Not sure if this is common knowledge or not, but judging by the number of key safes I see attached to the mag wheels at my local I'm guessing no.

Backstory: I was a bit dismayed when I found I couldn't lock my key fob inside the car and just take the little metal emergency key out of the fob for locking and unlocking. The bloody fob automatically unlocked the doors any time it was near, making leaving the fob inside the car impossible while heading out on the water.

So I experimented a bit and found out that wrapping it in tinfoil then manually locking the car with the emergency key worked a treat. The fob's signal cant get thru the tinfoil, meaning I can lock and unlock the door just like in the good old days for some trouble free time in the water. Without spending X amount of $$$ on a key safe that screams "HIT ME WITH A HAMMER"

Looking forward to going kiting with my key tomorrow, its gonna be up to around 30+ knots gonna boost!!! Hope I don't lose it ??????????????????

I'll rip a bit off my tinfoil hat tomorrow and give it a crack.

If it's an Australian car you will need Alfoil

Not sure your emergency key will arm the alarm. It doesn't on my iLoad

Faraday bags off EBay are cheap, effective and better than foil.
Most cars are only door locked as in the old days with a manual key so no alarm.
But no one takes any notice of alarms anyway.

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warwickl said..
Faraday bags off EBay are cheap, effective and better than foil.
Most cars are only door locked as in the old days with a manual key so no alarm.
But no one takes any notice of alarms anyway.

I take the manual key out of the electronic key, put that under under seat or somewhere out of site, lock all doors using button next to electric windows, close drivers door and lock with manual key.
I have Nissan Xtrail.

I lock using the ignition key, lift the window of the canopy and put the key on the shelf inside the canopy.

A couple of times this has failed me and I have locked the keys inside the cab. I now have a piece of wire wrapped around the load restraint rail which serves as a spare door key should this reoccur.

There are also also a spare set of ignition keys under the carpet in the rear.

I have a 1996 Mazda ute.

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kk said..
If it's an Australian car you will need Alfoil

What if its a Japanese car ??
Would you need the stuff they make their panels from ?? Same strength and thickness

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japie said..
I lock using the ignition key, lift the window of the canopy and put the key on the shelf inside the canopy.

A couple of times this has failed me and I have locked the keys inside the cab. I now have a piece of wire wrapped around the load restraint rail which serves as a spare door key should this reoccur.

There are also also a spare set of ignition keys under the carpet in the rear.

I have a 1996 Mazda ute.

Ah yes I remember my last company ute being Mazda and had few canopies and earlier some flat deck with tarps which had various key hiding spots

Now have Nissan Van where got key cut ($15) for locking/unlocking door only, piece of rope around it for under wetsuit or tie into boardshorts.
I still can't believe number of people putting keys on their car in usual spots and safe at a watersports spot with people out on the water BUT not in the local regional busy car park with a varied public around

Being able to break into your car or your mates used to be a good skill to have with either bit of banding or wire that was out of sight rather than waiting for a call out to unlock your car

Key in the rear suspension strut, if only someone would take it. The insurance company is silly enough to still place some value on a 20 year old Camry with 415,000 km on the clock.

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Harrow said..
The insurance company is silly enough to still place some value on a 20 year old Camry with 415,000 km on the clock.

If they put value on it you'll keep paying the premium.

My 2018 Subaru Outback has a button on the tailgate that allows you to leave the key inside the car. You just need to set up a 5 digit code and you're good to go. No mucking around with foil or external key safes.

Process as follows:
- Disable proximity functionality on key fob (about 3 sec)
- From outside the car, lock using the key fob.
- Remove key from key fob, open car and put key in console.
- Lock car by closing door holding the handle in open position
- After session, punch in 5 digit code on tailgate button which opens all doors.
- Re-enable proximity on key fob (3 sec). Drive home.

^^^^I'm in the previous generation outback.
I got a gutless key cut, $40 from memory, string attached, real keys stashed in car.
I also can't believe the dudes stashing their keys old skool style.
Not in 2019. Not at my locals.

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Ian K said..
If they put value on it you'll keep paying the premium.

True, but they're virtually daring me to reverse into a telegraph pole.

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Harrow said..

Ian K said..
If they put value on it you'll keep paying the premium.

True, but they're virtually daring me to reverse into a telegraph pole.

Yeah, that's when you find out that sometimes insurance companies re-assess the value of the car. Is it an agreed value or market value?

I don't know how common it is, but I had a work friend that had his car stolen and despite the figure they were showing on the renewals, they offered a significantly lower sum. He had to jump through hoops to get a decent payout, had to get his mechanic to write a report on how the car was kept in good condition, and had to show that the market price for anything near his was at least the amount he wanted.

You had better be sure of the value of a high kms camry.

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lotofwind said.. What if its a Japanese car ?? Would you need the stuff they make their panels from ?? Same strength and thickness

Sounds like you need something old with 1/4 windows.

Oh hang on, they're sh!t too apparently.

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515 said..Being able to break into your car or your mates used to be a good skill to have with either bit of banding or wire that was out of sight rather than waiting for a call out to unlock your car

back in the day, we didn't need anything special to break into our ford anglia-escort-capri-cortina

with a little wear in the door lock's barrel - keys between all of these were virtually interchangeable

came in pretty handy at car club events when someone locked the keys in their car!

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Harrow said..

Ian K said..
If they put value on it you'll keep paying the premium.

True, but they're virtually daring me to reverse into a telegraph pole.

They've correlated the probability of you taking out this dare with the number of demerit points on your license.

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Mark _australia said..Sounds like you need something old with 1/4 windows. Oh hang on, they're sh!t too apparently.

My mine site Tojo bomb ute had a minor "carton avoidance" modification to make it easier to break in when the muppets locked themselves out. [the kids in the crew were too used to fob-locking, so being locked out of the bomb ute was pretty common]

The phillips head screw that holds the quarter window in place was swapped around so it could be unscrewed from the outside, meaning the muppet in question didn't need to radio our permanently thirsty fitters to bring the spare keys......

It didn't take long for the drillers to notice the "cartonage rate" had dropped significantly - and before long their ute had the same mod.

Fitters [almost] had the dry horrors

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sn said..

515 said..Being able to break into your car or your mates used to be a good skill to have with either bit of banding or wire that was out of sight rather than waiting for a call out to unlock your car

back in the day, we didn't need anything special to break into our ford anglia-escort-capri-cortina

with a little wear in the door lock's barrel - keys between all of these were virtually interchangeable

came in pretty handy at car club events when someone locked the keys in their car!

Don't remind me! My sisters TE Cortina got stolen, and they wouldn't have needed to use much to turn it. When I eventually got the same car I pulled all the barrels out, cleaned them and got them rekeyed at a locksmith. Still a bit crap, but better than before.

The worst one was the Mazda E2000 van I had. A friend showed me that you could open it with anything flat. Given that it was my windsurfing van and always had my gear in it, I found a place that ordered in some Solex locks for me, and suddenly it was impossible to get into the wrong way. Good things those solex locks.

i got locked out of my car
so i bought a new awesome one

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FormulaNova said..The worst one was the Mazda E2000 van

Young lass I worked with bought herself a new [to her] Mazda, told me it was parked out the front of our work, chucked the keys to me and asked us to go check it out.
Offsider and myself found a noice RX7 lurking next to the curb, opened it up and had a sticky beak.
Couldn't get it to start.... figured it had a different key for the ignition which she [understandably] hadn't handed over to us.

Locked it up - went inside to give the keys back, commented that I liked the flash paint job and would love to fire up the rotary and take it for a spin..

"What's a rotary"??

Her car was the 626 parked a few bays further down

Used to be able to open my HQ just by turning the door lock with a paddle pop stick. Came in handy more than once.

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Ian K said..
They've correlated the probability of you taking out this dare with the number of demerit points on your license.

They just know how awesome a 2000 Camry wagon is, and that I wouldn't do anything to intentionally bring it harm.