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Are our keys waterproof?


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:lol:

 

Nice. Yeah, when I'm on vacation and using rental cars, I swim, wade for fishing, all kinds of immersion in water with key fobs, and I've never had one stop working for me. It's not the magical spec.Bness, it's just that key fobs are designed to be waterproof to some extent. Have you ever taken one apart? They use some beefy O-rings on them, better than the O-ring on my 100m water-resistant Timex...

Ich bin echt viel netter, wenn ich nuechtern bin. Echt!
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:lol:

 

Nice. Yeah, when I'm on vacation and using rental cars, I swim, wade for fishing, all kinds of immersion in water with key fobs, and I've never had one stop working for me. It's not the magical spec.Bness, it's just that key fobs are designed to be waterproof to some extent. Have you ever taken one apart? They use some beefy O-rings on them, better than the O-ring on my 100m water-resistant Timex...

I make the blank for weight savings, and it annoys me to run with my keys. Something about bouncing around possibly hitting precious cargo. lol

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The key fob is at best splash resistant. You just got lucky.

 

Hardly. Most OEM's now force the keyfob manufacture to pass a washing machine test. Not to mention a whole host of other tests.

 

Chrysler has their interior door panels pass all sorts of tests, submerged tests, lotion tests of various bases, and my personal favorite, the urine test.

 

OEMs design their stuff for what they expect will happen, not so that it will break the first time you do something stupid.

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  • 3 years later...
Even if the RFID chip wasn't coated in plastic, which it is, it is a passive circuit and won't be damaged by water

Maybe so for pure water, but salt water is another story.

 

 

I know this an old thread and my experience is not with a Subaru, but I have a little insight based recent on personal experience and decided to register and share.

 

 

My wife and I went to the Gulf this summer and I forgot that I left the keys to our Ford Escape in my swim shorts. When we got back to the car, not only would the remote not work, but the car also would not start. Knowing that saltwater can effect circuit resistance AND knowing this can affect even passive systems, I walked over to the public bathrooms and ran the key under the sink water for about a minute making sure to press the buttons as I did in order to get as much fresh water circulating through the key as possible.

 

My plan was to use the hand dryer to dry it off some, but it was out of service. So I just shook the key vigorously on my way back to the car. When I got to it, of course, the remote still didn't work, but the car crank up on the first try.

 

A couple hours later (after the key dried out more) the remote entry also worked and has been fine ever since.

 

So, it seems that fresh water will be fine for the imobilizer circuitry, but saltwater can have an adverse effect on it.

 

 

Btw, I really like the ideas above about getting a non-imobilizer key cut to keep on your person.

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