I know, I know, another car unlocking by itself thread, but....

[CFB]

Well I went out to the car this morning to find the electric tailgate fully open!!

I am 100% certain I did not cause it with any keys.

I got home at 4pm, locked the car as normal. Indoors, I put the key in the faraday pouch, the spare is also in one in a drawer.

SWMBO got home at 6 and it was closed then.

It can’t be either of the keys for two reasons:

Both were in faraday pouches that work, I have tested them.

The tailgate will only open with the keyfob if it is within 2 meters of the tailgate sensor, also tested. I have to be standing by the B  pillar at the furthest for it to work.

I know the Yeti used to unlock itself every now and then, but at least it wasn’t noticeable.

Luckily we live in a quiet close.

Does anyone have a constructive answer as to why?
How many other people have the same problem?

[shyVRS245]

It's one of SKODA's simply clever features built-in at the factory like my wife's Karoq key fobs that both stopped working at exactly the same time and without warning.

[Sargan]

Not helpful to your issue but my tailgate can be opended form a lot further away that 2m ...... ofetn open from front door of house ... at least 5m away.

[CFB]

2 hours ago, Sargan said:

Not helpful to your issue but my tailgate can be opended form a lot further away that 2m ...... ofetn open from front door of house ... at least 5m away.

What year model is yours?

Mine was built this year

[Sargan]

2017.   Edition

[john999boy]

3 hours ago, CFB said:

Both were in faraday pouches that work, I have tested them.

The tailgate will only open with the keyfob if it is within 2 meters of the tailgate sensor, also tested. I have to be standing by the B  pillar at the furthest for it to work.

However have you tried pressing the tailgate opening button when the fob is within the pouch?

I appreciate the pouch will stop the 'open door' signal being relayed but not too sure about a deliberate fob press being acted upon.

 

3 hours ago, Sargan said:

Not helpful to your issue but my tailgate can be opened from a lot further away that 2m ...... often open from front door of house ... at least 5m away.

It can be quite a bit further away than that too.

[Jfhuk]

Do you by any chance live near an airport or military airfield? I live near Heathrow and certain jets using their identity transponders can magically make the rear door open.

[CFB]

On 08/12/2020 at 16:57, Sargan said:

Not helpful to your issue but my tailgate can be opended form a lot further away that 2m ...... ofetn open from front door of house ... at least 5m away.

Maybe they reduced the distance for some reason, on later cars?

This from the latest manual 

20 hours ago, john999boy said:

However have you tried pressing the tailgate opening button when the fob is within the pouch?

I appreciate the pouch will stop the 'open door' signal being relayed but not too sure about a deliberate fob press being acted upon.

 

It can be quite a bit further away than that too.

The key was in the pouch, hanging on a hook 4 feet from the ground all night, so even the dog couldn’t have pressed the button by mistake. She can’t drive anyway.

 

6 hours ago, Jfhuk said:

Do you by any chance live near an airport or military airfield? I live near Heathrow and certain jets using their identity transponders can magically make the rear door open.

We do live about 10 miles from Luton but nowhere near the flight paths. A disturbing thought though.

[Guest]

21 hours ago, john999boy said:

However have you tried pressing the tailgate opening button when the fob is within the pouch?

I appreciate the pouch will stop the 'open door' signal being relayed but not too sure about a deliberate fob press being acted upon.

 

A Faraday cage, pouch or whatever is supposed to stop any electromagnetic signal so not matter if the key was powered by a nuclear reactor rather than a battery, if it's in the pouch then it shouldn't work. 

 

You make a good point tho because who's to say the particular Faraday pouch the OP is using works?

 

CFB - I'd take the take the pouch out next to the car, press the unlock button or if you can't do that, try opening the rear door. If the door opens then you may well have the answer.

 

Some years ago I had one of the most reliable cars you can buy, a Honda. I'd come out to sometimes find one, two, three or all four windows either half or fully lowered. It was obviously an electrical fault which Honda never got to the bottom of. The last attempt to fix was replacing the airflow sensor ( no I don't know why either ) but I sold the car before I had a chance to see if that worked.

 

You haven't had any issues of late with water ingress or any other weird things happening? You haven't say installed a dashcam or some other accessory recently? Modern Car electrics can be a nighmare.

Edited 9 December, 2020 by Guest

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Jfhuk said:

Do you by any chance live near an airport or military airfield? I live near Heathrow and certain jets using their identity transponders can magically make the rear door open.

 

Surely all Jets use the same frequency to transmit their transponder code.

 

Now I'm no expert in this, but I'm sure aviation uses around the 1030mhz to 1090mhz range for their various communications.  Haven't a clue about car keys so just looked it up. European cars use 433.92 or 868mhz.  It might be a martian spaceship that opens your rear door, but transponders from military or civil aircraft?  Seriously?

 

Would be interested how you know your rear door is opening due to transponder signals from aircraft.  Your neighbour isn't David Icke by any chance?    

Edited 9 December, 2020 by Guest

[Schtum]

I came out of the hospital in St Andrews this morning, unlocked the Yeti, got in and put the key in the ignition.  A moment later, the doors all locked and all four windows dropped.  I had to remove the key, reinsert it and then switch on the ignition to get the windows to respond to the switches and raise themselves.  Proximity to Leuchars, perhaps....?  

[Jfhuk]

2 hours ago, Scot5 said:

 

Surely all Jets use the same frequency to transmit their transponder code.

 

Now I'm no expert in this, but I'm sure aviation uses around the 1030mhz to 1090mhz range for their various communications.  Haven't a clue about car keys so just looked it up. European cars use 433.92 or 868mhz.  It might be a martian spaceship that opens your rear door, but transponders from military or civil aircraft?  Seriously?

 

Would be interested how you know your rear door is opening due to transponder signals from aircraft.  Your neighbour isn't David Icke by any chance?    

I spent ten years looking after this stuff for the international organisation that provides many of the standards used.
 

Typically, the  interrogation systems use two frequencies, 1030 MHz for interrogations to aircraft transponder and 1090 MHz for replies from the transponder or spontaneous message transmissions (squitters, e.g. ADS-B), in order to build the air situation picture. Ie what aircraft are doing and where.

 

The 1030/1090 MHz RF frequency are a critical resource for Air Traffic Control (ATC). Aircraft surveillance is based on cooperative surveillance systems, all relying on the operation of the 1030/1090 MHz link. This RF link is used by (see below):

• Mode A/C radars,
• Mode S radars (Elementary Surveillance - ELS and Enhanced Surveillance – EHS)
• Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B)
• Multilateration systems for airport surface surveillance (MLAT) or over a wide area (WAM)
• Military systems (Identification Friend or Foe – IFF, combat ID)

The 1030/1090 MHz surveillance infrastructure sees its performance degraded when:

• transponders are interrogated beyond their designed capability and performance; because there are too many RF interrogations on 1030 MHz triggering too many replies from aircraft transponders on 1090 MHz;
• there are too many transmissions on the frequencies;
• there are unexpected transmissions on the frequencies;
• non-interoperability issues happen.

When this happens leakage on to other frequencies occurs. IE car doors can open, satellite and WiFi signals can also be interfered with.

 

I’ve seen this happen on busy aircraft routes and particularly on military fields where intelligence aircraft are based. At one RAF field I was told to park away from the aircraft operational areas as you’ll come back to an open door.

 

Theres also another culprit, Wi-Fi routers typically operate in the 2.4GHz radio band, as opposed to the 315MHz and 433.92MHz bands that car remotes operate in, they can still generate harmonic interference and even unintentional interference due to poor shielding or wiring. And so can a whole host of other wireless devices. While cellular sites can also generate interference, these are pretty tightly regulated by Telecommunications regulators.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 9 December, 2020 by Jfhuk

[Teir]

@CFB sounds like your next step is to build a Faraday cage to keep the car in 👍

[john999boy]

On 08/12/2020 at 20:15, john999boy said:

However have you tried pressing the tailgate opening button when the fob is within the pouch?

 

3 hours ago, CFB said:

Maybe they reduced the distance for some reason, on later cars?

This from the latest manual 

The key was in the pouch, hanging on a hook 4 feet from the ground all night, so even the dog couldn’t have pressed the button by mistake. She can’t drive anyway.

 

Disclaimer: I'm going on how my Superb acts but in essence it will be exactly the same as your Kodiak.

The S3 doesn't have the option to lock the boot as described above but that wasn't what the initial problem was and my reply was about being able to open the boot from a considerable distance away.

 

Anyway, going back to what I asked earlier, have you tried to open the boot with the key inside the pouch as the pouch may not block transponder and kessy signals as they may be operating on different frequencies?

 

BTW, are you sure about your dog's driving capabilities?

 

 

[shyVRS245]

Tested my remote control electric tail gate on my Superb hatch tonight at work and it opened from 10 metres away.

[john999boy]

4 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Tested my remote control electric tail gate on my Superb hatch tonight at work and it opened from 10 metres away.

But have you repeated that in a pouch?

[shyVRS245]

1 minute ago, john999boy said:

But have you repeated that in a pouch?

No need John thieves don't work at Disney just Snow White and her helpers at Xmas.

[CFB]

18 minutes ago, john999boy said:

 

 

Disclaimer: I'm going on how my Superb acts but in essence it will be exactly the same as your Kodiak.

The S3 doesn't have the option to lock the boot as described above but that wasn't what the initial problem was and my reply was about being able to open the boot from a considerable distance away.

 

Anyway, going back to what I asked earlier, have you tried to open the boot with the key inside the pouch as the pouch may not block transponder and kessy signals as they may be operating on different frequencies?

 

BTW, are you sure about your dog's driving capabilities?

 

 

Right, so I have just been out with the fob in the pouch. No response from the car when pressing any of the buttons on the fob so I know the pouch works as it did when I first bought it.

The tailgate does indeed open from about 5 meters away but will not close unless I’m much closer ?

 

As for the dog, she’s a toy Manchester terrier and couldn’t see out of the window even if stood on her hind legs! 

[CFB]

23 minutes ago, john999boy said:

But have you repeated that in a pouch?

It’s a bit too cold outside for that!

[john999boy]

The last question was to Shy as that was the reason for the test. 

[Jfhuk]

15 hours ago, Teir said:

@CFB sounds like your next step is to build a Faraday cage to keep the car in 👍

One option 😱😂