WARNING Remote Start Can Be Dangerous

Accidentally remote starting your vehicle can be dangerous under certain conditions.

It does not matter what make or model car you have.  It does not matter if you have a factory remote start or an aftermarket. remote start. 

If you have a garage attached to your home, and your car accidentally gets started while in the garage you can be in big trouble.  You say that's impossible.  Actually it's not. Lets say for instance your small child gets hold of your keys and starts playing with the buttons on the key fob, is it not possible he could push the proper buttons to activate the remote start?  It's not totally out of the realm of possibilities that an adult could accidentally start the car with the fob.  Unfortunately it's happened more than once. People have died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to the car running in the garage without the homeowner being aware the car was running.

You should never run your car in the garage (even a short period of time) with the garage door closed.  Always make sure the door is open before starting your car and even then CO may enter your home.

A study at Iowa State University stated that warming up your car for only two minutes with the door open, raised CO levels to 500 ppm.  Ten hours after backing the car out of the garage there was a measurable concentration of CO still in the garage.

The extreme high concentrations of CO produced by an engine in a closed building can reach dangerous levels so quickly, that a person may collapse before they realize there is a problem.  Carbon Monoxide reduces the amount of oxygen to the brain causing CO intoxication, and lack of reasoning.  Studies by the Centers for Disease Control found that CO concentrations reach the Immediately Dangerous to Life an Health (IDLH) concentration of 1,200 parts per million (ppm) in only 7 minutes when a small 5 horse power gasoline engine is run in a 10,000 cubic foot room.

If you have a car with remote start the best thing you can do for your family is to purchase a CO detector and place it inside the home not in the garage. Temperature and humidity variations are to large, and the high start-up amounts of Carbon Monoxide can easily damage or destroy the sensing cell in the detector.   CO detectors should never be placed in the garage.  Always follow manufacturer recommendations on where to place the CO detector within your home.

A KOOL KAR TECH TIP:  Never run your car in an attached garage even if the door is open.  Kool Kar Auto Repair is located at 615 S.E. Parkway Azle Tx. Phone 817-270-2549