Tonight at the hotel I was chatting with a couple before putting their car away for the night. They said I would have to hit the “lock” button several times because,
The dealership told them that their window tint is affecting it.
I just laughed and told them that it sounded silly, but now I wonder.
Is this possible?
Don’t second guess yourself.
Window tint has absolutely nothing to do with a door locking system and the remote.
The remote’s battery may be running low.
Dealerships are IDIOTS! these guys will tell you anything just to get rid of you ,if there not making any money off of you. your keyless entry is an RF transmitter and even if your windows were completely BLACK would have no bearing on your remote transmitter fuctions. ITS DEFINATELY YOUR BATTERY!! although you only have about 300ft with the factory transmitters anyway.
The least expensive fix is the battery for the remote. Even if this does not work, it would have to be done at some time anyway. I’ve certainly never noticed any interference, but then, we’re not allowed to have heavily tinted windows in MD.
Were they driving some sort of late 90’s jeep?
Some of those actually used IR (instead of RF) keyless entry. The IR receiver was inside the car, so yes window tint would block the infrared light from the remote.
(Yes, it seems crazy to me to use IR for this, but they did.)
Hey don’t get me wrong I agree with you,but not the nominal 300ft range. Think about it thats 100 yards, a football field. Never have I ever seen 100yrd range on any type of keyless system.
I have seen many keyless systems where 30ft was doing just great.
Mercedes… CL230 ??
Contrary to the previous opinions expressed here, YES THEY CAN.
High end window tints often have a metallized layer to help reflect solar energy. These metallized films are well known to cause interference with RF remotes and even the film manufacturers admit this can happen. Some manfrs are offering new technology that has the performance of metallized film but do not interfere with RF transmission.
Interesting
Is the tint the metalized kind?
Your high end window tints with a metalized layer must be aftermarket.
Why would auto manufacturers allow a tint to be attached to their windows if it interferes with the remote door locking system?
It wasn’t stated if it’s OEM or aftermarket. Yes, the aftermarket tints are more likely to have issues but consider this- if you lived in AZ or FL, would you rather have a roasting hot interior or maybe have to push your remote button twice because the range is reduced? Seems like a good tradeoff to me…
According to Hornet Security Systems’ installation manual, metallic films can affect the range of remote entry devices, just as Twin Turbo suggested.
See the attached link, page 21.