Redd

" Thus the bad guys need too sit near the target vehicle for some time to get all the data that they need. "
Not necessarily, Bob. The boxes made and sold in Europe (I'll plug the Tobia videos again) "ping" the car. That prompts the car to ask "Are you mine?" and the box retransmits that "Are you mine?" signal up to ~100 yards away. If you are in a coffee shop, or your bedroom, and within that 100 or so yards? The box is also sensitive enough to hear your key saying "Hey Mom, it's me!" and again, it retransmits the correct signal back to the car. All in a matter of seconds, no hanging around needed.

The actual range limits depend (as with all radio equipment) on the terrain and environment and just how powerful a radio you want to use. And actually, aside from needing more accomplices, there's no reason that a second repeater box can't be used, to extend the range even further.

I'd really like to know if simply pulling a fuse (probably the one in the rear panel) can disable the security radios entirely, and force the car back to "key only". And whether that will still allow me to start the car, and open the rear gate (which does make accessing that fuse easier(G)) with just the key, keeping the radios dead.

Bob Petruska

I really wasn't talking about the article and the gathering FOB data technique. I was talking about the "Advance Key" vehicles that can be unlocked with the newer black boxes in about 3 seconds without gathering FOB data.

I don't have Advanced Key on my 2014 Q% so it's sort of safe. In the winter and summer I start my Q5 to heat it up or cool it down unattended and just use the manual key to lock/unlock while it is running. If they start to chronically unlock any VAG group car with ease around here by stealing FOB codes I will just resort back to locking/unlocking with the key like I did with most of my cars in the past that didn't have remote locks.

Redd

"I will just resort back to locking/unlocking with the key"
Point taken, but isn't that the rub?
If you use just the key (either the plastic key, or removing a key from a fob) to lock and unlock the doors, what unlocks or opens the liftgate from outside the car?
And once you've unlocked it, how do you start the car? By putting a car back into a fob? Or inserting one in the emergency shell? (Since we cleverly can't just put a key in the ignition by itself any more, can we?)

Something to be said for Ford and a keypad on the door pull, huh? (G)

Bob Petruska

When I start my Q5 in the winter to let it run, heat up, and deice the windshield, I just use the FOB in the dash like I normally do, remove the key, get out and lock the doors with the key. Yes some one can take a hammer smash my side window, unlock the car, and drive away. If they do that power to them and I will just buy another vehicle. You need to unlock the drivers door with the key and open it to push the hatch unlock button. No way to mechanically unlock/open the hatch from the outside. My 1987 Nissan Maxima had the door unlock keypad, just hide an ignition key in the car and you could always drive if you lost you keys.

Redd

Got it, in and out of the fob. One day Audi will understand why other makers build a remote start into their fobs.

In the 80's I had updated my car alarm trying to keep ahead of the bad guys. For quite some time, the way to unlock the car was by pointing an IR wristwatch at a particular spot on the dash and sending an IR pulse code, like a TV remote.

To say I was 35 years ahead of Audi in technology....Come on, let's drive down to AoA Monday and start shaming them. Big signs that read "Obsolete technology!" and "Buy a Kia!". (sigh)

I just really don't feel like rewiring another car all over again. I had thought I paid them to do that. Silly me.

Xenonista

They need to make the security system in the car detect a repeater and set off the alarm. It shouldn't be overly difficult for it to recognize its own challenge being rebroadcast.