00:00Did you know a motor vehicle is still stolen in the United States every 48 seconds?
00:04Last year that added up to 659,880 cars.
00:09A new one now costs about $50,000.
00:12That is not a stereo.
00:14That is a second mortgage on four wheels, and it can leave your driveway in about a
00:18minute.
00:18Here's the part that should bother you.
00:20A lot of those thefts do not look like the old movies anymore.
00:23Nobody smashes a window.
00:24Nobody jams a Slim Jim down the door.
00:26Two people walk up in the middle of the day with a pair of cheap radio boxes they ordered
00:31online.
00:32Your key is still on the kitchen counter.
00:34About 60 seconds later, the car unlocks, starts, and leaves.
00:38The alarm never goes off because the car thinks you opened it.
00:41By the end of this, you will know the factory setting that turns that radio off.
00:45The same sleep mode Toyota, Lexus, Subaru, and Mercedes already put in the fob.
00:50A 20-second walk to the handle that proves it worked, and a couple of extra tricks for
00:54the spare in the junk drawer and the brands that hide the switch somewhere else.
00:57A Faraday pouch is $12-25, and it only works if the lining is still intact.
01:03An aftermarket alarm kit is $400-600 installed.
01:06This sequence is $0.
01:07I have been putting both fobs to sleep at night for months.
01:10I am not going back to a bag I never test.
01:12Now here is how the steel actually works, because once you see it, the button combo makes sense.
01:17Your keyless fob is a tiny radio.
01:20As long as it has a battery, it is pinging a few meters around itself waiting for the
01:24car to answer.
01:25A relay kit is just a long extension cord for that ping.
01:28One person stands near the house with a catcher.
01:31The other stands at the door with a transmitter.
01:33The car hears a key that is actually in the kitchen.
01:36Kill the ping and there is nothing to stretch.
01:38That is the whole game.
01:40Here is exactly how you do it on a Toyota.
01:42The same combo shows up on a lot of Lexus fobs, too.
01:46Hold the lock button.
01:47Keep holding it.
01:48Press unlock twice.
01:49Watch the little LED on the fob.
01:51Four flashes means it stopped transmitting.
01:54Some units flash three times.
01:56Orangeville Toyota, Gateway Toyota, Edmonton, and Petawawa Toyota have all put this on camera
02:02or in writing, and they do not all count the same blink.
02:05Count what yours actually does.
02:07If the light does nothing, your year may not have the mode.
02:09Open the owner's manual and search power saving or battery saving.
02:14Do not invent a combo.
02:15The proof, because I blink on a piece of plastic, is not the same as a locked door.
02:19Leave the fob in sleep, walk out to the car, touch the handle.
02:23It should stay locked.
02:24That is the whole test.
02:25If the door pops, you are not in sleep.
02:28Do the combo again.
02:29If it still pops, this hardware never had the mode and you skipped to the extra tricks
02:33later.
02:34Wake it with any button.
02:35Unlock is the clean one.
02:37The driver's door opens and the broadcast is back.
02:40So this is a night thing.
02:40Not a set to it in 2019 and forget it thing.
02:44Sleep when you walk in.
02:45One button in the morning on the fob you are taking.
02:48Mercedes already printed this in the owner's manual.
02:50On the GLA, they call it deactivating the function of the key.
02:54Hold lock.
02:55Then press unlock twice in quick succession.
02:57Lamp confirms.
02:58Subaru owner forms document the same.
03:00Hold lock.
03:01Double unlock.
03:02Four flashes.
03:03Ford put his sleep style defense on some Fiesta and Focus keyless cars in Europe.
03:07Honda and Hyundai often hide it in the dash or infotainment instead of on the fob.
03:12Walk away.
03:13Unlock off.
03:14Smart entry off.
03:15If you drive one of those, that screen toggle is your version of this recipe.
03:19Year and model in the comments if your manual has a different line.
03:22I will not pretend I pressed every fob on earth.
03:24If this is already useful, subscribe.
03:27It is free.
03:28Members get the longer tests I keep off the main upload.
03:31Other brands and the spare key tricks are next, and those are the ones that quietly undo
03:35the whole job if you skip them.
03:37Now, the second problem.
03:39The spare.
03:40The fob in the junk drawer, the one you have not touched since 2022, is still whispering.
03:45Relay does not care which key is live.
03:48Sleep in both, or you did half the recipe.
03:50The spare can stay slept until the morning you actually travel.
03:53Press a button that day.
03:55Not every day.
03:56Here's a worthy little side effect.
03:57A CR2032 in daily use lasts about one to two years.
04:02Gateway's service desk says a sleeping spare can stretch to three or four.
04:08That is a three to five dollar battery you stopped replacing because a dead backup was
04:12still pinging the driveway from a bowl by the front door.
04:15Now, the detail almost nobody mentions.
04:17If you already own a Faraday pouch, test it the same way you tested sleep.
04:20Key in, zip it, walk to the handle.
04:24If the car unlocks, the nickel copper lining has cracked, or the seam has split and the pouch is a
04:29sock.
04:29Temp covers 2026.
04:32Survey of 2,000 UK drivers found 27% of pouch owners have never run that test.
04:37Same walk, different tool.
04:39If you do not want to buy a pouch at all, a cheap metal cookie tin or an old ammo
04:43can is a Faraday
04:44cage you already have. Slept fobs go in the tin at night.
04:47Two layers, still zero dollars.
04:50One more placement trick that costs nothing.
04:52Do not leave the bowl on the table under the front window.
04:55Relay range is short, but it is not zero.
04:58A drawer on the far side of the house, or that tin on a bedroom dresser,
05:02makes the catcher's job harder even if you forget the buttons one night.
05:05One final trick, and it is the fastest.
05:08The mechanical key is still inside the fob.
05:10If you ever sleep it, drain the battery and lock yourself out.
05:13Slide the hidden blade out, open the driver's door,
05:16then hold the dead fob against the start button with your foot on the brake.
05:21Toyota documents that induction red.
05:23Sleep mode is not a dead battery. Sleep is a mute.
05:27A button wakes it. A dead cell needs the blade or that start button tap.
05:31While you're building the habit, park nose in against a wall when you can.
05:35There is a newer attack that talks to some cars through a headlight plug,
05:38and pointing the nose at brick does more for that than any fob setting.
05:42It is not the main recipe. It is the extra 30 seconds in the driveway.
05:46Put it together. Both fobs. Hold lock. Unlock twice.
05:50Count the flashes. Walk to the handle and confirm it stays dead.
05:54Cookie tin or a tested pouch for the night.
05:56Spare stays. Slept. One button in the morning on the key you're taking.
06:01Nose in when the spot allows it. Money. Once.
06:04Because that is why this is sitting in the same family as the laundry gel.
06:08Pouch. $12 to $25. Plus a new one when the mesh fails.
06:12Alarm kit. $400 to $600 installed. Sleep mode.
06:15Zero. NICB counted 659,880 stolen cars in the United States last year.
06:23One every 48 seconds. I'm not going to invent a Canadian insurance number for your driveway.
06:27I'm going to say the setting costs nothing. The walk takes 20 seconds and a $50,000 car should not
06:33leave because a fob was chatting from the counter. If this puts your fob to sleep tonight, send it to
06:38whoever still keeps keys in a bowl by the front window. Drop the year, make, and what the LED did.
06:44Four flashes. Three flashes. Or nothing. So the next person with your exact fob does not have to guess.
06:51Take care, and I will see you in the next one.
