be worth it after seeing that video and how easy it is to get into the car.

Tim.

This thing is enormous ... has anyone come across one that just does keys, please?

Are these things worth it at all? I mean they can just put a hammer in the window plug a reader into the OBD port and code a new key in seconds there and then anyway? Google Audi RS4 gone in 90s. all it requires is a £90 key coder and a blank key.

Best bet is a disc lock and or relocate the OBD port to somewhere they can't find quickly.

Kingfisher wrote: ↑Wed Nov 08, 2017 11:25 am

TitanTim wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2017 7:51 pm

BMWZ4MC wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2017 6:38 pm Have you a link please Tim?

Just enter Defender Signal Blocker into Amazon. I paid £5.49 for the grey pouch.

Sorry I put a link in but it keeps showing my order postcode

For the sake of a few quid has to be worth it after seeing that video and how easy it is to get into the car.

Tim.

This thing is enormous ... has anyone come across one that just does keys, please?

I bought one of the Defender pouches (which are actually designed to put a mobile phone in) I found that it would just about take two car key fobs attached to small keyrings. Any more and I wouldn't have been able to fold and secure the flap properly. I can confirm that they do work well - I stood next to my car holding the pouch with the fobs inside and tried opening the door - nothing

[/quote]
I bought one of the Defender pouches (which are actually designed to put a mobile phone in) I found that it would just about take two car key fobs attached to small keyrings. Any more and I wouldn't have been able to fold and secure the flap properly. I can confirm that they do work well - I stood next to my car holding the pouch with the fobs inside and tried opening the door - nothing
[/quote]

OK thanks for the info ... I'll order one! ...