Cellphones can disable Nissan’s keyless entry

ikeyKeyless entry systems may not be as cool as you think it is. At least, that’s what it’s turning out to be for some buyers of Nissan’s latest cars in the US that come standard with keyless entry systems. Some customers have found that cell phones kept near their Nissan Altima and Infiniti G35’s I-Keys can reprogram and damage the key, causing it to stop working.

“We discovered that if the I-Key touches a cell phone, outgoing or incoming calls have the potential to alter the electronic code inside the I-Key. The car won’t start and the I-Key cannot be reprogrammed,” warned Nissan spokesman Kyle Bazemore. He assured that owners who encounter this problem can get a new key from dealers, and an updated version of the I-Key which solves this problem will be available in Fall 2007.

Seriously, doesn’t the Nissan I-Key have a manual key integrated into it as well? For example, BMW’s keyless entry device has a little manual key integrated into it which you can pull out and use to unlock the doors and etc. Why the warning that it will “stop working”? It would be better to be teaching the public how to use the manual key to open and start their cars instead of just saying the car will be disabled. Plus this shows that insufficient testing was done before launching the product.

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Paul Tan

After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

Comments

  • xg9 (Member) on May 28, 2007 at 5:29 pm

    hehehe… sounds fun!

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  • Infrinity (Member) on May 28, 2007 at 5:35 pm

    Nissan's I-key dioes have a manual key intergrated in it

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  • Infrinity (Member) on May 28, 2007 at 5:36 pm

    The i-key does have a manual key intergrated in it

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • Infrinity (Member) on May 28, 2007 at 5:37 pm

    The ikey has a manual key in it

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  • aesthari (Member) on May 28, 2007 at 6:18 pm

    Lame-ness, but it sure sounds like fun. Especially when you're in a hurry.

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  • darkteror (Member) on May 28, 2007 at 8:50 pm

    i dont trust electronic key imagine if you get it wet or step on it easily broke the old metal key works better dont you think.

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  • digiman (Member) on May 28, 2007 at 9:56 pm

    huh? i don't know about this, but my granddad who drives the new nissan cefiro (nissan tenea here) in singapore, and he always keep the phone and the key together… till today, no problem…

    and i can be a judge to the keyless entry.. real nice… but if you lost the card.. sayonara… car won't start at all… but nice thing about it is that it comes in a excess card size (flat as well)… thus no bulky keys…

    oh by the way paul, is the pic shown is the new version of the i-key? i dont know if my gramps is holding an i-key or not, but its a size of an excess card… and memang no keys needed..

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  • mystvearn (Member) on May 29, 2007 at 4:00 am

    Massive blow for Nissan. A vote of no confidence from me.They just want to save cost with no keyhole, put everything in the remote control and now they pay the price.

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  • floyd (Member) on May 29, 2007 at 6:58 am

    While migrating from manual to total keyless system it is a good idea to have them both for a period of time. Just like the newer Laptops, they still have the 3.5" floppy drive system for sometime until everybody or most people are comfortable with the more portable, more storage space, more modern and robust thumb drive.

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  • japankiller (Member) on May 29, 2007 at 8:15 am

    Livign in a high tech world some time is risky

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  • LittleFire85 (Member) on May 29, 2007 at 6:03 pm

    I tot i read it somewhere the I-key can nuke itself… LOL! Anywayz lucky it just cant reprogramme, i think maybe the mobile signal or wave may coz the I-key to malfunction due to same interference? Hmm… The more high tech, the more problem sometimes…

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  • tokmoh (Member) on May 30, 2007 at 4:10 am

    A case of trying too hard to improve bt messed up, eh? Well, the good news is, they do work to find out the solution to their problems.

    A sad thing with computer games nowadays….too obsessed with graphic superiority until it loses touch with its original purpose…..just look at Worms 3D, I wonder just how many ppl actually think that's more entertaining than the original 2D versions of Worms?

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  • mits27 (Member) on May 30, 2007 at 6:29 am

    I though there is a manual key inside that I-key…

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  • drgn86 (Member) on Jun 03, 2007 at 4:48 am

    i've encountered a similar problem, but i think it wasn't the cell phone which caused it in my case. as i left my keys on top of the tv, i couldn't use the keyless entry for the murano. maybe it had some interference with that tv, i don't know… but luckily i knew that there is an 'old-school' key, kept inside that pod…. funnily after driving, i could use the keyless entry again!

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  • drgn86 (Member) on Jun 03, 2007 at 4:52 am

    anybody here who owns a murano in malaysia??? do u guys have an electronic-card which is blue in colour? it has a purpose of making new keys/keyless entry pods in case you lose them…..

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  • kei9 (Member) on Jun 03, 2007 at 5:43 am

    quite trublesome hor…..but…like u've just said, murano owner, give some opinion…..

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    • missiB on Mar 04, 2011 at 3:13 am

      my sister just bought a nissan versa with the keyless entry and told the salesman many times that she was getting a pacemaker in a few weeks and if the keyless signals would interfere with the pacemaker-my sis is only 28 by the way, born with heart issues- and the sales man said, “no, no problem there.”

      well, it is a problem. the signals interfere with the signals of the pacemaker. we called the doctor and he said the keyless needs to be disabled. the Nissan dealership has been very uncooperative.

      I think we can just take the battery out of the key fob? will this disable the system enough to not interfere with the pacemaker? it’s a shame we have to do our own research for this!! shame on Nissan!!

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