I am wondering why the range is only 5-10 feet. My 2002 Maxima has the same keyfob and works 10 times further than this remote.

Why is the range so short on the Z?

 

Mines about 25 or 30 feet. FYI, if you hold the thing under your chin, you'll be amazed at how the range increases.

 

25 - 30 feet for me too.

 

Then why do other Nissan cars transmit much further. My 02 Maxima can transmit over 100 feet?

And the Z, the max is 30 feet.

 

I have a wierd experiment for you. Slowly move further way from your car while pressing the keyfob. Find the maximum distance. Now, once you have found it, walk another ten steps (not feet, steps away). You should now be well out of range. Hold the tip of the keyfob against your forehead tightly and press the key. It should show you that you can activate the car.

For some reason, your head is a great antenna. I discovered this years ago and it has worked with numerous keyfobs. Just a wierd observation.

 

What if I put it near my other "antenna," will that work?
I should be able to extend the distance by 50ft at least!

 

probably the location of the recieiver on the lower Z.

I havent had any problems, it works well before I get to the car, which is plenty.

 

Thanks all for the replies.

 

I have prototyped a new antenna for my fob, it was discussed a while back. If there is genuine interest, I could probably modify people's fob's for a small fee. I have quantified the results in the lab, but not on my car yet. (I sacrificed my wife's second fob from her Pathfinder for this experiment).

What distance are you looking for and what is a fair price? I am thinking minimum double the distance and price <$80. I could even included measured results if you wanted

 

I can get about a mile distance with mine, plus or minus.

 

hey Yobri, don't point that thing at your crotch if you ever want to have children, hahaha

 

Yobri, I saw that keyfob on History channel's Heavy Metal segment. It controls all the nuclear submarines within a 6,000 mile distance. Opens all sorts of doors, rolls the scopes up and down, launches nukes in random directions. Unfortunantly its a shame that they still have not figured out a way to not make it "beep" under water when you use the alarm to close it. That definetly is not much of an advantage against sonar.

 

Under the chin works really well. I thought it was a joke at first but when I tried it, my keyfob range increase by a lot. Like from the second floor of my office building to the parking lot. I would say about 80 feet and thru the windows. I even have all my co-workers as witnesses. Now they are all doing it too.

 

Yeah, hold the fob under your chin and the range will increase. It's not because your head is some sort of antenna, it's because you're holding it higher now than you normally would. The thought of a bunch of people holding it under their chin is quite funny though.

 

Does making certain faces help the range while holding it below your chin?

Having your mouth wide open might help. Maybe even opening your eyes really wide and rocking your head back and fourth. I wish I could see the beams come out as light.

I'm going to experiment some "sonic boom" style keyfob usage as well. See if I can throw the frequency further with some SFII action. Hadooken!

 

The key fob against your chin works. I learned it in science class. It sends the frequency all along your body, which results in a longer range. BUT this works better with keys that already have the remote built in like BMW or VW, Mercedes… They all have the open/close buttons built in the key and u actually hold the front (metal) part of the key to your chin. But Nissan has that remote with no key sticking out of it so it doesn’t work as well.

 

But I have a range of about 15ft at the most which really pisses me off, sometimes I can’t find my car in a big parking lot and I press the panic button and nothing. My infiniti had a range of about 50ft. Oh yea and did you guys know if you press and hold your unlock button it rolls down the windows. Surprisingly a lot of people don’t know this.

 

Does it **** you off enough that you would pay to have the range increased? Several people said they want better range, I have a prototype that works better, but no one seems interested in buying one.

 

No, sorry. I can live with it. But you should tell more owners about it. and post it on ebay.

 

Why would you require more that a 20 ft range (10 even)? If you need to use the panic button to find your car, suggest you go to the doctors if you can't remember where you parked. IMHO, 20ft is more than enough for the key fob.