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Pushing Skip Homelink and backing out of garage - $1,400 dent

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Epoq3

New Member
Jun 8, 2021
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Yesterday, while backing out of my garage I hit the skip Homelink icon (I didn't want the garage door to automatically close) and started backing out. Even though the display showed the garage door was fully open, it had started closing but stopped halfway when I hit the skip Homelink icon. Due to the locations of the cameras, and the fact that the rear views mirrors tilt down when backing, neither showed the garage door would hit the top of the trunk. A $1,400 dent resulted. I know this is a bit of a corner case but be aware, NEVER HIT THE SKIP HOMELINK ICON BEFORE BACKING OUT OF A GARAGE! Image 1 - the dent. Image 2 - the position of the garage door. Image 3 - the rear view mirrors tilting down so you can't see that the garage door is halfway down. Image 4 - the display showing the garage door apparently safely open.
 

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I have a problem with Homelink in general. My GF just bought a new Jeep with Homelink and the unit will NOT accept the subdivision gate code. It is a 300 Mhz dip switch style remote for our gate. The remote could be successfully programmed into a 2007 Mercedes, a 2009 Accord, and a 2018 Kia Stinger. We contacted Homelink directly rergarding the Jeep failure mode and they gave us a BS line about using the 'original' gate remote to program. of course after 12 years and 6 managment companys and gate contractors, no such thing exists, nor would it make a difference for that type remote. I finally got the Tech to admit that the newer version 4 and 5 Homelink units will not accept the 300 Mhz dip switch codes. So I said to him "so you are telling me you have 'improved' the product so much that it no longer works!"
I am a bit disappointed the M3 does not have a opener in it as standard equipment, but I am so disgusted with Homelink that I am content to have 2 seperate legacy remoted on the visor for the subdivision gate and my garage.
I wish some of the geofence apps were more reliable as I would employ them for my garage but they seem unreliable and undependable.
 
Even though the display showed the garage door was fully open, it had started closing but stopped halfway when I hit the skip Homelink icon

I'm confused by this. It seems like the "it had started closing" would have been a problem regardless (unless you happened to break the safety sensor beam soon enough)?

Why did it start closing? Accidental button press (easy to do)? Or something that regularly happened that you had to override?

I was scared about using Auto-close for a long time. I worried about GPS accuracy and a premature close signal. I finally settled on positioning my "home" about 10 feet into my driveway rather than in the garage. That means the car at least has to be further from the house before the auto-close initiates. Compromise between distance out of the driveway and making sure the signal is sent before I turn the car away from the garage door. (Also, too far out and it might think I've already left and trigger the close before I leave the garage, which would be counter productive.)

So far so good, and I love not having to trigger the close manually. I do wish that the Homelink menu overlaid on the rear camera view were more transparent though, or positioned somewhere else, since it interferes with my view of the cul-de-sac as I reverse. And I don't like to even touch that menu until I'm well out of the garage...for the reason you mentioned. Easy enough to tap it to make it go away, but don't want to fat finger it.

In general, I find the rear camera view to be distorted (objects are closer than they appear!) and disorienting (though it is obviously still very useful), so I do try to use both the rearview and the backup camera when backing so I have good situational awareness (rather than the backup camera alone).
 
Wow! How fast were you going when you hit the door?

FYI the "skip homelink" option does not trigger anything. You hit the "open/close" button which is rather unintuitively mixed in with the skip stuff. Hopefully as the UI continues to evolve they will move the homelink button over to the driver's side where it'll be easier to see/reach and won't block the camera.

Truck-on-Door-on-Ferrari.jpg
 
FYI the "skip homelink" option does not trigger anything. You hit the "open/close" button which is rather unintuitively mixed in with the skip stuff. Hopefully as the UI continues to evolve they will move the homelink button over to the driver's side where it'll be easier to see/reach and won't block the camera.
This. Hitting "skip" Homelink does exactly what it says - it stops the car from transmitting the Homelink signal to open/close the door.

I always take a quick peek thru the roof to ensure that the garage door is fully open AND STOPPED before I back out since, as OP mentioned, you can't see a partially open (or closing) door in the rear view camera.

P.S. hitting the Homelink button (NOT the "skip" Homelink button) when a door is closing will make it reverse, not stop. An OPENING door will stop, but that isn't what you encountered.
 
Yesterday, while backing out of my garage I hit the skip Homelink icon (I didn't want the garage door to automatically close) and started backing out. Even though the display showed the garage door was fully open, it had started closing but stopped halfway when I hit the skip Homelink icon. Due to the locations of the cameras, and the fact that the rear views mirrors tilt down when backing, neither showed the garage door would hit the top of the trunk. A $1,400 dent resulted. I know this is a bit of a corner case but be aware, NEVER HIT THE SKIP HOMELINK ICON BEFORE BACKING OUT OF A GARAGE! Image 1 - the dent. Image 2 - the position of the garage door. Image 3 - the rear view mirrors tilting down so you can't see that the garage door is halfway down. Image 4 - the display showing the garage door apparently safely open.

A few things that don’t make sense to me. Homelink auto open/close mimic’s a SINGLE press of a remote control. And you could only hit Skip BEFORE it triggers auto open/close. Hitting skip does not send a signal….it stops one from being sent. Once auto open/close does send a signal, makes the ding sound and triggering the door, the skip button disappears. But you can hit homelink again to send another signal. So if the door was already fully opened before you started backing out…it sounds like you hit the homelink twice. once to skip auto open/close and a second time to trigger the door to stop/close. Or you pressed homelink before you had the count down, never had the skip button….and just clicked the homelink to activate it to close. Pic #4. If I saw that image while backing out, I wouldn’t have thought the door was safely opened and would have stopped.

It sucks that you ended up having some damage but sounds like it could have been user inexperience/error to me. There is no reason you can’t hit the skip home link icon before backing out, if you don’t want it to auto close.…just need to make sure it actually says “skip“ . I’ve had my car since sept 2018 and have used auto open/close everyday. Going in and out multiple times per day, using skip auto open/close….and it has always worked flawlessly.
 
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