My phone just stopped working (car kit) sunday afternoon for no apparent reason. By Sunday evening I called Verizon support and was told it's usually water damage!!! I took off the battery and described letters 'x' and colors with the rep on the phone. I didn't know at the time, but the red 'x' meant no water damage. The person on the phone could not help me, suggested I take the phone to a verizon store for tech support. Yesterday I found this website and read many of the entries. When I got home from work last evening I blew dried the phone, no success. I jiggled the charger connector and noticed that when the connecter was pushed to the right (keypad facing up and charger towards me), the car kit sign would dissapear. The phone was functional again. I then took a piece of aluminum foil and wedged it into the charger port and the car kit sign had dissapeared and we are living happily ever after.
I did go to the Verizon store (Voorhees, NJ) last evening and had the tech look at the phone. He quickly popped the battery off (looking for the pink marker) but found the red 'x'. He then looked at the connector port for 1.2278 seconds and stated the pins were damaged and the phone would not work. I asked him if the pins were damaged would I be able to charge the phone, text message, .... he said the phone was inoperable and I could have it replaced for $50.00. I asked why do I need to pay $50.00 and he stated that the pins were damaged (inferring I damaged the phone). I asked for an explanation as to why I could still charge the phone with the damaged pins, yet not have any audio, and text message.
He would not budge, if I wanted to fork over $50.00 I could get the phone replaced. I popped the foil in place and proceeded to leave. I concur with others that this is a defect with the LG phones/verizon, and this is a class action suit waiting to explode.
Count me in if it gets to that point.
Henry
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hellzen Posts: 1
Wed Aug 16, 2006 12:00 pm
This is my second LG VX6000. The first was replaced by insurance due to damage in the hinge area. I think I leaned on it while it was open, when sitting down in the car. Gotta say, it has really given me great service.
Just went thru a go round with the whole car-kit problem - two days after getting the replacment phone. If you have the pink battery thing happening, I gather that is a general water issue. Another way is if you get water or something conductive on the wires in the charging port on the bottom of the phone body. It you look in there - you see a lot of wires, very close together If conductive material shorts gets in there, the phone malfunctions.
In my case, I was at the beach and a wave came up and there was a little water on the outside of the bag the phone was in. Didn't think anything of it. Later when I seriously looked in there, the contacts were green and cruddy from sea water. DUH!! Only takes a drop. The Verizon tech said they wouldn't touch it - and recommended I make an insurance claim. I felt bad about that. Since I could see the problem, I gave it a shot.
I first removed the battery. Then I went in there with a bit of barely damp paper towel, and a pin and GENTLY removed all the loose dirt and corrosion. NOTE: You can't get rough with it, the wires will pop loose and the phone will be dead. Then I buffed it up with a teensie bit of 500 wet-n-dry sandpaper wrapped around a toothpick. Up and down, not side to side.. Then I vacuumed it out - gently to remove any loose matter.
Replacing the battery - the phone came up like a champ!! If you recall getting the new phone - it came with a little rubber plug for the charger port. It was there for a reason. Too bad I managed to loose it straightaway. My replacement phone didn't have one. Possibly could have avoided the problem.
gk78 Posts: 1
Sun Aug 20, 2006 9:27 pm
I stuck aluminum foil in the head set plug in on my phone and the car kit mode went away.
JazzMahn1 Posts: 1
Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:43 pm
kristen wrote:
how do you get it out of car kit mode with LG vx3200?? all the other ones wont work for this model and the foil will only work for a few minutes.
echoip Posts: 1
Sun Aug 27, 2006 7:58 am
stuck a paperclip in the charging port for about 5 seconds and moved it around. phone was instantly off of car kit mode.
derek Posts: 2
Tue Aug 29, 2006 10:22 am
A friend of mine recently gave me a vx6100 he found lying *on the ground* while fishing...The Verizon dealer told me it was "Water damaged, basically an ornament....buy a new phone"
I had the phone all apart, and the insides looked very clean, no dust, no water, no corrosion, nothing. The terminals on the bottom were onyl veeerrry slightly corroded. The battery was fine also, except for the little pink patch on the bottom.
I took it into the Verizon store again (an authorized dealer, not an actual Verizon store....these guys are much more helpful, imo). And bought a car charger. After plugging it into the car charger, I flipped the phone open and closed a few times and the car kit mode went off and the phone's been working fine since. Granted it's only been a week at best, but I don't anticipate any more problems.
So there's one of these things that worked for me, or a combination of them:
1. Plug it into the car charger.
2. Clean the terminals on the bottom (be VERY careful)
3. Pry the case open and stare at it real good
4. Clear the error messages as Blade mentioned (Menu > 0 > six 0s > Field Tests > Clear Errors)
Love the phone!
WandyJE Posts: 1
Sun Sep 10, 2006 4:18 pm
Just yesterday, my nephew had my phone and slobbered all over it. And as I was drying it saw that my phone had went into "car-kit" mode. I have to say that I read all the postings and tried everything... The last one I read said to plug it into my car charger and THEN follow Blade's instructions!
And when my phone reset... I turned it back on, and PRESTO! it worked! Thank you soooo very much...
HellaNikki09 Posts: 1
Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:51 pm
well i tried everyone elses methods and maybe they will work for you... i was sitting in m bathtub when i noticed my phone was in Car Kit and it might have been the water that made it happen i tried everything... i had my boyfriend call, i tried putting it in manner mode, i tried to do the service code... and finally i tried calling my mom to see if she could hear me since my boyfriend couldnt and she also couldnt but when i looked at my phone next... It was gone
for me a simple outgoing call fixed it
DreamerJen Posts: 2
Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:26 am
I had just got out of the shower last night and had answered my phone while my hair, and i guess my ear, was still wet. The call was dropped right after and I looked at my phone and saw the dreaded -car kit- mode. Now, this LG 5500 has had soooo many problems since I got it a year and a half ago and it has been replaced twice already. When I first got the phone, it did this without even being wet and I took it to U.S. Cellular where I have service and the techs were able to fix it after taking it apart.
I did not want to have to go back to deal with paying my insurance fee and getting yet another new LG crappy 5550 phone. Granted, U.S. Cellular customer service is MUCH MUCH better than Verizon, but still its a hassle when everything else works perfectly.
So I started looking online and found this wonderful forum. I tried everything, the blowdryer, the aluminum foil, the battery thing and resetting my phone but nothing worked. Finally I saw that a few people fixed theirs with a paper clip and I had one laying around my desk so I tried it for about 30 seconds and voila! It went back to Vib&High and I was able to make calls again.
Thanks so much for all your guys suggestions! I think that if we all keep saying what works we can help many people with this problem.
by the way, anyone else ever have an LG 5500 and all of its problems?
Though these tricks to get rid of the car kit do work for minor water damage in the port (most common place) , it does not fix the water damage on any of the chips, if any is present, it only bypasses the message. If you notice your phone doing anything else like low reception, battery drains fast and you know the battery is good, keypad has to be pressed hard, in order to respond, ect. have it serviced before it shorts itself out. If you dont notice any of these things though, it was probally just minor water damage in the port. Another thing you can do to clean the port is use isopropyl alcohol and dip a toothbrush in, and clean the port with that. (of corse remove the battery 1st)
If anyone ever needs service or needs parts (for ex. lcd's, or if the hinge snaps ect. I have most verizon parts in stock, and its much cheaper then what verizon charges.
Just to be safe, I can always list parts on ebay, or list the repair service on ebay, as I have over 1,500 feedbacks so you atleast will know who you are sending ur phone into. Let me know if you have any questons
-Mark
mds33200@yahoo.com
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