You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I'm just wondering if there is some clever way to detect where a set of lost car keys might be using a phone, radio or even something more techie like a Spectrum Analyzer.
Basically, yes, we've gone and managed to lose both sets of car keys! Spent a couple of days searching everywhere we can think of but no luck so far and are pretty sure they aren't in the car itself as it's one of those keyless entry systems (2013 Mazda 6) that detects if the key is inside / nearby to let you in and start the car.
Anyone able to point me in the right direction? Getting locks replaced and new keys is going to cost a lot even with insurance so I may as well try a more techy approach first. Unfortunately am not an electronics engineer though.
Pay for a new set.
The old set will turn up just after you have the new set fitted.
Well we would to be honest and am getting quotes but keys + locks + recovery to garage = £££. insurance excess = ££
They'll be in the last place you look.
Sorry...
Do you have small people that may have hidden/buried/fed the keys to the dog/next doors cat?
it’s one of those keyless entry systems (2013 Mazda 6) that detects if the key is inside / nearby to let you in and start the car.
Can you move the car around until it kicks in? Then the keys will be close by
On keyless cars the keys normally have to be within a couple of feet of the door/ignition to be 'active' so unless he's parked right next to the house that won't work.
You're probably looking in the wrong place. If you go back to where you last saw them, you'll probably find they're there waiting for you.
Check the fridge !
Check the fridge !
Someone I worked with years ago put her car keys in the work fridge so she wouldn't forget her shopping that she had put in there, she immediately forgot she had done it then spent hours and hours (and eventually getting public transport to and from work for several days) before they were re-found 😂
(She somehow even took the shopping out without remembering about or seeing the keys in there).
Yep, unfortunately the car is too far away - i've tried all doors and boot which would respond if the key was close enough.
Fridge - check.
Bin - bin lorry came this morning 🙁 may as well double-check the recycling bin though.
Last horrible thought is digging up all the tree saplings and plants my wife planted out the other day. I guess a metal detector might help with that? not that i've got one.
Coat pocket?
Washing machine?
Have you retraced your steps the last time you drove anywhere and came back into the house?
Could be worse.
At least it's the car keys.
I have managed to lose my original wedding ring somewhere on our expansive estate *
Took it off while offloading some firewood from the trailer put it in my pocket and zipped it. Promptly forgot about it being there and had the car keys in and out at various points before I went inside and went to put it back on.....not there and I know I did not leave the property while it was in my pocket. .....that was three weeks ago and even after a mega tidy up it's still no where to be seen. ......at least your car keys give out a signal....a useless one but a signal 🙂
* Actually quite small garden.
The irony is that the last 'drive' was all of 3 feet to move the car so a delivery van could park outside the house.
Shorts pocket used so chances are it slipped out while squatting to pick up heavy boxes and carry round the back. If that's happened then either it's been dug in with the aforementioned plants or some scally spotted them and is biding their time to come back and nick the car.
I foresee a fun weekend of digging and weed clearing.
Get someone else to check, they'll probably find them in 5 minutes!
My second key for the ovlov was missing since start of lockdown....
... My staff jacket pocket yesterday = missing key found.
I stepped out of my front door one winters morning a few years ago and went completely on my arse as a result of ice. My keys flew out of my hand and I spent literally hours looking for them over the next few weeks. 4 years later the gardener found them in some bushes 😂. Car was long gone by then though!
I lost my Fitbit whilst cutting a hedge a few years ago - I hunted high and low for it in and around the hedge then went through the recycling bin with a fine tooth comb and couldn't find it. Two years later we decided to remove the hedge entirely and, as I was hacking away at it to strip it back enough to remove it, I saw my Fitbit sat there hanging on a branch.
A quick wipe down and a recharge and it was as good as new so I sold it on Ebay 🙂
I know it's of no help now- i'm an inveterate key loser. My car is keyless entry too. I've attached my keys to a brightly coloured neck lanyard which i wear whilst driving. When not driving the keys live in a biscuit tin - i've trained myself to never put them anywhere else other than round my neck - lost too many keys/spent endless hours searching for them when i've put them down somewhere safe. Good luck in finding them.
What was the delivery van delivering? Did you bring it in through the normal front door or maybe through a garage where you put the keys down quickly to help with the delivery?
why not get one of those Tile tracker things then?! (Probably goes for anyone with expensive to replace keys! Often thought about getting some myself, nothing more infuriating than hunting round for keys when you're already late!!)lost too many keys/spent endless hours searching for them when i’ve put them down somewhere safe.
ta11pau1
Subscriber
They’ll be in the last place you look.
The reason for this?
Because when you find them, you stop looking 😀
Wait till you lose something else, then you will find the keys while looking for that. Then you will find that while looking for something else again. And so it goes on.
The reason for this?
Because when you find them, you stop looking
Always remember this from a Lee Evans stand routine 😁
My wife put her wedding ring and engagement ring in a pair of old bright pink socks whilst we were away. On returning home, she had a clear out and threw the old socks away. Realised a few weeks later that she'd chucked her rings. Fortunately the insurance paid out, but we hadn't realised how much gold etc has risen, so our 'max' insured amount was now too low - just had to use what we got paid.
Try asking a vehicle locksmith if they can make new keys. The manufacturer should be able to give you the key code, given the VIN and proof of ownership. Even if you find the others, you'll have spares!
I’d keep looking. If both sets of keys are lost on some cars it’s a nightmare of a job to persuade the car that the replacement should be added to the list of approved keys.
The manufacturer should be able to give you the key code,
Oh they can. But you'll pay handsomely for it.
I was quoted 300 quid for the number last time I needed a key without it.
I was then quoted 99 quid a key on top.
I spent 120 quid on dealer level software and interrogated the ECU till I got the number . Still have and use the software today.
You left them on the delivery driver's truck. Call them up and ask for them back
😉
Invite sone mates over, couple of drinks and then offer £50 for the person who finds the keys first. Sit back and watch your house turned over.
Have you checked in the fruit bowl at a friends house?😜
Simply carry the car around your house. Keep trying to open the door.
When it unlocks, then you’re “hot”
I was hoping for an answer to this. We moved house just over 2 years ago and although we think the spares key is somewhere in this building we have no idea where.
£280 to get a replacement, get it coded, and wipe the lost key.
Going forward you want a Tile.
It's a USB-thing that can be called from your phone.
https://www.thetileapp.com/en-gb/
For this problem. Good luck!
After I left home I went back to my parents home to collect a book. I walked straight to the book case and browsers for the book. I then couldn't find my car keys. Despite knowing they were in a space 3 feet by 3 feet it took hours to find my keys. Next to the book cases were 3 stacking boxes of papers. The keys were at the bottom of the bottom box. You just got to keep looking
Stop actively looking. Be patient. They'll turn up. You will have looked there already.
I spent the first couple of months of lockdown with no glasses, checked all the usual places and could not find them.
I went out to my work wear draw for an old t shirt one day and the glasses had fallen in.
Well, thanks for all the suggestions but there's a thrilling part 2 to this. We've found the older keyfob that was lost a couple of years ago. Yay! 🙂 As ever I could swear I had gone through every coat pocket but there it was, in my partners summer-only denim jacket. At least the sweat is off for being the one to apparently have lost both. That new (to me) bike is back on the cards...
In lieu of carrying the car or the house around I was getting close to considering a bit of tin foil, a length of wire and seeing if I could somehow relay the signal. And then calling the insurance anyway.
So off to dealers next week to get a spare cut and coded + an investment in Tile or equivalent coming up. Recommendations welcome.
So off to dealers next week to get a spare cut and coded
Check out independent auto locksmiths - cheaper than dealers, but depending on the manufacturer they may need two keys so be unable to do it.
A weird one is often that the key falls out of a pocket IN the car and is wedged under the seat somewhere.
Also, I've known things to fall through the lining of a sofa and be caught by the fabric of the base. So just floating around inside,if that makes sense.
Does the car start? If so, there’s a key in the car. If not, then I’d buy a couple of Tile trackers to put on the new set of keys.
Someone at work managed to lose both keys to a 19-plate Vauxhall Mokka, which required a visit from a man in a van, unfortunately.
A weird one is often that the key falls out of a pocket IN the car and is wedged under the seat somewhere.
Also, I’ve known things to fall through the lining of a sofa and be caught by the fabric of the base. So just floating around inside,if that makes sense.
Yeah, people have a habit of parking a car, then tossing the key(s) onto a seat, then they bounce down the side and hide behind the seat rails. A single key has even gone down between the screen and the front edge of the dash! Of course this can only happen if it’s a single key not on a ring with other items, which does make losing keys more difficult.
I’m always putting mine down and forgetting where, usually in a pocket, but I keep the spare on a shelf by the front door, by the landline.
I lost 2 put of 3 sets of garage keys. And was paranoid about losing the 3rd set so fitted a new lock.
Few months later found one set in my daughter's bedroom and the other in the peg bag!!
I bought a pair of those Tiles because the OH is always getting in a fluster looking for her keys and sometimes I do too. Unfortunately having Bluetooth and location permanently turned on, on the mobile caused too many little red lights to flash uncontrollably inside my tin foil hat but also the Tile itself was massive and didn't play nicely with all the other keys on the ring so had to go. Not sure why hers isn't used. So I built a key rack to go in the hall and nearly always place my keys on it so it works for me 95% of the time. Unfortunately it's too inconvenient for a busy mother ha ha ha.
When I lose them the last place I look is the first place placed at the end of the list of places to look. Either because of inconvenience or deemed in error unlikelihood.
So I built a key rack to go in the hall
Don't do this, if the rack is in sight of the letterbox. Otherwise they'll get "fished" and one day you'll go on holiday and when you get back your cars gone and your house emptied.
Our first holiday in Mrs Pondo's shiny new car (twelve years ago!!), we went to the beach and at her direction put the keys in a plastic bag and buried them under the head of our towels. Packed up at the end of the day, took (I swear!) two steps before remembering the buried keys - 90 minutes of digging turned up nothing, only metal detectors saved the day.
We've never done it again.
I've had the Tile pro for a while - bonus you can use it to find your phone too. Should be no problem leaving BT and Location on. Pretty standard things to leave on these days. Battery usage is about a couple percent over a days use. Range is realistically not going to be as good as stated so recommend the pro.
Would that keyfinder insurance that costs about £15 a year and usually available as an add on to other insurance products cover you for this?
On a snowboarding holiday on the US, finished the day of wonderful powder at Snowbird in Utah, the wife of one of the group threw a strop in the parking lot for some reason and decided that the best course of action would be to throw the hire car key 40ft in to a powder filled and trampled space.
Cue the blokes of the trip forming a search line on hands and knees doing a regimented grid search of the until said keys were found. About 45 minutes later. Less than impressed.
Don’t do this, if the rack is in sight of the letterbox
Don't worry it isn't!
If you've 1 key try timpsons
Unfortunately having Bluetooth and location permanently turned on, on the mobile caused too many little red lights to flash uncontrollably inside my tin foil hat
Ummmm, you’re not one of those people who believe that walking past someone who’s got a laptop outside of a cafe will allow them to extract all of your data from your phone, are you? Because, while that’s theoretically possible, it’s never, ever, to my knowledge, happened in real life.
BT is permanently on on my phone, as are location services for certain apps like TomTom and other navigation utilities, and weather apps; everything else is set to ‘only in use’.
I’m sure the Tile itself is fairly big, but surely you only have one or two items on the car key, everything else on a separate keyring with a separate house key? My car key is separate, I don’t want to be carrying it around at work all day, it goes into a pocket on my rucksack, and my spare car key sits on a small shelf by the phone in the hall.
I’ll be getting a couple of the Apple key tracker things when they’re released, because they link to the Find My system, and they have replaceable batteries; I have a habit of just putting my car key down or in a pocket at home while doing ‘stuff’, then forgetting where it is, the Apple finder apparently works on a different wireless system to BT, with a location accuracy to roughly 15cm, which I think I need...🤪
Not sure where the idea that Tiles are big has come from.
We've got a couple on key rings and they're not big.... Barely bigger than the coin battery that powers them.
I was going to get some Tile fobs but would prefer to stick with Apple, price dependent
I rarely lose my keys, they're quite big (car key separate). I regularly lose my wallet though, it's tiny and I often leave it in the pocket of shorts/trousers because I don't know it's in there. A quick search through recently worn clothing items usually fixes that!