355 Immobiliser won't work at Sainsbury's

[edfez]

I've been stuck in the Sainsburys car park twice now. Rang Karl at Verdi; very helpfully suggested putting key next to panel behind passenger seat,by the light next to the vent, changing battery and resetting by turning off power in boot.
AA came and said fob worked ok.
Eventually for the second time this month it suddenly worked again......after 3 hrs.
Anyone else had this problem? Don't know if it's the car or some kind of interference from the supermarket. I know auto doors always used to send my radar detector crazy as did tractors for some strange reason.
Cheers,
Ed

[chris_n]

I always have a similar problem to the one you describe when I park in a particular location. The Clifford alarms website had the following in it's FAQ's that may help explain it, if not necessarily solve the problem ...

Clifford website said:

Q. My remote control doesn't disarm my car alarm in some places I park but works fine in other places. What's wrong? A. Unfortunately this is a fairly common occurrence, which affects all car alarms at some time or other. In some places you park, you may be near to a Radio or Cellular Transmitter that is on the same operating frequency as that at which your car alarm remote controls transmit. The radio mast will be sending its information at a far higher power than we are allowed under current legislation to send our arm/disarm information from your remote control to your car, and as a result your remote key-fob may at times be over-powered and 'blocked' from disarming your system. You will suffer far less with Clifford systems than you would etc etc...

I presume your immobiliser is using a radio transmitter to work and suffering as described above. Other types work in different ways (e.g. inductive pickups) and might be differently affected.

Not sure that helps much!

[ninja_eli]

Yep, I used to park in a side road in Mayfair and I would always come back late at night and the bastard thing wouldnt disarm (it would usually, but not always, arm when I left it though:frown: ). Third time this happened I realised it must be something to do with the area, I had already changed the battery and had the car inspected. I guess it had to be from something within the buildings. I tested it by pushing it some 30 metres down the road and it worked okay.

The 355 has a combination that would override the immobiliser and would discontinue the alarm. Problem is the original owners never pass this information on and some dealers dont even know it. It is basically a combo of key turns, (i.e. position one, then back tof off, then position two, then back to off etc etc in a preset combination) Try to find out yours if you can, mind come in handy

[murph7355]

ninja_eli said:

I tested it by pushing it some 30 metres down the road and it worked okay.

Now THAT must've impressed the ladies ninja

Question is, did you get them to push while you steered?

[edfez]

Thanks people, guess I'll have to avoid Sainsburys like everyone else seems to at the moment....it doesn't happen at Tesco's.
The AA man mentioned this code....would that be the number on the metal dog tag attached to cream leather holder for the red key?
There was me thinking TVR immobilisers were quirky!

[ninja_eli]

Andy, on the one occasion I had a bird with me, I didnt know what was wrong with it, so changed the battery (my mate had to go and buy me one from a petrol station in Victoria!) and it worked, so I didnt look a pratt! (well, I probably looked a pratt, but not just not because of the car )

355's are not that heavy TBH...

Regards to the number I have no idea if thats the one, but try it? I think each number relates to the number of times you have to go to position 1 within a stipulated time limit, cant remember what it was so check your manual, it should all be in there.