Hacks to Unlock Vehicle Doors – Do they work?

There are tons of hacks floating around the net these days that claim you can open vehicle doors using various methods. I haven’t tried any of them, and I am skeptical of most of them. I am sure that most of them use some tricks like a second person manning a second key fob, pressing it at the right moment.

The only one that seems technically feasible is the cell phone to cell phone one that has a remote person hold the key fob up to the phone as the second phone is held close to the car. Obviously the phone is meant to transmit audio and not the RF signal that the key fobs transmit. However all modern phones have a telecoil that allows the phone to interface with hearing aids. This coil might be able to pick up the RF that is transmitted by the fob when it is placed close enough.

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

Ok the next video has nothing to do with unlocking doors, but it was too funny not to include. 🙂 I wonder how many people tried this out?

 

20 Comments



  1. I just tested the cellphone -> cellphone version, and I can say that it does work. I was clearly out of range of my remote, and my SO was standing near the car. Put the keyfob near my phone, pres the button, and it chirped.

    That one, at least, works. Thanks for the tip!


  2. nahhh… this is nothing more than a joke…


  3. If you mean one that can hack into another person’s vehicle probably not. Also there is one car that if you get the fob to close to the phone the fob gets erased! It can’t be reprogrammed. 🙂 It costs a bit of cash to get the dealer to take another fob and reprogram the cars computer to recognize it.

    The only folk I’ve heard of who were able to open car doors remotely without permission was the Navy who did something that opened up a bunch of Onstar cars. 😉


  4. I tried the remote unlock trick a few months ago, and got a null result. I was expecting as much since, as was noted, the speaker on your phone will not hear or reproduce any RF signal. If you had some kind of crazy ultrasonic remote, maybe.
    What did come out of the experiment was the amazing range on those remotes … a couple of blocks away was not far enough to be out of range, I ended up jumping in another car and going to the other side of town just to be certain.


  5. Car: Renault Clio (Transmitter integrated in key knob)

    Well… Just tried the cellphone to cellphone stuff…
    Cell Phones:
    Nokia 6630 (Key) to Sharp GX25 (Near the car) => Didn’t work!
    Maybe it’s dependent on the phones… some may have the telecoil, some may not.

    The other one I tried was the BBC key in the head, and the stupid “open mouth an put the key under it”.
    Results:
    BBC “press the key in the head” => Works!
    “Key under mouth” => Doesn’t Work!

    Note: Remotes can have very different frequencies some of them wich can be picked up by the cell phone and be conserved during tranmition and others not. My remote is arroud 433MHz, it was very unlikely to be transmited by the phone network. A low frequency (KHz range) remote would be plausible to get it’s signal though the phones.


  6. Hey Guys,

    Thanks for trying some of those out. Interesting results…


  7. Samsung D900 to Nokia N73 did NOT work for unlocking my car.
    Remote on the chin did NOT work.
    Remote on the Head (temples) WORKED just fine.
    I have a car exactly like the blonde girl I just need to test the air pressure vs key lock to see.


  8. This must be the dumbest thing ever.



  9. The tennis ball is fake. The cell phone method is plausible, though.


  10. LOL, the comments sound like they are straight out of the Mythbusters tv show. 🙂


  11. i’ve tried unlocking via phone and it did work.. but only then when the voice was being transmited together with the button press on a key… it seems like the phones does somekinda stand by thing when you dont talk therefore it wouldnt work if you want to unlock the car.. basicaly try unlocking while speaking otherwise it dint work for me either.. (phones: nokia n91 >>> se k750)


  12. Well, I’m a mythbuster’s fan… lol
    So I’m doing my own mythbusting!



  13. this shiz is so fake. no cell phone can ulock a car otherwise cars all over the world get get
    unlocked! or wherever there cell towers! i phones frequency is like 25% DIFFERENT from a cars
    and its technically impossible to unlock cars with it. the government isnt as stupid as to use
    the same waves as car openers!


  14. I use my cell phone to open everyones car doors in the parking lots. . of course i never went in another persons car


  15. found this on the web ” ?Any GSM cell phone that is unlocked will work. You should not have any problem with any of the features, I only know this because i have both bought and sold many unlocked phones on ebay. I am also a cingular dealer, so I know what they where trying to do. That is to scare you away from buying any phone but one that they have in store or over the phone.?

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