Horn honk when the key leaves the vehicle

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Nashco

Well-known member
Joined
May 29, 2013
Messages
538
Location
Portland, OR
Has anybody figured out a way to prevent the car from honking at you when the key exits the vehicle and the power is on? I normally keep my key in my pocket. I also normally back out of my driveway, put the car in park, hop outside and close the gate, then hop back in to drive away. That means my horn honks at me unless I leave the key in the car (which I don't do) or power down the car (which seems silly).

I have scoured everything I can find in the owner's manual and vehicle settings screens and can't find anything. Does anybody else have this problem? Has anybody figured out a way to change this reaction?

Bryce
 
That's just by design, the car is trying to make sure you don't walk off with it still on or if you turn it off and leave the key, make sure you know that the key is still inside the car. Pretty sure you can't turn it off.
 
Nashco said:
...I also normally back out of my driveway, put the car in park, hop outside and close the gate, then hop back in to drive away. That means my horn honks at me unless I leave the key in the car (which I don't do) or power down the car (which seems silly)...

Bryce
How about not fully shutting the door when you hop out to close the gate that way the horn will not double beep? :D
 
I guess it makes sense as a design feature to prevent people from walking away from their car that is on and has the key in it...I just wish the horn wasn't so harsh.

Of course, leaving the door open is easy enough, but counter productive when I just preheated the car. ;) I'll just have to adjust my habits, it seems.

Bryce
 
Settings -> Vehicle Settings -> Lock, Unlock Settings -> Remote left in vehicle reminder -> Off
 
bespoke said:
Settings -> Vehicle Settings -> Lock, Unlock Settings -> Remote left in vehicle reminder -> Off

To clarify, this setting applies to when the car is turned off and the remote is left in the vehicle. I had already tried fiddling with this setting unsuccessfully. As mentioned above, the only way I seem to be able to avoid having the horn honk while the car is turned on is to leave the remote in the vehicle or to leave the door open.

Bryce
 
The smart way Chevy could address this was that the locked door will unlock itself upon shutting the door if the remote is left behind. I always notice that.

Not opposed to a gentle beep (Leaf) but all the sounds Spark makes are harsh and wake-up-the-neighborhood unsophisticated.
 
iletric said:
Not opposed to a gentle beep (Leaf) but all the sounds Spark makes are harsh and wake-up-the-neighborhood unsophisticated.
I have a Leaf as well.

Priuses make beeps to warn you for the scenario. My mom's Altima Hybrid makes beeps as well, but they're a bit too soft.
 
Listen. You all are justifying the programming. It should be an option to remove the honking. It is offensive and serves little purpose. I walk by the car to check mail or help my wife into the car and the dam think honks loudly and I jump every time. General Motors: take my advice and add an option soon to remove this so-called safety feature. Let me decide if I want it or not.
 
I had a recall on my ford focus electric because it wouldn't do that. I just walked away
with it still on at work at 9:00ish. Came back at 5:00ish. Still on. Drove away. Only downsides were a little
juice wasused and that anybody else could have just driven away as well.

Nashco said:
Has anybody figured out a way to prevent the car from honking at you when the key exits the vehicle and the power is on? I normally keep my key in my pocket. I also normally back out of my driveway, put the car in park, hop outside and close the gate, then hop back in to drive away. That means my horn honks at me unless I leave the key in the car (which I don't do) or power down the car (which seems silly).

I have scoured everything I can find in the owner's manual and vehicle settings screens and can't find anything. Does anybody else have this problem? Has anybody figured out a way to change this reaction?

Bryce
 
I've got into the habit of only barely closing the driver's door, so it's only halfway latched. That way the HVAC can still cool/heat the car without the door wide open, but the horn doesn't honk at me.

Interesting thing I've found lately. If you leave the key in the car when you close the door, then reach in through the window and walk away with the FOB, the horn won't honk. So the car doesn't monitor the key location any time the car is turned on, it only monitors the key location after you've closed the door.

Bryce
 
The thing does all sorts of things on its own. You should be able to turn them all off.

It'd really prefer it just sat there and did nothing that I didn't initiate myself.

It's just as annoying as a speller checking constant correcting your words to something
wrong and not being able to turn that off. That's really annealing.
 
AJ42 said:
It should be an option to remove the honking. It is offensive and serves little purpose.

I wonder if the car would notice if the horn was disconnected. Yes, I can see a problem with that idea, but I wonder if the car would notice.

I've wondered if I disconnected the horn from GM's computer, and devise a circuit that would only energize the horn ONLY if it detected a horn button press on the CAN bus. (Another idea is, create a similar circuit that disconnects ground to the horn if it detects for certain events detected on the CAN bus. So if you leave the key in the car, or double press the remote lock, no beep.)

Just idle talk, really, based on finding out there is a CAN bus module for the Arduino. But doable, I think.

Tom
 
What puzzles me is that there is already a speaker of sorts to make the whooshing/flushing "pedestrian alert" noise, so why the heck didn't they just make that give soft beeps for everything (a la Toyota/Lexus alarm arming sound) instead of using the freakin' horn??

(If you all really want a shock, take the car to the dealer and have them reset the TPMS while you sit inside. You get a full-on horn blast when it detects each tire!)
 
Dumbest horn thing so far: the panic alarm. It's like a mosquito fart. Clearly if you are attacked by a wild animal, you are better off calling for help by leaving your keys in the car or flashing the headlights.

New for 2015, when you charge your car: honk! Genius. Apparently the first car designed completely by interns.
 
If it Honks EVERY TIME you plug it in and charge, there are going to be some VERY UNHAPPY people.
One of them would be me.
If I work the late shift and get home at Midnight, that horn better not go off !!

Hope they have a work around for that before I buy one
 
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