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This was posted on the Mazda6Tech forum, and I am pasting the original poster's message to save me from having to type the whole thing all over again.
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rrafig wrote: Figured I'd share my experience about the remote starter with you guys.
I got it installed when I bought the car. I like a few things about it but there are quite a few annoyances.
Sometimes it doesn't start the car if I'm too far away and I have no way of knowing since it's not 2 way. That doesn't happen very often, but it does if there are too many things between you and the car.
I've found the range to be surprisingly good. (I can start my car from the 10th floor before I head downstairs.)
I like the fact that the keyfob is very small, though I'd like to see it integrated on the car's key.
Now the problems I have with it:
As already pointed out, when the remote is active you can only open the driver's door.
This is SUCH, SUCH an inconvenience. I can't even describe how frustraded I've been with it. I actually think it was a bug some engineer found on late stage of productions and they made it into a "feature".
This is a big one and you have to be very careful with it. I live in Canada, winter is cold and that's why I have the remote starter.
Well, one morning I started the car via the remote, waited a little bit then I went to the car put the key in the ignition and turned it to the ON position. Walked out of the car and got the snow brush to clean the car. There was a lot of snow so I took 5 minutes to clean, when I was done the car had locked itself with the keys in the ignition. The car was still on, my keys inside and the house locked. I had to break a window to get inside my house to get my spare key. It was either that or freeze my ass off.
What happened was, after 10 or 15 minutes the remote shuts off, it doesn't check if the doors are open or not. It just locks by default when it shuts off the engine. Well, because the key was in the on position the car did not shut off but the doors still locked when the remote starter disengaged. Ok, now what kind of design is this that doesn't check if the key is in the ignition before locking the car???
What if I had a small child in the back seat? What kind of hazzard is this?
I mean, I drive 2hrs to work every day and the car never locks itself when it's moving but as soon as you walk out without your keys... BAM, it's locked. I've learned my lesson. Keep the keys with me at all times, but this is just a heads up for you guys.
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I tried re-creating the same conditions (with the exception of removing the snow, none here at the moment) and got the same result. Fortunately I had my spare key in hand. One more disturbing thing was that while the doors were indeed all locked with the key in the ignition and the car running my spare remote would NOT unlock the doors, and the spare remote start unit would not shut the car off. The only thing I could do was put the spare key in the door lock and unlock the car manually.
I realize this may be a bit of an unusual set of circumstances but still, I have to agree that there's something wrong if the car will lock itself with the key in the ignition.
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rrafig wrote: Figured I'd share my experience about the remote starter with you guys.
I got it installed when I bought the car. I like a few things about it but there are quite a few annoyances.
Sometimes it doesn't start the car if I'm too far away and I have no way of knowing since it's not 2 way. That doesn't happen very often, but it does if there are too many things between you and the car.
I've found the range to be surprisingly good. (I can start my car from the 10th floor before I head downstairs.)
I like the fact that the keyfob is very small, though I'd like to see it integrated on the car's key.
Now the problems I have with it:
As already pointed out, when the remote is active you can only open the driver's door.
This is SUCH, SUCH an inconvenience. I can't even describe how frustraded I've been with it. I actually think it was a bug some engineer found on late stage of productions and they made it into a "feature".
This is a big one and you have to be very careful with it. I live in Canada, winter is cold and that's why I have the remote starter.
Well, one morning I started the car via the remote, waited a little bit then I went to the car put the key in the ignition and turned it to the ON position. Walked out of the car and got the snow brush to clean the car. There was a lot of snow so I took 5 minutes to clean, when I was done the car had locked itself with the keys in the ignition. The car was still on, my keys inside and the house locked. I had to break a window to get inside my house to get my spare key. It was either that or freeze my ass off.
What happened was, after 10 or 15 minutes the remote shuts off, it doesn't check if the doors are open or not. It just locks by default when it shuts off the engine. Well, because the key was in the on position the car did not shut off but the doors still locked when the remote starter disengaged. Ok, now what kind of design is this that doesn't check if the key is in the ignition before locking the car???
What if I had a small child in the back seat? What kind of hazzard is this?
I mean, I drive 2hrs to work every day and the car never locks itself when it's moving but as soon as you walk out without your keys... BAM, it's locked. I've learned my lesson. Keep the keys with me at all times, but this is just a heads up for you guys.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I tried re-creating the same conditions (with the exception of removing the snow, none here at the moment) and got the same result. Fortunately I had my spare key in hand. One more disturbing thing was that while the doors were indeed all locked with the key in the ignition and the car running my spare remote would NOT unlock the doors, and the spare remote start unit would not shut the car off. The only thing I could do was put the spare key in the door lock and unlock the car manually.
I realize this may be a bit of an unusual set of circumstances but still, I have to agree that there's something wrong if the car will lock itself with the key in the ignition.