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Just a heads-ups that tonight my garage door remote suddenly displayed a solid red light. Dunno why. Maybe a bad combination of key presses while in my pocket? Or a nearly flat battery warning?

Anyway, at the same time as noticing this I got back to the car and tried to unlock it with the remote. No go. Tried to lock it. No go. Tried to pop the boot. No go. Unlocked it with the key. The alarm went off.

Dismantled the garage remote to remove the battery. Of course, the red light went out. And the car now locks, unlocks, disables the alarm, boot pops etc.

Used to have similar issues when trying to use an FM transmitter at the same time as a GPS. The FM transmitter would kill the GPS signal.

Anyone else seen similar strangeness?

Not with a car but a similar story.........

I had a gass ducted heating system installed in the house. Right from the outset I had trouble with it "tripping out" and it had to be reset at the unit. The company that installed it tried everything they could (changed antenna, moved antenna, replaced main board etc.) but could'nt work it out.

All of a sudden (after a couple of weeks ) I had an idea. I moved the remote control/thermostat from the hall way to the kitchen.............problem solved.

The cause.....I put it down to the wireless modem. As soon as I move the remote and put the modem between the remote and the unit I start having communication problems again. Moved the remote to the other side of the modem and problem fixed.

Here's one for you Dave...

In the eighties i worked for B & D roller doors here in brisbane..

We supplied and fitted 15 roller doors into a new housing display village all in the same street...

But nobody checked to see if the openers were on different frequencies...

Hit the remote button and all the doors opened at the same time...

I still laugh at that......

Spoken to the garage door remote manufacturers.

It's common for button one (of four) to be the only one used. After a few years it can wear and stick in the "on" position.

This is what happened to mine, causing the red light on the remote to come on continuously, jamming the car's remote, also jamming my doorbell (on) when I got home, and apparently also jamming nearby baby alarms etc.

Apparently it can work the other way round; a jammed in button on a wireless doorbell can also upset garage and car remotes.

Solution is to physically disable button one and program buttons two to four to work whichever is pressed.

Hey presto, garage door, car, doorbell, and maybe ditto for the neighbours plus maybe their baby monitors, now all working fine.