The 2009 Prius manual says that the smart key system may unlock the door if it is splashed with water or in torrential rain. Is there any history of Prius being stolen this way? Thanks!
If you are standing within 3 feet of an exterior sensor with the Smart fob in your pocket, and you use a garden hose to spray water on the front door handle (i.e., as you are washing the car), then you may notice that the car will unlock. However if you don't open the door, then the car will lock after 30 seconds or so. Hence, no worries about theft due to this system.
In other words, OP, the car will not be unlocked merely by splashing it with water: the fob must be near also.
Pearl doesn't unlock the doors when the hose is held on the door handle, fob in my pocket. 1. So it's not a given anyway. 2. An unlocked door -will- re-lock if not opened within 20 sec. or so (the manual also tells you how long the doors will remain un-locked if triggered but not opened - but I'm too lazy to go out to the car and read it). 3. You could loose something from the interior of the car, but not the car, if the doors are left unlocked.
If you are worried about someone jumping into your Prius while you wash it, either turn off the SKS or remove the fob from your pocket. If this is a real concern, you might want to consider moving to a better neighborhood. Tom
Hello all, Thank you very much! I had not realized that it needs both the FOB and the water to unlock the door, so I imagined the scenario of someone with a jug of water breaking into the car. Now I feel much safer. Thanks again!
It's really not mysterious. The door handles have capacitance sensors to tell when your fingers touch the underside of the handles. To the sensors, large amounts of water look just like a person. The SKS thinks you are touching the unlock sensor. Water without a nearby fob looks like a random person pulling on the handle. It won't open unlock in that situation. Another interesting detail is the unlock switch on the hatch. That one is a pressure switch, not a capacitive switch. Did you ever notice how you have to pull harder on the hatch to get it to unlock? That is why. The back of the car is subjected to a lot of swirling water and wind, so it makes sense to avoid a capacitive switch. One more bit of trivia: If you want to unlock all of the doors, give a quick pull on the hatch handle. One quick pull unlocks the doors, but doesn't open the hatch. A long pull does both. I find this handy when a passenger is waiting to get in and I am walking past the back of the car. One quick tap with my fingers and everything is unlocked. Tom
Since I reprogrammed my driver's handle to unlock all doors (procedure found in the owner's manual), this is moot, but I often do the same thing as my family approaches from behind so that the kids can get in more quickly and I or the Mrs. Spinnr can open the back door to get baby situated before entering the front doors.
Just to finish this up, for those living in Florida , if you walk away from the car in an extreme downpour and wonder if the car is locked, the FOB can lock the car from farther away than the SKS works. So just press the lock button when you get 20' away. The lights will flash to let you know it locked.
Easy to do. Duct tape brick to gallon jug of water. Swing jug around hitting window with brick. Yer in the car. Of course if you use to door switch to unlock the door, the alarm will go off. So don't do that. Just take the Tiffany ruby bracelet lying in the front seat and leave.
