Handy Trick of The Day - Unlocking Your Car with a Cellphone

[Robert Barker]

I was skeptical about this when I read it but I just tried it on my Honda S2000 and it actually works. We also just tried it on a Mazda 626 and it didnt work so I dont know how it will be with the Trac but if someone has their Trac near by it will be interesting to see if it does. I actually held it over the hood of the car (where the brains are) for best reception. When I held the phone at the door area I got no response.



Post back regarding the results.



Subject: Have you locked your keys in the car?

Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday.

Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).

 

[David Griffith 2]

I saw this , haven't tried it yet. Here's a couple more things I bet you didn't know your cell phone could do..(Not tryng to hijack your thread, just addin' to it.. )



"

5 THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOUR CELLPHONE COULD DO



There are a few things that can be done in times of

grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be

a life saver or an emergency tool for survival.

Check out the things that you can do with it:



FIRST

Emergency



The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112.

If you find yourself out of the coverage area of

your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial

112 and the mobile will search any existing network

to establish the emergency number for you, and

interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if

the keypad is locked. Try it out.



SECOND

Have you locked your keys in the car?



Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may

come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell

phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the

spare keys are at home, call someone at home on

their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your

cell phone about a foot from your car door and have

the person at your home press the unlock button,

holding it near the mobile phone on their end.

Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to

drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You

could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can

reach someone who has the other "remote" for your

car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).

Editor's Note: It works fine! We tried it out and it

unlocked our car over a cell phone!"



THIRD

Hidden Battery Power



Imagine your cell battery is very low. To activate,

press the keys *3370# Your cell will restart with

this reserve and the instrument will show a 50%

increase in battery. This reserve will get charged

when you charge your cell next time.



FOURTH

How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?



To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in

the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 # A

15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number

is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep

it somewhere safe. When your phone gets stolen, you

can phone your service provider and give them this

code. They will then be able to block your

handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card,

your phone will be totally useless. You probably

won't get your phone back, but at least you know

that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either.

If everybody does this, there would be no point in

people stealing mobile phones.

And Finally....



FIFTH

Free Directory Service for Cells



Cell phone companies are charging us $1.00 to $1.75

or more for 411 information calls when they don't

have to. Most of us do not carry a telephone

directory in our vehicle, which makes this

situation even more of a problem. When you need to

use the 411 information option, simply dial: (800)

FREE 411, or (800) 373-3411 without incurring any

charge at all. Program this into your cell phone

now."

 

[James FreemanJr]

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Snopes busted the 2nd one, unlocking car via the FOB played over the cellphone, and several of the others...

 

[Travis Munday]

Haven't tried the remote unlock thing, but the others seem to work, except for the 'reserve power' one, this is with a Motorola SLVR on the Cingular/AT&T network.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Ions beat me...

 

[A K]

I think Mythbusters kicked around this one, too.

 

[David Griffith 2]

The backup battery one worked for me.. This is on a T mobile blackberry...

 

[Patrick Pierobon]

I have a SLVR and the resever battery one doesn't work for me either.



pat

 

[Frank Marano]

cell battery thing didnt work for me.... Motorola V365



edit: didnt work on my moto Razr either:blink:

 

[Gerald Pierce]

That's why I have the key pad on the door.... I lock my keys in all the time, intentionally!



While diving, riding the quads, etc. It is nice to not have to worry about losing my keys

 

[Brett Hartwig]

I agree with "cruzrtwdgt", I always lock my keys in the console and use the keypad. I always know where my keys are, every time. Plus I don't have a bunch of keys in my pocket. If the keypad fails for some reason, I have the spare key in my jumper cable bag in the bed.

 

[Chris Harris]

i have a keyless entry, i lock my keys in the car on purpose like everyday.

 

[TomT]

That's one of the many things I love about my ST. I think every vehicle should have a keypad.

 

[shawn stonbraker 2]

I ditto the love of the Keypad. I'm amazed at how much I use it. I'm going to have to stick to Ford vehicles since I know from now on, I'm going to be locking keys in vehicles forgetting they don't have the keypad.:wacko:

 

[Travis Munday]

Keypads are so 1990's....keyless ignitions are the wave of the future, and I think Ford is a bit behind in the times there, don't think they offer that technology yet.

 

[shawn stonbraker 2]

Now Tiger, you know the keyless ignitions are just plain lazy!!!

 

[Ryan Schaecher]

I didn't need to go to Snopes to tell this one is bunk. RF signals CANNOT be passed through a cell phone. Cell phones only send/receive in the audio portion of the wave spectrum. They cannot convert RF waves into a cell signal and back again. Now, if you had a device that could take the RF signal, convert it to audio, send over cell to another device that does the opposite.... then we can talk.



RF waves and Audio waves are different.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Right, Shek, there's no way the door unlocking can work from what you said. That's how I knew the whole thing was likely bunk and why I then looked on Snopes...funny that I found the exact email.



TJR

 

[trickblue]

Found this...



If your cell phone is a Motorola Razr V3 and your battery meter is down to one bar and you need to make a quick call, you can turn the phone off, wait about 30 seconds and then turn the phone back on. This will kick in the reserve battery supply and should give you at least two bars on your battery meter. This is a very limited supply of reserve battery power. Depending on how low your battery actually is, the reserve should last at least 6 - 10 minutes and this is whether you use the phone to make a call or not. Not sure if this works for the Razr v3 phone only or for other Motorola phones. I do know it works for both the black and silver style Razr v3 phones. Also using a Bluetooth headset will drain a completely charged battery in about 3-5 hours. The less talk time with the Bluetooth the longer the battery lasts. There is an extended battery you can purchase for the Razr v3 if you plan on using a Bluetooth headset.