Chris from Washington wrote:http://www.cardomain.com/features/pinch_my_ride
That dash I just put in the Camaro had that first GEN passcode or whatever you call it.
Took all of 5 minutes to disable too, remove the relay, and jump 2 pins.
Passlock I is the simplest of them all. To wire up a remote starter to one of those vehicles, you simply wire up the remote starter like it is another ignition key, if you will (in parallel with the original ignition cylinder), and wire in a resistor of a value that corresponds to the one embedded in the key.
It really wasn't a good system - the original keys had embedded resistors in them, with physical contacts that would wear out, either in the ignition cylinder or the key. And for that potentially expensive unreliability down the road, the security it provided was simple enough for even your average joe to understand how to bypass it.
But even modern systems today - the "secret codes" that the article talks about aren't that common. But what is common are the bypass modules available for the cars, and they come in two flavors:
1) self-contained units with all necessary electronic componentry onboard
2) passive units designed to stimulate a key inside, that you install.
...and of course, because you
need one of these devices to install a remote starter in just about any car made in the past 10 years, they are as common as there are shops who install remote starters - any of those shops will stock hundreds of them, and they don't cost them more than $10-$20 each, with a few $40-$50 exceptions. They'd resell one to you most likely in the $20-$50 range for a typical car, depending on where you live.
They work the same - th self-contained units simply emulate the RFID transmitter that lives inside your key, where the units that stimulate a key you need to buy a key for (or, as we used to, install the customer's valet key, generally with the teeth shaved off so it couldn't be found and used to drive the car away), so it actually uses a key's RFID transmitter.
Anyway, I'm surprised the article didn't mention these... most cars can have additional keys programmed to the car, so if you bought a third key maybe for the teenage driver in the family, you can program the key to the car, so that key will also work. The catch is that most often you need at least one of the car's currently programmed keys to use in the programming sequence (and the programming sequence is like they describe, turning the ignition key forward and back, then introducing the new "key" (or bypass module) into the equation, and performing another sequence so the car recognizes it.
My guess with the Navigator is simply that he may have either had a remote starter installed, or possibly valet-parked his car, or had his car worked on at a mechanic shop, or some other event where he gave his keys to another person. At that point, a bypass module could have been wired up with alligator clips, or a fuse tap, or a cigarette lighter plug, and programmed for the vehicle. At that point, the thief leaves, keeping the new portable bypass module that the truck is now programmed to recognize.
Then, a theif armed with that box could just plug it into the cigarette lighter, zip-tie it under the dash behind the steering column, and break the ignition cylinder as described - driving off, while leaving the immobilizer completely intact.
It's also possible on any car that someone may know the location of the car's ECU, and has written scanning software to use a modified bypass module in a way that it changes it's digital ID, and monitors appropriate pins on the ECU to identify whether the vehicle recognizes the code or not - and that if it isn't simple enough to just interface with the ECU and read the stored code (or rolling code algorithym and last-used value) right off of it, as input into a modified bypass module.
Most cars have security features built into the immobilizer system where a certain preprogrammed number of unsuccessful failed starts of the vehicle (where the key is not recognized) and the car will lock the system down so the car cannot be started for several hours, but there are ways to work aroud that too...
I know I'd have my insurance check - this is all common knowledge, if you ask the people who are paid to bypass and integrate with these immobilizer systems - the remote starter industry.
