Weird, or what?

[Robwhite]

I went to see somebody in Fishponds on Tuesday and when I came to leave the immobiliser would not turn off and the car would not start. I assumed that the plipper battery was flat and my son came out with the spare, but that was just as dead. By then the householder told me that I was the 3rd such "victim" outside his house in the last 5 weeks. I called the Subara Rescue service who by-passed the immobiliser and started the car. We drove round the corner and all was well and has been ever since. Evidently "rogue radio signals" can block the plipper. I'd have said it was b****cks, but three events in 5 weeks??

[V8S]

I think that is fairly conclusive proof for the all nay sayers.

Reliability List (Most Reliable First)

1. TVR
2. Subaru

[sgrimshaw]

Robwhite said:

I went to see somebody in Fishponds on Tuesday and when I came to leave the immobiliser would not turn off and the car would not start. I assumed that the plipper battery was flat and my son came out with the spare, but that was just as dead. By then the householder told me that I was the 3rd such "victim" outside his house in the last 5 weeks. I called the Subara Rescue service who by-passed the immobiliser and started the car. We drove round the corner and all was well and has been ever since. Evidently "rogue radio signals" can block the plipper. I'd have said it was b****cks, but three events in 5 weeks??

I used to get this problem occasionally with my Impreza, especially at Membury services (Eastbound) where the big mast is.

I found that if I opened the Glovebox and placed the plipper right in front of the alarm keypad it would then work.

Never failed to work for me once I discovered it, be worth trying if it ever does it to you again.

Of course you should be able to disable the immobiliser with the keypad anyway - but I could never remember the darned pin number.

[remedy]

That's interesting. I'm not sure if it's related but I found that my Swift's keyless entry would not work when my tomtom was in the same pocket as my keys. I pulled the tomtom out and it worked straight away?

[Red 938]

Hiab truck crane remote controllers can override blippers on quite a few cars. I found this out by chance when one of our drivers was using his crane in a public car park and a lady was having trouble getting into her car, after the crane was turned off she didnt have the problem, we tested this a couple of times and it always happened when the crane was on, the range on these units is 300-400 yards easily and the signal over powers everything else, so this may have been a possiblity even if you didnt see anything that you might suspect as causing the problem.

[Stubby Pete]

Hope you managed to sort it Rob,
If not I know a locksmith who can reprogramme transponder keys cheaper than dealers.