Howdy folks, The other day someone tried to break into my car, a 1990 Nissan Maxima. Nice old car with 154000 miles on it;works well and hasn't given me any serious problems. Well,nothing major happened when he/she tried to break in. I think the security alarm must have gone off or something. So everything inside was fine. No body damage. But in the attempt,both the driver and passenger side keyholes got screwed. So I am not able to open my car by plugging in the key. I did however manage to find a way to get into the car. The trunk keyhole's fine and so I open the trunk push forward the rear seat handrest and use a long pole to open the backdoor lock. I know. I know. Very clumsy. No wonder, I 've been staying up at work till 11 PM! Now, trying to think of a solution, here's what i considered. I wouldnt want to replace the keyholes with the risk of it being a victim of a prank again. I also had a look at some keyless entry systems available online. Some from AudioVox,Bulldog. I also dont wanna spend too much on the car right now since I am looking at buying a new car some months from now. Plus the Bulldog (KE100 I think) is avaialble at buy.com for $30. To make it easier for the gurus here,I have listed some questions which I would love to have some insight on. 1. Is installing a keyless alarm the right choice in my current condition? Or rather, is it even viable .I am especially curious about this since I wonder if while installing the keyless kit,the security alarm will go off. It has happened before when I needed a jump start, but then I just locked and unlocked the car with my door key. Now with my door lock disfunctional, I am not too sure. I read somewhere that inserting the ignition key(the ignition and door keys are separate for my Maxima) into the ignition keyhole works. Also, an interesting point is today morning while I was doing the creeping-into-trunk-opening-door routine the alarm did go off. What I then did was shut the trunk and unlock it again with the door key. It worked! 2. I would be the first to say that I dont know much about cars. Considering that is self-installing a kit like the KE100 doable for someone like me? 3. Should I be considering some other options which I obviously am not aware of?
I apologize for the long email. Thanks for your time and patience.
Help! Shravan