A $4 sticker sold on Amazon is disabling some car engines

Cars these days come jam-packed with technology, from backup cameras and interactive radios to self-driving features. So, it might come as a surprise to learn that a small $4 sticker sold on Amazon is all that it takes to completely disable some engines. One Northern California woman named Shiffra Steele found this out the hard way after spending hundreds of dollars trying to figure out why her trusty Honda Element would not start. In an interview with San Francisco ABC station KGO-TV, Steele said she tried everything to figure out why her car wouldn’t start — from charging the battery to having it towed to a local mechanic and even reaching out to the dealer to get to the bottom of the problem. Everyone was stumped until Steele casually mentioned the bling ring she’d installed a few days earlier. A mechanic took the bling ring off, and the car started right up. Image: Amazon Turns out, the bling ring has a metal backing that interferes with a common anti-theft feature that disables the engine in some cars. Here’s how it works Most anti-theft car features require a driver to use a key, a fob, or some other device to communicate with a part of the ignition system that transmits a radio signal, then waits to receive a signal back. If the car receives the signal, the engine turns over. If it doesn’t, the engine does nothing. The feature limits the chances that a thief can steal a car by hot…A $4 sticker sold on Amazon is disabling some car engines

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