Unlocking car with cell phone ????

I was in a rual area 40 miles from home when my hunting partner & I tried to switch driving positions. We both exited the vechile at the same time and closed our respective doors, only to find all doors locked when we tried to re-enter.:annoyed: One of us must have hit the lock button. The vehicle was running and its lights were on, my cell phone was inside also. I stopped a passing car and was able to use their cell phone to call my wife. She arrived with a spare key about an hour later. In telling someone this, they claimed that if my wife would have put the automatic opener to the phone and pressed unlock while I held the cell phone near a locked door, that the door should have opened. ????? has any heard or tried this?

I just went out and had a spare key made which I hid on the bed of the truck. I think this is a better approach.

dick

Not possible with most systems. Read this page http://tinyurl.com/7ysoo from Snopes.com

Fern

My wife heard of this a while back. We tested it on our 94 Camry (while the car was in the garage). She took the beeper and her phone out back. I waited with my phone near the car door handle. She beeped and the car unlocked. Beeped again and the car locked. Pretty cool!

Is it possible that because the beeper was in close proximity that it would have opened it without using the cell phone? Did you test it using just the beeper first before using the cell phone? I believe that's the only way you'd know for sure that it was the cell phone that was responsible.

bigrick said:

My wife heard of this a while back. We tested it on our 94 Camry (while the car was in the garage). She took the beeper and her phone out back. I waited with my phone near the car door handle. She beeped and the car unlocked. Beeped again and the car locked. Pretty cool!

Click to expand...

Rick,
If you read the link I posted above, you'll see why it worked. Your car's remote was within a few hundred feet of your car. I bet if you go out to the supermarket a couple miles away, and your wife stays home and tries it, it won't work...

Fern

After I posted I read Fern's link. For our car, we tried beeping from the backyard without the phone near the door (IOW it was by my ear) and the car stayed locked.

I suggest testing it at home first. Then you'll know for sure what you car will do.

I must be a slow composer. Two other posts got inserted while I was adding to my first post.

We will retest. News at 11 PT.

I widened my test.

94 Camry works over the phone. Lock, unlock both work.

97 Passat stays as is. Nothing over the phone works.

There you have it! Conclusive proof that you need to test your car and your phones to see what works for you.

Who else tested this? What other cars work?

This may be a new criteria for us in our car buying process.

If you get the GM on star system, they can unlock the car by sending it a coded radio signal via their satellite system.

I always carry a second car key on my house key chain which is separate from my car keys. Been there too many times.

bigrick,

How far away was your wife? Did she drive a mile away and then try it? Because if it's the phone, then she should be able to be in San Diego with you in Albany and it would work.

My remote unlock for my Subaru is good 100 yards away, but the one for the Chevy is only good for about 30 feet. The Subie, I could be in the kitchen and it will unlock the car in the driveway through two rooms and the garage.

Thinking it out, it simply can't work. The remote emits an rf signal; the phone is only equipped to transmit sound. The microphone in the handset doesn't recognize rf, and the antenna is designed to reject it. And at the other end, the phone will only emit sound, not rf, and the antenna will only broadcast on the phone's frequency, which is very different from the rf that the door unlock uses.