Annoying key fob panic button

Is there a way to disable this button without ruining the key fob? Many times when I put it in my purse it bumps something and sets off my car alarm. TIA!

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Well the low class solution would be a small snip of tin and some electrical tape :wink:

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This leads me to tell you a funny story that is mildly adjacent. At one time I lived in an apartment building that was 20 odd floors, and the lower the floor the more likely it was a unit would be occupied by seniors. I was enjoying having the ground floor laundry room to myself late-ish on a mid-week evening when I heard a car horn (alarm style) start going off. Shortly after, there was an elderly woman banging on the window of the laundry room (which was opposite the parking garage) and she was screaming ā€œI need a man! I need a man!ā€ :blush:

I ran out to see what was going onā€¦ and saw her car was indicating much as your car would if you pressed that panic button. She didnā€™t understand why that was happening, it had never happened before. Then I noticed she had installed one of those steering wheel locks. (ā€œThe Clubā€ or something similar, Best Steering Wheel Locks of 2021: Ratings & Reviews ) It was locked so tight that it was pressing on the horn.

So hereā€™s your TIL moment. This car was a Cadillac (fairly popular with seniors, I believe) and has an interesting safety feature. If you press and hold the horn, the car will eventually escalate to making as much noise as it can, presumably to garner you some [helpful] attention.

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I am going to move your topic to the one @samabuelsamid has, because @Leo hasnā€™t really created an ā€œautosā€ type topic that is more relevant, and I feel like you might get more attention from car nerds there. Feel free to edit it back if you think this isnā€™t a good idea.

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If you donā€™t want to use the button ever, perhaps fill the area with some type of glue - maybe epoxy? - it would dry smooth and the area would be consistent with the rest of the fob texture-wise. Just a thought.

-edit - or maybe Sugru which is a moldable glue: https://www.amazon.com/Sugru-Moldable-Glue-Original-Formula/dp/B00WW8KIRI/

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That should work perfectly, thanks! Iā€™ve never hit panic buttons by accident before but this one seems extra sensitive. What a relief It will be to not have it going off anymore.

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What car is it from? Normally those fobs split in half to replace the battery and are quite easy to get to the buttons. Iā€™d do that, and see if some tape between the button and contacts underneath it were enough to disable it. Easy to remove again if you ever sold the car. Or if itā€™s a ā€˜clickerā€™ type contact just snip off the ā€˜nubā€™ on the bottom of the button that pushes it.

IME these fobs disassemble easily once youā€™ve got the two halves apart. Theyā€™re expensive to replace, Iā€™d worry glue would seep into the rest of it :man_facepalming:t2:

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Bgeeoz, those sorts of conversations are still a major part of my life and you just have to hang out with the right crowd. You can check out my writings on this stuff at https://www.forbes.com/sites/samabuelsamid and hear Rebecca Lindland, Dan Roth and I talk about it on our podcast at Wheel Bearings https://wheelbearings.media/

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