keyless entry / advanced key option

[robbyg]

Can anyone explain how this operates?

I am thinking of speccing it. Problem is my car keys are kept in a cupboard which (straight line via the house wall) is only about 5 feet from the car. Does this mean while i am parked that anyone could come and open the car? Could it drain the battery by talking to the key all the time?

Has anyone experimented how near you need to be for it to operate?
How are you finding keyless entry good or bad?

Thanks

[aurora7]

I've just done a very crude test. There are genius engineers on here who will be able to give you a better answer.

When I placed the key more than a metre away from the car (front, back and sides) it didn't open the door. Anything closer than a metre and the door unlocks. You will get a message when starting the car engine if the key isn't actually in the car; that doesn't help you if there is a thief starting the car though ;-)

Interestingly, when the key was placed between 1 and 2 metres from the car, the key flashed red when I tried to open the door, but didn't actually open the door.

Personally I think it's a great option to have...

[Timothy Nathan]

Personally, my feeling is that you are removing value by hanging the key by the front door. I keep it permanently in my trouser pocket - swapping it as I do with loose change as I go from one pair to another - and forget about it.

If you are going to hang it in the hall, it is scarcely any more effort to blip it manually.

I think that it's a great system, but, like all the other great systems, you have to get the "feel" for how to open it and, more particularly, lock up.

[nealeb]

I believe that the manual says that the car gradually shuts down various ancilliary systems including keyless entry if you don't use them for some time (days rather than hours) or if the battery starts getting a bit low, so even if the system does use a little power, it's unlikely to do anything any harm. I haven't done any scientific testing (not even as scientific as Aurora7:)) but my impression is that if I turn away from the car a little and the keys are in my further trouser pocket, it doesn't want to unlock. I think that you need to be closer than 5 feet, anyway, and the house wall should take a bit of the signal away.

Update - I couldn't resist trying a bit of science. If I stood sideways-on to the car and held one arm out horizontally holding the key, and the other arm out horizontally to reach the door handle, the key would flash when my fingers were no more than an inch or two from the handle but unlocking was unreliable. Arm with key vertically by my side and it worked fine (despite what I said above). What I didn't try was whether there was any difference between holding and not holding the key at the same ranges as it might be that the body helps conduct the signal. Whether this was a complicating factor in Aurora7's test, I don't know.

[robbyg]

I have today ordered changed my order to include the comfort pack, so keyless entry here i come.

All this makes me think about anther question, what about on a cold day if you want to start the car and leave it for 10 mins to warm up and de-frost. Do you have to leave the key in the car?

Does the engine stop if you walk away with the key?

I assume that if someone other than you drives off (nicks the car) while you are say loading the boot, that the engine will stop after a short time?

Why cant my little brain stop thinking of questions. Sometimes i wish i was dumb and was satisfied with a 20 year old ford escort....

[Timothy Nathan]

You can pay more money and get timed preheat.

[robbyg]

I have read about that, but its not in the uk audi brochure. i would happily shell out a few hundred quid for that. I assumed its only available in colder countries.

[Timothy Nathan]

Oh, maybe, then. I just read about it in the Manual.

[nealeb]

what about on a cold day if you want to start the car and leave it for 10 mins to warm up and de-frost.

Sends shudders down my spine... If it's really, really cold and there's a lot of frost, I might start the engine while I scrape the windows. But then it's straight into the car and drive gently away. The engine warms much more quickly even under light load, so reducing "cold engine" wear and fuel consumption, and the auxiliary heater will be giving you warm air on to the screen very quickly as well.

The one thing I miss on the Audi that my old Fords used to have was the electrically-heated windscreen which was a magic device in cold weather, but the auxiliary heater in the A6 seems to be pretty good.

[robbyg]

i only do it if the frost or snow is so hard it wont scrape off or de-icer wont shift it.
Whats the auxilliary heater? Is this something which produces heat almost instantly so the cabin can warm before the engine heats up? Assume they all have these?

[nealeb]

I think that it's an electric heater that warms up incoming air before the engine is warm enough to do so itself. Might not work when on "Efficiency", though - I'm just not sure about that.

I'm beginning to think that the manual isn't quite enough. You need to reverse-engineer the firmware to really find out what it all does...