disable a modern car but quick fix?

so my MIL can't isn't allowed to drive anymore. But they can't get rid of the car or it will upset her, as she is starting to get dementia, and changes just upset her.
They let the car sit so long the battery is dead.
In Texas the car gets inspected once a year or you can't register it.
but if the battery is dead, it makes it think you reset codes, and it won't let you get inspected till you drive some unspecified amount for the computer to think it is ok.
I would rather have the car on a charger, so it doesn't get to that state again.
But the car has to stay undrivable in case she tries to drive it.
2016 Camry.
I can't think of anything off hand.
it is coil on plug, so removing all 6 coils is too much, especially for the back ones.
is there something simple to pull?
I guess the fuel pump relay?
is there a better choice?

Just pull the ignition fuse and stick it under the floor mat. Everything will light up as normal if she opens the door, but it won't do anything when she turns the key.

Dealing with someone like that myself id take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Would she be alone when the car does not start? Then what? It could snowball into a much larger issue then.

On top of that, what if she figures out the family is plotting against her?

There are many fuses you can pull on most modern cars. Try to pick one that would not cause the computer to think a malfunction. Pulling coils or injector connectors will cause a misfire code. Some cars will get a fuel code if the pump is disabled but not many.

A lot have a starter fuse or relay that would not trip a code. It simply wouldn't crank and for that you could also just pull the small starter wire off the starter. On many Toyotas (and other modern V6's) the starter is on the top of the motor, easy to get to.

One thought to consider. I had a friend do this for his mom, he pulled the rotor out of the distributor. It worked for a few weeks then she called a roaming mechanic to come fix it without them knowing about it. They found her safe but had to do a better job after that.

Hard to watch and deal with a family member at this stage in life. Prayers and best wishes for you and your family in this difficult time.

Have to look for the ignition fuse. but wouldn't it still be trying to put fuel in the cylinders during start up? Don't want to wash down the cylinders or dilute the oil due to gas.


She generally calls one of her daughters or both when something doesn't work. So that shouldn't be an issue. She doesn't know enough about cars to know if it is just broken or someone sabatoged it.
She called about the car being dead, and both of them decided to leave it dead, but they aren't looking at the bigger pain that it is trying to get it inspected next year.
even if they let registration fall off, it would still be a pain later trying to drive a car enough miles to allow it to be inspected, with expired registration and no inspection, even if they wanted to get rid of it.

Andrewh,
having gone thru this personally, be patient and try to be one step ahead. it's an uphill battle and Dementia flat out sucks. I pray for your MIL and your family. My dad would always ask over and over how his material things were and where they were at. never how people were doing. But man could he still tell stories from 40 years ago and paint the picture of the conversation with a very vivid memory (Crazy as it was).
I miss my Dad every day, and yes I talk and think to him daily.
Blessings to you and your family.

my thought would be to pull a few fuses or maybe make a tire or two flat and procrastinate fixing them. that was one thing we did for my dad.

Thanks.
not sure if a flat is a good idea. She might call AAA to fix it.

An odd idea came to me.
If you plugged in one of those memory savers into the odb port, what happens if the battery is disconnected and someone tries to unlock the car with a remote, or tries to start it?
I think it might be better if it looked dead from the outside and can say she must have forgotten we didn't fix it yet, instead of opening and cranking but not starting.

Most care have an inertia stitch (in the trunk I believe) Place a toggle switch in the circuit creating an open (same as the inertia switch or pull the fuel pump relay...no code should be generated.

How about the simple 1980s novelty The Club? https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...gurQX9jGQaAhleEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds.

Or just put a different key on the key ring.................
Unprogrammed key will open door but not start car

I like your idea however I can see the poor person attempting tirelessly fighting to get the car started, wearing down the battery or just upsetting themselves into a hysterical panic or medical emergency. A club is pretty much an intimating deterrent.

No inertia switch on a 16 Camry. AFAIK Ford is the only passenger car that used them and that was 30 yrs ago.

Both good ideas regarding removal of the fuel pump relay and a toggle switch so combine both ideas and put an inline toggle switch for the wire of pin #30 or #87 of the fuel pump relay

it is keyless entry and pushbutton start.
so I am trying to figure out a way where it won't just sit there and crank.
So another key doesn't help.
wonder where the neutral safety switch is on that?
maybe put a switch on that so it prevents the car from turning over, and just say oh no the battery must be dead again or something.

unplug the little starter wire, shouldn't reset codes or set a new code. Maybe leave a note attached down there indicating why it was done so someone don't inadvertently fix it for her and send her into danger.

not great to get to, but not too bad overall. might consider that one, while I am in charging the battery.

This what we did. To my knowledge she never tried the key 🙏

My mom was at that point a year ago. The last time she "went for a ride" she got lost, we were lucky enough to find her unharmed. We have told her we were concerned that she might get into an accident and hurt someone. We have told her she can't drive anymore. We have taken away her keys, they are in my possession.

Once a month I will took her for a little ride, it didn't take long before she has no idea where she was or how she would get home, just getting off her street confused her. I told her that when she can tell me how she would get home, I would consider letting her drive, but only if I was with her, but I'm not going to let her have the car keys. We haven't been at that point again for at least 3 months.

Man up. Take her keys away. Explain to her why.

Now we are at the point where she can no longer stay at her home alone. 6 months ago she fell and shattered the bone in her leg. We had gotten her one of the "I've fallen" bracelets a few months before, but she forgot she had it on her wrist, she laid on the floor for around 4 hours before my sister found her. The bone has healed, but she had to go through rehab, and the rehab care unit would not let her go home alone (fear of her falling again). Having someone there with her 24 hours a day costs $25 grand a month. None of us can afford that. She is currently staying at an extended care unit (the best one in the area), but she wants to return home (she has lived there 54 years, dad & her had the house built). We let her go home one night (about a month ago), and she was ready to return to the extended care unit again early the next morning. Now she wants to go home again.

This stuff is hard. At least my 2 sisters and I are all on the same page when it comes to mon's care.

I am not getting involved in the fight to take away keys.
I could probably do the fake out with fake key fobs if I tried. or take the guts out.
She got too upset when she couldn't find them the first time they tried to hide them from her. (left them just in case they couldn't get there and she needed to get something)

And yeah, that just happened. she tripped or kicked something and broke 2 bones in her ankle. She is in rehab as of last night.
So this might not be important for a while.
except the original problem of keeping it registered and inspected for later.

I have seen this so much.

You have to fight it as best you can, and draw in other family members.

One family friend’s children took his truck away, and he just went down to a dealership and signed the papers to buy a new vehicle for $60,000.

Funny?

It happened twice!

Pull the fuel pump relay, easy to reverse, car won't start but it will crank so they won't think any funny business is up with the keys.

It will set a code for the fuel pump circuit and he will have to clear it to pass the inspection but when they take it for inspection it will tell them the codes have recently been cleared and will still not pass the inspection, thats why I recomended the starter wire, it won't set a code.

is there a starter relay like in mopars? or just small wire to the starter?

little tiny wire just slides over the blade. There is a big fat wire but it is activated by the little one so you only need to slide that one off.

Crown Vics had them until end of production in 2011 I believe. Nothing much newer has them though- the disablement of the fuel pump after a crash comes from other sources, usually the ABS unit or restraints control module.

If it's keyless remote entry with a start button as opposed to a standard ignition key, couldn't you just pull the battery out of the key fob? If the car's locked she won't be able to get in unless she pulls the hidden key out of the fob to unlock using the key cylinder on the door. Even if she gets inside, the car won't start. I'm not sure about Toyota, but on Hondas the only way to start the car with keyless and a dead fob is to hold the fob up near the start button while you are pushing the button, so that it can read the fob and determine that the key is present. I suspect they all work basically the same and I don't imagine she would know how to start the car with a dead fob. Might be worth a try.

Feeling for you on the dementia issue. Went through that for many years with the MIL. The car issue worked alright for her as she decided that she shouldn't drive anymore all on her own. She still wanted to be able to see her car every day as she had bought it all on her own and was still very proud of it. So we kept it there for her and she never once attempted to drive it. Best of luck to you. It's a tough situation to be into.

I just read the whole thread and on the last post ChryCoGuy said exactly what I was going to post. Just take the battery out of both remotes and the problem is easily solved.

Thought I would follow up.
was able to run a rocker switch hidden under the dash, got a replacement connector and put the switch in line between the original connector and the starter.
works pretty good. has a side affect though.
if you try to "start" with it off, then try to start it with it on, I am guessing the priming squirt still happened. and it will just crank for a long time and then time out and not start.
start it one more time and it will fire up.
but good enough for now.
Thanks for the suggestion.

Bigger issue than the car is why is she home alone? You won’t know how bad off she is getting until it’s too late. Disabling the car can snowball into her walking to wherever and that won’t end well.

The state took my Dad's driver's license away because he was a hazard on the road. But by God, he was going uptown for the mail. He simply fired up his 9N Ford tractor and drove it to the Post Office. In a rural small town, that didn't even raise an eyebrow.

In college, I use to run a poor man's auto theft system - put a toggle switch on the electric fuel pump wire and run it up under the seat or in the center console. When "off" no gas flows - easy to flip on to drive anywhere.

LOL. We had a guy local to me that had his license pulled for DUI (WAY too many times). Used to make a trip everyday to the local country bar not too far from my house. Once he lost his license, then out came the Farmall tractor to get to the bar...He did that for a while. Eventually he died which is another interesting story since my buddies were on the township rescue squad.