Driving without a key (gen2)

[Scratch2k]

My wife dropped me off at work this morning after we left her car for a service and I walked up the stairs to work and took the key out of my pocket as I usually do. That didn't strike me as strange until she calls me 5 minutes later asking if I have the key, I said uhh yeah, oops. She says the car didn't beep or carry on at all with the key missing, which I find hard to believe but that's not the topic of this thread.

I'm interested to hear if any Gen2 owners have tested to see how far the car will go without the key in proximity. My wife got around 5km round trip to come back and pick the key up without a problem but I do also remember the car dealer telling me while I was taking my first test drive that they managed a 20 minute/20km journey before cutting out.

Has anyone actually tested this, is it time or distance based?

[Reedy]

The car definitely tells you when the key goes missing, the sat nav screen comes up with an "Advance key not found" message.

[Leelu]

I tested this one day, left the car running and ran almost 2 blocks and it was still running. I was told it doesn't stop until you stop the car and then won't re-start, not sure if this is true though

But yeah, mine definitely beeped and carried on at me when the key was taken out of range.

[Jeev]

Funnily enough I was thinking about this just the other evening. If you drive off without the Key, how does the vehicle eventually stop... And is it actually safe? I mean if you're doing 100 on the highway you don't just want it to turn the engine off =\

I was told it doesn't stop until you stop the car and then won't re-start, not sure if this is true though

This makes the most sense safety wise, but that would mean the cars are a pretty easy target for theft? I might go have a play with the keyless system in the Beemer when I get home and see what the hell is going on.

[boost]

A friend did this in his mondeo xr5 turbo. Range did not matter, once the car was turned off, it would not start again until the key was in range.

I believe the MPS would be the same.

[Yeldarb]

I didn't think it had a limit to be honest, but it makes sense it does.

[Reedy]

Theres ways to do it safely.

"Warning, key not found. Car shutting down in 1 minute......"

Countdown to zero, gives the thief time to pull safely off the road and stop.

Or make it so if the car comes to a stop, the engine cuts out.

Plenty of ways to do it.

[silhouette31]

You can drive as far as you like without the key. As soon as the engine is turned off though it won't restart until it registers the smart key in the car again.

I looked into it as I always thought it would be safe to leave the car running as long as I had the key to jump out to an ATM or something, but since working out it doesn't turn off I always shut the car down now.