Just wondering, I may have to park in some questionable areas and want to make sure it will be there when I am done

 

Yes, flatbed tow trucks exist

 

Yes it can but you can’t start or drive it without the key. Theives can clone your key so use a faraday bag to block the signal.

 

Interesting....never heard of that. I wonder if anyone would go thru that trouble to steal a 50k car. But I don't even know if its a lot of trouble as I am not familiar with stealing cars..lol.

 

I guess you didn't hear about the car theft ring in Canada?

https://acurazine.com/forums/6g-tlx-...acura-1005148/

 

I did a little digging on this...apparently it is very easy to steal our cars. I ordered one of the faraday bags for the key fob. TY!

 

Ok if the faraday bag blocks the signal, how do you unlock the RDX with the hand held remote?

 

You take the key fob out of the faraday bag to unlock your car! You store the key fob in the faraday bag when your not using your car. Even better when the key fob is out of the bag instead of using it to unlock your car and risk having the fob signal intercepted and cloned. You use the one touch feature to unlock your door by grabbing the door handle and the door will unlock and there is no fob signal to intercept.

 

I believe the one touch unlock feature on the door handle requires the key fob to be present. Otherwise anyone could get in your car all the time...no ?

 

Yes it does. It’s in the manual.

 

OK so I assume you are saying if you touch the door handle vs hitting the button, then no code is broadcasted to steal. If that is the case, how do people steal cars when people hang their keys near the door of their house and cars are stolen right from the front of someones house ? I would think the key FOB is always broadcasting a signal even if the button isn't pressed.

 

The content at Fob duplication is worth a read. Having said that it should be recognized that one of the ways that fob duplication efforts are being foiled is manufacturers are incorporating accelerometers in the fob to detect motion. After a short period of lack of motion, the fob powers down. I believe the technology was developed by BMW and about 3 to 5 years ago. But the use of the fob to lock the vehicle, as opposed to the button on the door presents the ability for the fob to be cloned.

Having said this the technology varies from car maker to car maker and I do not know with any assurance if the Acura fob (or what model years) has an accelerometer. It is a rapidly changing field!

 

Key fobs are always on in some capacity. Theives use an antenna and its accompanying device to capture and steal the fob signal while it’s just sitting or being actively used. Go to YT and look up stealing key fob signal and watch some videos.

 

I believe the MY24 TLX has the newer keyfob tech but this hasn't been confirmed yet!

 

This shit is definitely happening more often in the US and Canada. My 22 TLX Type S was recently stolen due to the FOB cloning right from my apartment parking garage. It was caught all on surveillance and it happened within minutes. This is complete BS on Honda/Acura's part, having insurance or not, loyal Acura enthusiasts should not have to go through this! Its been about two weeks and my car still hasn't been recovered even with having Acura Link stolen vehicle tracker enabled assisting law enforcement where it was last pinged, but this is a JOKE! Acura Link only can track the vehicle for two weeks and then your are SOL, and now my insurance company wants to total it after 20 days of not being retrieved. I definitely know now to be better protected with my next car, and my faraday box and pouches have already been purchased. I'm also adding a old fashioned Club and possibly a good kill switch on top of that!

Has anyone else experienced key FOB duplication theft from any 21+ year Acuras?

if so, have you lost all trust with Honda/Acura, would you purchase another?

Thanks

 

Unfortunate that you've lost your vehicle.

With the right equipment, cloning is quite easily accomplished if the vehicle owner uses the key fob capability to lock the vehicle. In a parking garage especially, someone can have the equipment in some other vehicle in the garage. Many sources say the door lock feature has a range of about 30 feet. But the device used to read a signal by a thief can probably be significantly more. Whenever locking your vehicle, don't use the fob, use the button in the door handle. No signal is transmitted.

Unfortunately the burden falls on the owner to learn the pitfalls of the system. So you have to learn through places like this forum.

 

That's the thing, I rarely used the FOB to lock as I had it auto lock once I walk certain amount of feet away. I will say the way our parking garage and distance from the actual apts is less than 100FT, so it was possible. I barely used the handle grab lock feature, so maybe that was the issue..?

 

If you "...rarely used the FOB" and "...barely used the handle grab feature", what did you use?

 

What I mean the FOB was on me when unlocking and starting the vehicle of course, but there is a setting I had where I could just walk away in most cases, and once the FOB wasn't close enough, the anti-theft would activate. I have used the handle grab but not as much as most people if that makes sense. The car was stolen definitely due to the RF replay attack just based off the cam footage and how close my apt is to the vehicle garage.

 

I’ve never cared for the Walk Away auto lock feature. For one thing, at least as I understand the feature, when you are within 5 feet the fob and vehicle are “talking” to each other. It isn’t clear to me or been stated that this interaction is sufficient for a thief to clone the fob, but I suspect it might to some degree make their task easier. The idea of locking using the door handle button seems to eliminate the communication between the fob and vehicle. I do notice that by default the feature is disabled as the vehicle comes from the factory. Some content related to the feature can be found at Walk Away auto lock.

 

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It happened last night to my 2021. I solely use the proximity feature and someone got into my car while I was at a public park for about an hour.

Definitely makes me uncomfortable knowing how easy it was for them to get in. I know the car was locked, I always listen for the beep when I'm walking away. They stole some stuff but I'm lucky they didn't take the car itself.

 

Unfortunately, looks like thieves have learned how to beat the security system on 2014-2022 Acuras. Not only copying the fob, but also opening the doors without tripping the alarm. AcuraLink security feature is a joke compared to OnStar.

Be diligent not leaving valueables in the car, and keep a tracker tag somewhere in the car as a cheap bet on increasing the chance of recovering the car.

 

Sorry to hear! There's an organized ring working in my area and they have been lifting Honda's and Acura's left and right via this method, so much so that the police were on TV asking people not to keep their fobs near their front doors and to pick up the bags/boxes that block the signals.

 

I've never dealt with insurance for a stolen car so I am probably not taking everything into consideration that I should, but if a thief steals my car, I don't want it back.

 

I think one of the best anti-theft features is on some (Challengers with high HP engines) if not all recent Dodge products. In 2021 they upgraded the "valet mode" on some products to what is termed Enhanced Valet mode. When you enable the Enhanced Valet Mode, the power and engine RPM is limited to an extent that limits vehicle speed to 3 MPH. You must input a 4-digit code to get the vehicle out of valet mode. A friend says he doesn't think his RAM truck would go up the ramp of a tow truck. Of course nothing is foolproof, but this seems like a worthwhile concept.