weird question... can a car be started without a key or hotwiring?

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Raduque

Originally posted by: eminemrh25

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
news flash: pretty much any car from the early 90's can be stolen with a worn key. honda accord/civics, camrys, and saturns are the most common targets for this kind of theft. around here, it is mostly teenagers using the cars as transportation. the cops say where they find one car, another one is stolen within two blocks. they often don't even damage them or steal the radio, they literally just want to go somewhere. all it takes is a club to protect yourself from it, because there's ALWAYS another accord or camry within a block or two that would be easier for them to steal.

however, i doubt anyone would steal a car to drive it only two blocks.

This is true, my friend has a bunch of filed down Honda, Toyotas and Dodge keys and he goes around and steals cars... He isn't as gentle tho, he normally runs through garbage cans and breaks something in the car for fun, but he has shown me how to do it and it is fairly simple...

Hahaha, great. Stab your friend in the neck for me.

:thumbsup:

Seriously man, why would you even admit to associating with scum like that?

 

[lokiju]

Bump key maybe?

 

[Syrch]

run man run!

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Yes, it's possible...

Scenario: drunk unlocks his car, gets in, drives away. 8 blocks later, he realizes, "hey, wait, this isn't my car! Oh sh!t!" and he ditches it, rather than taking it back which would risk DWI, Stolen vehicle...

I've seen quite a few times where someone's key works in someone else's car. The guy who bought my first car from me (Datsun 210) had a key that worked just fine in it. While getting in my wife's van at a grocery store, I unlocked someone else's van (same make, model, color), but quickly realized as I started getting in.

QFT!!

We bought this old POS Hyundai Accel as a cheap commuter car for me, One day by accident we learned that the Hyundai key would START my wife's Camery!! :shocked:

Strangely enough, the Toyota key would not work in the Hyndai..

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: eminemrh25
This is true, my friend has a bunch of filed down Honda, Toyotas and Dodge keys and he goes around and steals cars... He isn't as gentle tho, he normally runs through garbage cans and breaks something in the car for fun, but he has shown me how to do it and it is fairly simple...

In the words of Tyler Durden: "man, you got some f%$#ed-up friends."

Anyway, here's a theory: some kid boosts the car using a worn-down Saturn key or whatever. The kid could be somewhat local to the neighborhood, hence why he knows what kind of key to have. Anyway, dude lifts it to, say, pick up a hot date because he doesn't have a car himself (or herself) or at least one he'd feel comfortable picking a date up in. Anyway, he goes and does his thing and comes back, intending to leave the car exactly where it was so nobody is the wiser, but someone's out front that might recognize either him or the car. So homeboy drops it as close as he can without getting caught, wipes it down and skeedaddles.

Oddly enough, a similar thing happened to a professor friend of my Mom. In this case the kids hotwired it, so there was a little damage. However, the professor was notorious for never cleaning his car, and keeping the tank damn near empty. When the car was returned it had been washed, cleaned and had almost a full tank. After finding the car in that condition the guy left a note on the dash addressed to whoever jacked the car, saying, "so long as you clean up the car like you did last time, just ask me for the keys if you want to borrow it." I'm not sure if he ever got taken up on the offer or not. Still, pretty funny.

 

[Soccerman06]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Yes, it's possible...

Scenario: drunk unlocks his car, gets in, drives away. 8 blocks later, he realizes, "hey, wait, this isn't my car! Oh sh!t!" and he ditches it, rather than taking it back which would risk DWI, Stolen vehicle...

I've seen quite a few times where someone's key works in someone else's car. The guy who bought my first car from me (Datsun 210) had a key that worked just fine in it. While getting in my wife's van at a grocery store, I unlocked someone else's van (same make, model, color), but quickly realized as I started getting in.

I actually remember GM makings all their lower end cars in the early 90s with similar (albiet different) keys for the single reason to save money on production. My first car had that same kind of problem, 94 bonneville, one day I came out of school looking for my car and hopped into the wrong car and didnt notice it till I turned the car on. The car was missin my audio system ahah and a auto tranny

 

[Scarpozzi]

Don't they make keys that conform to the locks? I've seen some made out of aluminum that work in some locks. I don't know how complex the mechanism in a 1992 saturn is...

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

It's a GM for Christ's sake, My old Trans Am could be started with out a key. All you hade to do was turn the ignition and it fired right up. Hence why I installed the ignition kill switch.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: eminemrh25
This is true, my friend has a bunch of filed down Honda, Toyotas and Dodge keys and he goes around and steals cars... He isn't as gentle tho, he normally runs through garbage cans and breaks something in the car for fun, but he has shown me how to do it and it is fairly simple...

In the words of Tyler Durden: "man, you got some f%$#ed-up friends."

Anyway, here's a theory: some kid boosts the car using a worn-down Saturn key or whatever. The kid could be somewhat local to the neighborhood, hence why he knows what kind of key to have. Anyway, dude lifts it to, say, pick up a hot date because he doesn't have a car himself (or herself) or at least one he'd feel comfortable picking a date up in. Anyway, he goes and does his thing and comes back, intending to leave the car exactly where it was so nobody is the wiser, but someone's out front that might recognize either him or the car. So homeboy drops it as close as he can without getting caught, wipes it down and skeedaddles.

Oddly enough, a similar thing happened to a professor friend of my Mom. In this case the kids hotwired it, so there was a little damage. However, the professor was notorious for never cleaning his car, and keeping the tank damn near empty. When the car was returned it had been washed, cleaned and had almost a full tank. After finding the car in that condition the guy left a note on the dash addressed to whoever jacked the car, saying, "so long as you clean up the car like you did last time, just ask me for the keys if you want to borrow it." I'm not sure if he ever got taken up on the offer or not. Still, pretty funny.

good story

 

[jmdeathsquad]

need pics of both ladies to fully evaluate the situation...

 

[Mark R]

I dunno.

Certainly, the older Ford cars had a problem with the locks. As the lock wore out, it would gradually become less and less selective of the key - e.g. a brand new lock wouldn't accept a bad quality copy, but an old lock would.

By the time the locks were about 10 years old, there was something like a 1 in 20 chance that a random Ford key would operate them.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: lokiju
Bump key maybe?

Wouldn't work with a car.

 

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: lokiju
Bump key maybe?

Wouldn't work with a car.

Actually, it does. There is a video going around of someone demonstrating the technique on some car door and ignition locks.

That said, some types of car do use locks that are immune to bumping. Ford is one.

 

[Zolty]

Originally posted by: mattocs

Originally posted by: Sqube
If the car was manual and the door wasn't unlocked, maybe they just popped the clutch to get it going?

You would still have to have a key to put the ignition in run.

not normally, you need something to remove the wheel lock to not drive in a straight line.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
Don't they make keys that conform to the locks? I've seen some made out of aluminum that work in some locks. I don't know how complex the mechanism in a 1992 saturn is...

my VW key is laser engraved!

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

actually I had a friend in college that owned an early 90s Probe. He came out of the bar one night got in his car and went home. The next day he went out to the lot and found his car had been stolen. It took a while, but he finally determined he had driven home a different Probe. They must have looked alike under the parking lot lights and he didn't notice anything was wrong. He caught a ride back to the bar and his car was there. He had to call the police and explain the situation and they got the other owner to come pick it up.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
actually I had a friend in college that owned an early 90s Probe. He came out of the bar one night got in his car and went home. The next day he went out to the lot and found his car had been stolen. It took a while, but he finally determined he had driven home a different Probe. They must have looked alike under the parking lot lights and he didn't notice anything was wrong. He caught a ride back to the bar and his car was there. He had to call the police and explain the situation and they got the other owner to come pick it up.

haha 'officer i was drunk and drove home in the wrong car'

mmmhmmm

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
actually I had a friend in college that owned an early 90s Probe. He came out of the bar one night got in his car and went home. The next day he went out to the lot and found his car had been stolen. It took a while, but he finally determined he had driven home a different Probe. They must have looked alike under the parking lot lights and he didn't notice anything was wrong. He caught a ride back to the bar and his car was there. He had to call the police and explain the situation and they got the other owner to come pick it up.

haha 'officer i was drunk and drove home in the wrong car'

mmmhmmm

college town....I think they were used to it. They did require him to demonstrate that his key was able to start the car to prove his story was not total BS.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: Mark R
I dunno.

Certainly, the older Ford cars had a problem with the locks. As the lock wore out, it would gradually become less and less selective of the key - e.g. a brand new lock wouldn't accept a bad quality copy, but an old lock would.

By the time the locks were about 10 years old, there was something like a 1 in 20 chance that a random Ford key would operate them.

Bah, that's nothing. After 4 years of use the folks' '95 Explorer could be started without a key at all. If the wheel was locked you had to stick something in the ignition to get it to turn, but all it took was a chopstick to do the trick.

My '94 Explorer doesn't have that problem. Not even close. Amazing how bad things got once they outsourced part production to Mazda.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: eminemrh25
This is true, my friend has a bunch of filed down Honda, Toyotas and Dodge keys and he goes around and steals cars... He isn't as gentle tho, he normally runs through garbage cans and breaks something in the car for fun, but he has shown me how to do it and it is fairly simple...

Please rip all his skin off, wrap him up in barbed wire so he can't move his limbs, and throw him in the ocean for me. "people" like that don't deserve to live.

How does the girl know it wasn't hotwired? It could have been...there are other ways of doing it besides cutting the wires under the dash.

But it's more likely they just used a worn-down key.

 

[OrganizedChaos]

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: Mark R
I dunno.

Certainly, the older Ford cars had a problem with the locks. As the lock wore out, it would gradually become less and less selective of the key - e.g. a brand new lock wouldn't accept a bad quality copy, but an old lock would.

By the time the locks were about 10 years old, there was something like a 1 in 20 chance that a random Ford key would operate them.

Bah, that's nothing. After 4 years of use the folks' '95 Explorer could be started without a key at all. If the wheel was locked you had to stick something in the ignition to get it to turn, but all it took was a chopstick to do the trick.

My '94 Explorer doesn't have that problem. Not even close. Amazing how bad things got once they outsourced part production to Mazda.

i love the ignition on my 92 explorer. you can just kinda throw the key towards the ignition and be good to go its so loose.

 

[ed0ggyd0gg]

So why did you help her out the entire day? You should have let her taken care of it, said you had your own sh*t to do, and met up with the other girl later.

 

[Cdubneeddeal]

I'm not going to go into detail but it's possible to actuate the starter through the engine compartment..

 

[Pacfanweb]

Originally posted by: Cdubneeddeal
I'm not going to go into detail but it's possible to actuate the starter through the engine compartment..

And that would do absolutely nothing unless the ignition was also turned on. The motor would spin, and not start.

Plus, the steering wheel would still be locked.

 

[MrCodeDude]

My friend's 89 Civic was stolen (apparently old Hondas can be opened with a screwdriver) and it was recovered a mile or so away. Nothing was taken, dash wasn't ripped out, the car did smell like cigarette smoke though (friend didn't smoke). Cops said it's probably just some kids going for a joyride.