Fitz

Hi All,

Just thought I'd share a little problem I had yesterday that had me waiting by the roadside for a while as the Scoob wouldn't start.

Basically, went in to Shell garage to fill up with Optimax.
Filled up, went to pay and as always as walking to the shop set the
alarm. Noticed it didn't set. Thought it was odd, but maybe was a little to far away. Nothing of value in car so carried on into shop
to pay for said petrol.

Made way back to car, turned ignition and then blipped the keyfob as alarm had timed out. Huh, nothing. Tried again. Still nothing.

Thought battery may have gone already. Nope. Red light flashing. Went outside car pointed it at every angle towards the bonnet. Still nothing.

No problem. Will use the keypad override. Now, either I typed in
the wrong number (finger trouble) or did something wrong. but still nothing. Didn't want to do this too often in case it locked me out so only tried it twice.

Next action. Ring Subaru assistance. Before did that went into garage to tell them I was blocking one of their pumps and guy said
he'd help me push it out of the way, but he'd get someone else to do that !!!

Little chap comes out asks what problem is. Explained this to him.
He then says. Oh, is it a Subaru ? Yes, I say how do you know that.
I didn't say what pump it was and this guy had come out of the back
of the shop as he was on a tea break.

He then explained that he spends half his life pushing Scoobs away from pumps when they can't start their cars due to the alarm/imm
not disengaging.

"It's the tall mast over there that houses all those phone transmitters that's the problem. As soon we move it away from the canopy over there it will work. I promise you"

And he was 100% spot. Pushed it all off 20 yards and it works.

So if you have a similar problem, look out to see if there are any
phone/signal masts near and try moving the car to see if it then works.

I imagine it must be that the frequencies the keyfob uses must be
of a similar range to that of the mast is outputing and the interference is stopping the receiver getting the signal.

Hope it helps anyone else in case they hit the same problem.

Cheers,
Chris

ps. Forgot to mention. What a nice chap the guys in the Shell garage were. suggested a fix, helped by pushing my Scoob. Just goes to show there is some decent Customer service in this country. Shame it's the exception, not the rule.

uktony

The big public car park in Blackpool is a similar no go area.

My old MY00 refused to start and doing the manual override had no effect. At least you know you can do it more than once and it won't lock you out.

Rang Subaru Assistance and the AA (it was busy and the wait was 3+ hours) who helped me push it 400+ yards. Only then was I out of range and could get it going. (Why they couldn't tell me to do that over the phone, I don't know.)

There is a smaller car park in the town that has a sign that basically says "If you drive a citroen, don't park here"!

I blame the police; it's their transmitter.

ukT

nraponi

I had exactly the same problem when I took my old MY00 to Robinsons (Rochdale) - alarm wouldn't arm/disarm. The guy there said that it was also due to the police transmitter nearby. (I'd had it happen a couple of other times in the past - but had no idea why).

Apparently they get something changed on the alarms for the cars they sell that stops this being a problem. The Sti definately doesn't have the same problem.

Nick

Nick

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Surely you lot must have a way to disable your immobiliser manually? (read the manual that comes with the alarm )

Tony

Steve 555

From all accounts, it depends on the frequency range of your individual car. For example, 2 prodrives parked side by side, one may be affected by the transmitter \ transmissions and the other one not. The frequency range on the one affected is closer to the police band and because the signal is so strong it bleeds over and your low powered key fob can not get through. If you are experiencing this, take it back to the dealer and they will get the frequency changed (FOC) to another further away from the police band.

Hope this explains it

Steve

Fitz

Thx for the pointer Steve. Aren't these newer alarms all on the same frequency though and use encryption to id the keyfob to the
receiver ?

Managed to dig out the handbook and under the trouble shooting section it does state that if the system won't arm/disarm then check for radio masts !!! Solution drive the car out of range.
Hmmm, slight flaw in that

What I did manage to sort out was how to override the system. It doesn't seem to cope very well with the timeout as expects the car to be totally armed or disarmed. So only way I could see to override in this particular case was to

turn off ignition
leave a door open
type in pin number (this attempts to arm system)
type in pin number again (to cancel)

then you've got 30 secs again to start car.

seems a bit daft why you cant type in pin number when ignition is
on like bliping the keyfob. Anyone else managed to do it in a different way.

[Edited by Fitz - 8/21/2002 10:08:11 AM]