Head scratcher this one. Last winter when ever I used my remote start to defrost my custom it would set off my neighbours ford puma car alarm parked 5m away. Never my ford kuga parked next to my custom, just the neighbours puma. And at 5am it never went down well.

So now winter is here again. My neighbour has changed her car for a Toyota Rav 4, I have a new Kuga and the same transit custom. First frosty morning today so used remote start to defrost the custom and it set off the alarm on the Toyota.

How and why ? 

Any one got a clue what is going on. 

Many thanks in advance. 

1 hour ago, Neil barber said:

How and why ? 

Any one got a clue what is going on. 

Not really, that's a stumper.

Only thing I can think of is the Toyota is classing the start signal to your car as a potential relay theft, but I doubt it

I'm guessing your neighbour will need to get someone to connect a diagnostic pc/reader to see if the car has stored what caused the alarm to trigger.

On 11/15/2024 at 9:12 AM, gds1972 said:

your neighbour will need to get someone to connect a diagnostic pc/reader to see if the car has stored what caused the alarm to trigger.

A sensible suggestion, if your neighbor would be willing to.

There are a few "However's" here.

• The first big one is that your neighbor has a different car (even a different manufacturer) this year.
• Neither of your your Ford Kuga's have been effected.
• This only happens when you remote start the Transit.

So on a cold frosty morning, if you tip-toe out to your Transit and start it manually (normally) will it set off the Toyota's alarm ? 🤔

My thinking is that when the Transit starts, the engine is causing some sort of low vibration for a few seconds that just happen to resonate off walls or other vehicles nearby, that cause the Toyota's alarm to be triggered.

Does it have to be cold and early to do the experiment with a manual start? (thinking of the neighbours!). Going with the vibration theory, it would have to be very dependent on distance if the OPs vehicles are unaffected.

And thinking a bit more (dangerous I know) has there been no time during the year when the Transit was started manually and the neighbours car (original Puma or current Toyota) was parked on the drive the requisite 5m away and should have been affected by the vibration?

Still seems to me it must be connected to the remote start in some way, but being a techno-dummy I can't see how.

 

 

On 11/16/2024 at 3:25 PM, unofix said:

A sensible suggestion, if your neighbor would be willing to.

There are a few "However's" here.

• The first big one is that your neighbor has a different car (even a different manufacturer) this year.
• Neither of your your Ford Kuga's have been effected.
• This only happens when you remote start the Transit.

So on a cold frosty morning, if you tip-toe out to your Transit and start it manually (normally) will it set off the Toyota's alarm ? 🤔

My thinking is that when the Transit starts, the engine is causing some sort of low vibration for a few seconds that just happen to resonate off walls or other vehicles nearby, that cause the Toyota's alarm to be triggered.

It only triggers it if I use remote start. If I start it manually,  no issue.

On 11/16/2024 at 5:44 PM, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Does it have to be cold and early to do the experiment with a manual start? (thinking of the neighbours!). Going with the vibration theory, it would have to be very dependent on distance if the OPs vehicles are unaffected.

And thinking a bit more (dangerous I know) has there been no time during the year when the Transit was started manually and the neighbours car (original Puma or current Toyota) was parked on the drive the requisite 5m away and should have been affected by the vibration?

Still seems to me it must be connected to the remote start in some way, but being a techno-dummy I can't see how.

 

 

It never happens when I manually start my van, only when I use the remote start.

1 minute ago, Neil barber said:

It never happens when I manually start my van, only when I use the remote start.

I will try the remote start over the weekend during the day and see what happens 

 

On 11/16/2024 at 3:25 PM, unofix said:

A sensible suggestion, if your neighbor would be willing to.

There are a few "However's" here.

• The first big one is that your neighbor has a different car (even a different manufacturer) this year.
• Neither of your your Ford Kuga's have been effected.
• This only happens when you remote start the Transit.

So on a cold frosty morning, if you tip-toe out to your Transit and start it manually (normally) will it set off the Toyota's alarm ? 🤔

My thinking is that when the Transit starts, the engine is causing some sort of low vibration for a few seconds that just happen to resonate off walls or other vehicles nearby, that cause the Toyota's alarm to be triggered.

It was cold and frosty this morning. Started the van manually and it never set of the Toyota's alarm.

4 minutes ago, Neil barber said:

Started the van manually and it never set of the Toyota's alarm.

That would suggest that the problem is when your van sends the confirmation message back to the app. to say the engine has started.

Does remote start rely on Wifi for this?  I thought it was done via mobile phone mast?

Also, out of interest, do you have remote start on the keyfob or just the app?

15 hours ago, Neil barber said:

I will try the remote start over the weekend during the day and see what happens 

 

It was cold and frosty this morning. Started the van manually and it never set of the Toyota's alarm.

Well, at least that's eliminated the cold and early element from the puzzle.

Presumably it you try a remote start at a reasonable time (with the neighbours cooperation) and it triggers their alarm, that confirms the theory of the remote start signal.

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Does remote start rely on Wifi for this?  I thought it was done via mobile phone mast?

Also, out of interest, do you have remote start on the keyfob or just the app?

If it's the same as Remote Locking then I doubt it Tom. 

My WiFi does not reach my car but I can still lock and unlock it via the App. 

I always thought you sent the signals to Ford and they sent the signals to the car but I could be wrong about that. 

38 minutes ago, Tizer said:

If it's the same as Remote Locking then I doubt it Tom. 

My WiFi does not reach my car but I can still lock and unlock it via the App. 

I always thought you sent the signals to Ford and they sent the signals to the car but I could be wrong about that. 

Thanks, that's what I was thinking too, many cars won't be parked near enough for a direct Wi-Fi link.  I'm assuming the Ford signals are sent via mobile data and picked up through the cars modem, then returned via mobile for confirmation.  Though the car must have some satellite connection for GPS so could be a satellite link instead.

I can't see how a mobile connection could affect another car at all. 🤔

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Though the car must have some satellite connection for GPS so could be a satellite link instead.

To be honest I don't know how the car communicates the information back to Ford, but I would expect for cost reasons it would be using the mobile phone masts rather than a satellite uplink.

The problem is more likely to be the van 'transmitting' the engine started confirmation signal rather than when the App/Ford send the message to start the engine. 

Hi all. Update for you. I replaced the battery in the custom this week as I started to get a message on the app saying that the custom was in sleep mode and was unable to start it all together via the app. Tested the battery and it was only charging to about 9v, so replaced it. 

New battery fitted and problem now solved. Used remote start plenty of times and not once set off any alarms.