First off, please let me know if this question has already been answered. My car sometimes responds to the remote (to lock or unlock) from a fair distance (50 - 100') and other times will not respond until I'm right in front of or near the car. This has been a problem for a while now, and it's not consistent, nor does it have anything to do with the batteries in the remotes, because I've changed them regularly, and changing the battery has no effect on the range. Is this an issue with a ground somewhere that's worked its way loose? I can't imagine it's an antenna positioning issue or something to do with a fixed component that has no movement or moving parts to wear out.

Any experiences with the same thing & how you solved it would be appreciated.

 

This happens to me, for some reason I have to touch my car with the keys in San Francisco, but only in the city. Its the weirdest phenomenon. That and my car only beeps 1/2 of the time now.

Hold your keys to your chin to increase range, I know it sounds retarded, but it works.

 

LOL it's true you make look a little silly but it really does increase the range

 

change the battery in the remote...

 

if you are near any form of satelite that interferes with your remote also do you have window tint??? cuz that will also interefere with it

 

Please explain - how does non-metallic window tint film pose a potential for RF interference? I could believe this about my old '89 Jeep Cherokee, which used an IR receiver & transmitter to operate the remote keyless entry system, but both my new Jeep & Subaru use an RF system that is designed to be non-directional and (unless I'm mistaken) unaffected by the ability of light to pass through the windows.

And I have tried that deal with putting the remote up to my chin - it works, but not always, and obviously looks funny. I'm pretty sure Subaru didn't put that in the manual

Just to clarify on the battery issue, I've tried walking as far as I can from the car with the old battery in the remote, and marked on the ground (car parked in front of my house) the farthest I could go from the car with the remote unlocking or locking the car. I then changed the battery (with a new one just purchased from the store - an Energizer), and found the distance to be the same - unaffected by replacing the battery in the remote.

As a point of reference, I found, shortly after I had bought the car back in 2003, I could park in the parking lot/garage across the street and "kitty-corner" from my office window in downtown San Jose on the 3rd floor, and I could see my lights blink when I hit the lock button on my remote while holding it up to the window of my concrete office building. I'd estimate the range at maybe 300' or greater.

 

how does the chin method work? uses your skull to reflect some of the radio waves? lol

 

I guess, who knows how it works, but it does. I swear.

 

There's a DIY repair on nasioc for the keyless entry chirp.

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...=608657&page=9

 

There are a lot of things that will interfere with RF signals like the one that your remote sends out. Large metal/conductive objects are particularly bad so if your car is on the other side of a Suburban or Hummer that may reduce effective range. Other devices that emit RF signals can also interfere with your remote. For example, if you try to set up 3 different wireless networks in the same household you will get intermittent connection failures because the signals are interfering with each other.

Some remote start/alarm systems have long range antennas and fancy super powered remote transmitters that will let you start your car from nearly 1/4 mile away. If that is really important to you, maybe you should invest in something like this?

 

Good info. I do park @ work now in a parking lot that only has 2 rows of parking spaces, so there aren't a lot of vehicles, but there are often other vehicles in between mine & my remote. However, I have come out after work to get to my car a little later than the rest of the crew, so sometimes there are no vehicles between me & mine. Even then, at only 50' or less, I have to press the unlock button a few times as I approach to unlock the car.

I do have a kind of cheap, but hopefully workable, "Bulldog" remote start system that I picked up quite a while ago @ Sam's Club. I had planned to install it in my Jeep, though, since I have all the panels pulled off the interior while I'm doing other electrical work on it. If the Subaru remote system is just not a great system, and the problem I'm experiencing is not a matter of repairing a ground or other wear-related issue, then I guess I should look into a new remote start/alarm system for the Subie. Anyone ever heard of a system that integrates in-car 360 degree video into its remote automation package? I figure if I'm going to have to start pulling interior panels & doing anything electrical to the car (which I haven't touched since I bought it new 5 years ago) I might as well get a new stereo & put in whatever other electrical upgrades I want so I don't have to pull it apart twice.

So... recommendations on a replacement stereo (gotta have bluetooth, DVD is not necessary, and I have the subwoofer "upgraded audio system" already) and a remote unlock/start/security system would be helpful.