umm that is half right... the fob sends out a signal that the car detects and you dont have to have SS/SE. if you have it, yes it can be turned off, if you dont have it, then the sensing of the fob cannot be turned off. i dont have it, so i cant turn it off. but the car still senses everytime the fob is in the car but not in the slot.
I didn't realize that the non SS/SE also sent out a radio signal to the FOB. That's kind of wierd. So needless to say, I also didn't realize that there is not a button to shut that off. That's even more weird.
We are talking about two separate functions here: With SS/SE turned on, the car sends out signals to the fob constantly. The fob is always listening passively. Because the SS/SE only needs to work at very close proximity, the drain on the fob is negligible. It may even be zero if the listening circuitry in the fob gets its energy from the signal itself. The car uses power sending out the signal, so shutting off the SS/SE can extend the battery's shelf life. But the fob also has the ability to send a signal to the car (when you press any of the buttons). Because the fob has a tiny battery, the signal it sends out is necessarily extremely low power. And it must work over a much longer range than SS/SE. Therefore the car's listening circuitry must be active, and requires constant power. This active listening circuitry uses much less power than SS/SE, because it is just listening, and not transmitting. But it still does use power. You can turn off SS/SE, but you cannot turn off the car's listening for an active signal from the fob. Perhaps they should have a storage mode, when everything would be shut down except for CMOS memory for all the presets. You'd have to use the mechanical key to lock and unlock the doors, but you would not have to worry about your 12-v. battery.
