One of the greatest feelings as a car enthusiast is making your car your own. You don’t even have to spend a lot of money to make your daily driver feel a little more special. If you’re like your cat and you like shiny things, you might have been drawn to adding bling to your car. You can get bling rings that go around your ignition switch and HVAC dials for $5! But you shouldn’t, because if you do, you might just turn your car into a paperweight.
Yesterday, Matt Hardigree wrote about the gifts that non-car people might suggest as presents to a car enthusiast. Most of it is cheap stuff from Amazon, like blind spot mirrors or a hoodie to hide how ugly your shift boot currently looks. But one thing stood out to me. One of the items on the list was a start button/ignition switch decoration ring. These things usually cost something like five bucks and are covered in fake stones. On the surface, this sort of gift seems harmless. There are lots of people who will happily slap these things on their ignitions.
But I beg you, unless you drive some ancient car as most Autopian writers do, steer far away from these things. This cheap bling might look cool and could spruce up a drab all-gray interior, but it comes with a sad trade-off. If you are not careful, the simple act of sticking this in your car may prevent your engine from starting or cause your engine to stall after starting.
Normally, I wouldn’t even cover a subject like this. You know that I love to write about the quirky moments in car history. However, I found myself fascinated by this. Apparently, Matt did not know that these bling rings can prevent your car from starting. If the car enthusiast Publisher of a major automotive news website didn’t know this, how many others don’t?
So, today, I want to do a bit of a public service announcement and talk about these darned bling rings.
Turning Cars Into Paperweights
Alright, let’s picture this. You’ve hopped into your car, and you’re ready to drive to work. You’ve turned your key or hit the start button, and the engine doesn’t start. You might even do some basic troubleshooting, but can’t figure it out. What gives? It’s unlikely that you’re even thinking about that $5 bling ring that you got from Amazon.
As silly as this sounds, this is actually something that happens to people. If you follow just about any mechanic on social media, chances are you’ve seen this come up. I’m told the subject of bling rings is also all over automotive TikTok, but I don’t use TikTok. Anyway, some people have their cars towed to shops because their engines aren’t starting. Just watch this video:
Depending on whether these people have AAA, towing on their insurance, or something else, this means that some people are spending real money to diagnose this issue. In 2023, ABC11 reported about the time when one vehicle owner had her car towed to two different mechanics and even had to hire a locksmith. Nobody figured it out until she mentioned the bling ring in passing. Reportedly, this poor person spent hundreds of dollars and wasted days of time diagnosing an issue that wasn’t there.
It’s sad, because the owners can solve their car’s starting issues in a couple of seconds and entirely for free. All they have to do is yank that bling ring off their ignition, or never put it there in the first place. But why? How does some cheap trinket from Amazon or eBay cause so many headaches?
Vehicle Security
The answer to this question comes down to vehicle security. Let’s talk about how a modern car with a keyless ignition works. The smart fobs that are an industry standard today are often credited to an invention by Siemens in the 1990s. From Automotive News:
The technology worked by emitting a low-frequency signal as the driver approached the vehicle. The signal also could configure seats, steering wheel and mirror positions, along with audio presets and temperature settings according to the user’s preferences. As the driver pulled the door handle, the identification card and the car’s security system communicated on a two-way basis, granting permission to unlock the door. With the card still in the driver’s pocket or purse, the vehicle could then be started with the touch of a button.
Depending on the model, the vehicle could be locked by pressing a point on a door handle or simply walking away. Overrides built into the system could identify the driver even if two people with Keyless Go cards approached the vehicle. To ensure security, the keyless device had 4 billion possible security codes that changed randomly each time the vehicle was entered.
Siemens also included an safety attribute that proved attractive to vehicle owners. The Keyless Go device had to be inside the vehicle to start it. At the same time, it also prevented the door from locking if the card was inside but the driver was not.
When it comes time to start your car, the transmitter in the fob will communicate with the vehicle’s security system. Depending on the exact make, model, and year of the vehicle, the communication path may lead to the start switch.
If you have a car that’s a little more old-school, and it has a transponder key and not a push-button start, the bling rings can still stop your car from starting, too. These keys have chips in them that allow the vehicle’s security system to recognize that you’ve inserted the correct key.
Of course, if your car is old enough, you don’t have to worry about these sorts of electronics. Your keys are just keys, without any chips or techno-wizardry in them.
Now, for the purposes of this piece, I will single out Honda here. When I started research on this story, I noticed that quite a few complaints are in regards to Honda and Acura vehicles. To be clear, it’s not like Hondas are special. If you slap one of these rings into any car, you run a non-zero chance of ensuring your engine doesn’t start the next time you try.
The piece above is what Honda calls an “Immobilizer & Keyless Unit.” This is the unit that your fob or physical key initially communicates with. The immobilizer gets its signal from the immobilizer ring, which will often be found wound around the ignition switch or start button. The vehicle may also pick up a signal in an area called the fob programming pocket. This pocket is a place where you can place your fob to have it communicate with the vehicle for use or for programming.
For one example, the fob programming pocket in a GMC Yukon XL is in the left front cupholder. Neat, right?
Now, some folks buy those bling rings and slap them right into the big donut. Then, the next time the owner tries to start the car, they get nothing.
The most common explanation for what’s going on here is that, when you put a bling ring on your ignition, you can cause interference between the key and the immobilizer antenna. This is because these bling rings are made of metal and are placed on top of the immobilizer ring. If the immobilizer isn’t satisfied, it locks down ignition, and you don’t go anywhere. The result is similar regardless of whether it’s a keyed ignition or if it’s a push-button start with a fob. But why? What, exactly, does the bling ring do that cripples the car?
What A Metal Ring Can Do
Getting an answer to that question was harder than you’d think. I asked our resident engineer, David Tracy, and he was stumped. He didn’t even know anyone who could answer the question. I also reached out to Honda, since Hondas and Acuras are not fond of bling rings. Honda told me this:
[W]e can’t speak to this. We don’t recommend or validate aftermarket accessories. So, in the absence of testing this specific item we can’t opine.
Getting desperate, I reached out to our Discord community. Autopian readers come from all walks of life and all sorts of disciplines. We have a lot of engineers in our fray, and one of them is reader ‘snodrat,’ who is an electrical engineer. They offered this explanation:
[A]dding a big chunk of metal right on top of the existing antenna coil is effectively adding an untuned resonant element to the antenna, which more often than not is going to cause destructive interference. A good example of adding resonant elements to improve antenna reception is the Yagi antenna, where you have one actively driven element and then a whole stack of “passive” radiators that shape the signal.
Of course, if you’re an engineer at an OEM and want to talk about this, I’d love to learn more!
The really sinister part is that the car doesn’t give you any indication that your bling ring is the cause. Your car will just act like you’re using the wrong key. This is why I suspect that people will keep making this mistake even though there have to be a million videos and articles about it already. ABC7 gives a good demonstration of what happens here:
There’s also little recourse if you buy a bling ring and spend hundreds of dollars figuring out why your car cannot start. The seller on Amazon isn’t going to pay you, and neither will Amazon. Some sellers of the bling rings add a single line of fine print saying that the ring is not compatible with a vehicle that has an immobilizer.
The good news is that bling rings don’t kill cars 100 percent of the time. Back in 2020, I bought a 2012 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI. I didn’t notice the bling ring until I was at a gas station. I ripped it off, threw it away, and never thought about it ever again. But, crucially, the car drove just fine.
Not every car is going to have a problem with a bling ring. So some people can get away with the bling rings. Honestly, it’s a sort of case-by-case basis. I just wouldn’t bother at all. If you really adore bedazzling everything, put the bling rings on the HVAC knobs or something else that won’t be bothered.
What gets me about this is that a bling ring seems like such a harmless mod. Nobody would expect that such a tiny and cheap thing could render an entire motor vehicle immobile, but here we are.
If you take anything away from this, aside from the fact that you should avoid bling rings, it’s that you should consider what a mod can do to your car before you install it. Read the fine print, and consider if there might be any electronics or anything else in the way of your mod. Of course, some instances might be unforeseen, but always stop and think for a moment before hitting that buy button.
What is even the point of “bling” in a car? If you have already lured someone in the car, are they going to be impressed with a ring of cubic zirconia or whatever? SMH
It appeals to folks’ “lizard brains” that like shiny/sparkly stuff, even if it’s literally trash.
So, if I wanted to play a mean, dumb prank on someone and install one of these…
Paint it black to match their dash so it’s less noticeable…
Reminds me of a certain aftermarket cruise control accessory…
A stupid accessory causes stupid problems.
People, don’t waste your money on stupid stuff.
Mercedes, I work at a medical device company that uses essentially RFID signals, which may be similar to what the key fobs are using. Even if that’s not the right signal analogy, I can tell you the hardest part of my job is how unpredictable metal conductors are near the antenna. It might just block reception and attenuate it, but sometime it does kooky stuff like absorb and re-emit in new directions or frequencies. Usually the only way to know what will work is to test it, unfortunately, exactly like the Honda folks said.
So, simple radio interference? Make ’em out of plastic.
I’d assume that many are made of plastic, but the metallic coating (the chrome or fake gold) is enough to cause the problem.
Well, this is interesting but also a bit unsurprising, perhaps because I’m a bit of a cynic. Or maybe skeptic is a better word… despite loving tech (in general… I’ve been online since the late 1970s, and have used computers in pretty much every job I’ve ever had other than some freelance handyman stuff I did years ago) I’m wary of stuffing so much of it into cars.
Not that I have to worry about this particular issue, because my current fleet of cars are 22, 31, and 37 years old. So, they all just have plain old keys, which I recently learned now cost $4-5 to duplicate, or about twice what it cost at the start of this decade.
Also, I gotta say that in my own case, the urge to modify a car seems to decrease with age, though I know this isn’t the same for all car enthusiasts. When I was a teen, with my first few cars, I researched (pre-web) and spent way too much money on adjustable suspensions and other mods. These days I usually prefer the way a car looks (and runs) mostly stock. Perhaps it’s the fact that as you get older, you’ve got other bills to pay, so by necessity, there’s less to spend on customizing a car.
There’s a little stuffed goblin plushie that someone gave me years ago who sits on the too-shallow dashboard shelf of my old Volvo station wagon. Even with the very limited G forces the Volvo can muster, he tends to slide around a bit left and right… I keep meaning to fix him to one of the vents with a bit of thread, but never get around to it. In any case, he has yet to interefere with me actually starting or using the car. 😉
Of course, if you’re an engineer at an OEM and want to talk about this, I’d love to learn more!
Some of the best explanations I’ve seen for antenna design are old military training films.
Got any examples you’d be willing to share?
Sure! Courtesy of the RCAF. There seem to be different versions of the same topic.
Fundamentals – Directivity: https://youtu.be/chth_Pz9FC0
Antenna Theory – Directivity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysNkjEnoRsU
Fundamentals – Bandwidth: https://youtu.be/v6VE9xoA_6M
Antenna Theory – Propagation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F7KYLO4Bkg
Antenna Fundamentals 1 Propagation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bDyA5t1ldU
I seem to recall more available in the past so perhaps my search didn’t turn those up. This is enough I think though to get the basics across.
Another military film, AM vs FM:
https://youtu.be/D65KXwfDs3s
USAF versions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZBVWqdNKcQ
Youtube is filled with them. They’re charming and informative to a person of a certain mindset.
I can’t imagine why any start-stop buttons would have the receiver coil around them. I mean, your finger doesn’t have a RF transmitter in it. (Usually at least unless you’ve implanted an RFID chip.)
I’d be curious to know if there are any proven reports of these rings causing problems on start stop buttons.
But, yeah, don’t put it around the keyhole certain cars…
In my Jeep, if the car won’t start when you press the button, the instruction is to press the button with the key fob itself. This has worked for me when the fob battery was old and the fob was cold (which reduces the battery voltage). And it does suggest that there is an antenna at the button.
Came to say this. And it makes sense to put it on the steering column where we would expect to find an old school key. While I salute GM’s creativity, I don’t think we want a situation where, when your fob battery dies, you have to check the owner manual to figure out where to find the secret spot.
I think the GM placement is the most logical, one for keyless cars: either your coat/pants pocket, or purse.
Gm has a number of models where the key node is inside the center console storage bin. So in the event of having to use it, the operator would have to remove everything from the center console bin to put it in the little slot (I just had to do this with a customer’s Cadillac xt5 a few days ago, anecdotally).
I’ve witnessed countless issues of these rings causing issues in my professional automotive service role.
A lot of OEMs put an antenna near/in the Start/Stop button because it’s usually easy to see and access, so the customer doesn’t have to go digging in their console or remove the cup holder liner to access the little cubby node (though that can also happen, depending on the situation and OEM). The key fobs don’t have a lot of power, so being able to minimize the distance between the antenna and the fob is helpful if the fob is having a communication issue.
My first thought, and what could also be a problem, was mechanical interference combined with software. If the button stands a bit proud of its own proper ring, and the aftermarket ring is a bit off center so it causes friction on the button, then you will press the button and it might not fully return. This would very likely trigger an error condition in software.
Also, even a ring applied well centered might shrink enough after a cold overnight to scuff the side of the button. Or if it is manufactured with the opening undersized or with molding flash remaining.
My thought was that maybe the rhinestones would fall off and jam the button.
Could happen also.
Not typically, the gap between the button and the surrounding is fairly small. It’d take some perfect timing and placement for that situation to happen.
That was my initial guess, too
You mean you don’t think these things are precision engineered?
They are, apparently, dustproof. What could possibly go wrong?
To paraphrase Douglas Adams, “A common mistake people make when trying to design something dustproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of dust.”
Mmm… no. I would guess that neither “precision” nor “engineered” are applicable here.
I had a similar issue with an aftermarket phone holder when placed on the left centre ventilation grill. The car wouldn’t start if the phone was in the holder. I had to move the holder to the right centre ventilation grill, where it still is.
Interesting.
Don’t use vents for phone mounts, theyre not designed for it. I see so many broken vents nowadays, it’s ridiculous.
I’ll reconsider once one breaks. They are not expensive to replace, just being a few pieces of plastic. I have been using phone holders on vent grills for years and never had one break.
Neat! Last minute gift idea for the “special” people in your life.
So, get the plastic version of the ugly bling ring…. Got it.
The plastic version with the metallic plating could have a similar effect.
OMG Mercedes, how did Cheryl screw up the family ride now???? At least she didn’t crash the car again, or did she? I laugh when girls glue rhinestones on their airbag covers.
This was in response to Matt casually sliding one of these menaces into his recent article.
Sheryl prefers more western style than bedazzling. lol
“Sheryl prefers more western style than bedazzling. lol”
Why not both?
https://youtu.be/atHY8rDBhtI
Now I’m imagining her in court, decked out in a classic Nudie suit while arguing her case.
Rhinestone cowboy!
My wife stuck one of these things around the ignition button for her Accord right after we bought it. 6 years later it hasn’t caused any problems, but if her car suddenly won’t start I know the first thing to try. Thanks Mercedes!
Absolute perfect example car in the lead pic. I get someone not figuring out why this would cause a problem, but understanding the why often isn’t really necessary and I’m always amazed at how little basic problem solving skills many people have. Car suddenly won’t start, what was the last thing you changed? Revert back. Car starts. Congratulations, you solved the issue. Now you can sit there with wrinkled brow and ponder WTF that caused that problem, do some research into how that might cause that issue out of curiosity, or merely toss the grocery store vestibule vending machine item over your shoulder before shrugging and getting back on the road with your CRV to disrupt traffic again. (Which I think is the life purpose of H/CRV drivers—they think they have other reasons to be alive and be on the road, but their entire existence is really about frustrating and being in the way of other people in a “Sirens of Titan” kind of way.)
A moving chicane, then?
I hate to stereotype people based on the car they drive, but the CRV truly is the anti-Altima. They’ve taken the crown from Prius drivers about 10 years ago and held onto it firmly.
The most amazing part is that they still have the power to shock me by the frequency with which they are the perpetrators. Stuck down a line of cars doing 10 under on a fast road, I wonder who’s leading this parade. CRV, like 80% of the time, which is a truly incredible number considering the amount of other makes and models out there and the CRV is not a special vehicle, there are effectively identical vehicles from every manufacturer and they’re all big sellers. Why doesn’t the RAV4 show up about as often? Toyota is the reigning champion make for selling to overcautious, easily confused, slow drivers, they sell a ton of RAV4s, and they have good longevity so plenty of generations-old versions are still on the road, much like the CRV*, yet I don’t see RAV4s being appreciably any worse than anything else. Even though I have long come to assume it’s a CRV behind a problem, I still expect it to occasionally not be, yet the occurrence of it being something else is about as frequent as the programming lining up to allow you to get a prize from a claw machine. Different eras, it’s been different cars that have held this crown, from Volvos to Buicks to Toyota sedans, to the Prius, but I have never seen it be even an entire make to such a degree as this single model.
*CRVs that are 20+ years old can be a different issue. They tend to get bought up by the kind of broke, likely uninsured wannabe Fast & Furious rejects who used to torture old Civics or BMWs, then Altimas, and they drive them the same way. They’re often lowered on cheap wheels with shaky blue-tinged alibaba LED headlight bulbs tailgating and weaving through lines of fairly heavy traffic at the usual times (and not looking ahead, so they cut over lanes without indicating only to get caught up behind a big truck—because semis are difficult to see, apparently—and ending up cutting back into the same lane farther back than they had been until they see the chance to pull the same dumb move again in what I imagine are desperate attempts to reach their dealer before he runs out of the “good” stuff).
Sounds like confirmation bias to me.
And you’d be wrong.
Eliminating variables and testing hypotheses is way to close to a scientific method these days. FFS we cannot even teach and fund science these days. We cannot expect people to actually think in a scientific way.
Of course, leaving the key on the windshield means it’s still close enough to allow you to start the vehicle…
Too soon?
I was going to go with:
“Another thing to avoid are cheap Chinese cruise control modules, even if it is the only way to mod cruise control into your car, because they might kill your car’s digital accelerator.”
I sat in a customer car for 4 or 5 minutes trying to figure out how to start the goddamn thing. It had one of these with a cover besides, and just looked like a rhinestone butt plug in a 12V outlet. Suffice it to say I was reluctant to touch it and didn’t recognize it for an ignition at first.
My wife has one of these on her wish list. Good to know this info, so I will know how to fix it if she puts one on!
This would be an amazing way to pick up a used car on the cheap.
“The answer to this question comes down to vehicle security.”
So, no worries if you have a Hyundai or Kia? 😉
Too soon!
Your Hyundai/Kia is immune from no-starting for you because it’ll already be stolen or at least vandalized before you get there.
Seriously though, they took my mom’s Elantra 3x and vandalized it as many times. Thanks Hyundai, for absolutely screwing the pooch on a traditional ignition, even though everyone else had it figured out already (at least above a certain low bar).
I made that joke in Slack. 🙂
You can’t fix stupid… or bad taste.
Great advice but eerie computer voice makes me think click bait. If it actually happens it would be happening on every vehicle that had one. Never trust an article with a fake news personality and a creepy fake computer voice.
This feels a little like the 20s version of the 80s car bra fad.
“Wait, why is my paint different colors now??”
The meh paints of the day fading at different rates was only one problem.
The other problem is what I would describe as “aero hammer.” So as you move through the air, at highway speeds, the variation in the wind will very lightly hammer the painted surface underneath. So obviously any dust, debris, etc. under there will cause scratches and marks, but even the “car bra” itself will mark the surface over time.
“Wait, why is my paint different colors now??”
Because you bought a mid-2000’s Honda in red? Because I have never seen one of those that had two panels with the same shade of red. Honda somehow got every part of the car to fade at different rates. (eg)
Don’t worry, automakers were still reliably effing up paint up until around… 2013 or so. They still might be for some paints by some suppliers!
Part of it is meeting new regulations. For example, the switch to water-based paints. Part of it is bean-countering to reduce prices yet further.
EDIT: A great example is “Mars Red” used by Mercedes-Benz and made by PPG. So bad, there was a successful class action by owners!
Kinda makes the Fuel Shark look pretty good….
careful buddy… my fuel shark added 75 mpg to my ride!
Shhhh….OEMs hate this
I have not had to buy gas for 7 months now.
Thanks Fuel Shark! /s
I’m getting my family members bedazzled fuel sharks as Xmas gifts. If your car won’t start, it’s not using any gas! They can all thank me later.
There’s a fine line between bedazzled and vajazzled. Be careful.