Wondering if anyone else on here has had this problem:

Went to Ikea, Lakeside, and parked in the car park. On returning to the vehicle (Volvo V50), found inserting the key into the ignition did nothing and "Key Error, Please retry" on the dash display. No amount of re-inserting and turning made any difference.
The man in the orange van soon arrived and instantly looked at the key, "oh, its one of these new ones. This happens all the time!" Apparently on a weekly basis!!

It turns out that in the Lakeside area there are 3 MASSIVE mobile phone aerials, which are apparently so strong they can interfer with the RF signal keycode when the key is in the barrel! new jags & range rovers are the worst for it.

The normal fix is to take the car 1/2 mile up the road and the car magically starts!! Personally, this has no downside for me as it means I can no longer get dragged off to Ikea by SWIMBO But it maybe a warning for those of you with kids who like a sunday shop

i can't see it myself most car fobs are on 434mhz ish
mobile phones are miles away on microwave mhz's

most likly to be 2 way radios in the area blocking the signal

When the Ulley reservoir was in danger of bursting, the services radio signals were so strong neither of our Lexus' would respond to key transponders at home, about 3/4 miles from the area, fine anywhere else...

did you know that remote locking cars can be operated miles away from the car just buy pressing the button say where i live into a mobile phone and the car could be say 100 miles away with somebody on another mobile phone obviously with a live connection ie talkin to each other
try it and see
my wifes bmw unlocked it but would not re lock it
handy if youve locked your keys in

wayno!!!

My '03 Frontera wouldn't lock remotely at the local B&Q (unless I parked it at the far end of the car park to the left of sone bushes). I could lock it with the key but couldn't disarm the alarm when I got back to it. Had its uses though - If we had to go for paint or something I could park in the middle and have to stay in the car. If I needed ally or something I could park by the bush and lock up no problem! That was to do with some sort of transmitter but we never found out what.

quote:

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Originally posted by martin1973
i can't see it myself most car fobs are on 434mhz ish
mobile phones are miles away on microwave mhz's

most likly to be 2 way radios in the area blocking the signal

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Outside Mac#1 a while back, next doors were getting some big machinery delivered. Very large crane with remote control. my car wouldnt unlock until they had finished.

Ive also read newspaper report that people who lived in a certain street in next town had truoble with certain cars central locking. Most probable cause would be someone remote door bell button stuck down somewhere close by (ive had a slight experience of this too - very hard to diagnose so look out for any door bell buttons lit up if you have trouble in residential area).

I have had similar experience Luckily I found though by moving the fob to one particular location in relation to the vehicle, I could disarm the immobilizer.

Did a bit more research on this online and it actually seems to be quite common. Found a garage "uup-norf" that had to push some vehicles 500 yards up the road before they could start them!

Moral of the story: Should have taken the Sierra

North Norfolk residents had a load of problems with cars breaking down when driving past some sort of military site a few years ago. Similar sort of problem?

yep - I've had this happen and there was big mast withing 20 m, volvo 850 with after market immobilier/alarm. It is a right bugger.