http://www.today.com/news/police-admit-theyre-stumped-mystery-car-thefts-6C10169993
That may have happened to me in my S4 earlier this year. I had convinced myself that maybe I didn’t lock it when I was almost positive that I did. At least I was insured, and I’m not crazy.
Cool! Right out of sci-fi!
Didn’t we figure this out like a year ago that some companies including BMW are easily cloned?
I bet if they go back further on that surveillance, they will find that these guys were there a night earlier doing the copy… Then they go and program… Then they come back.
There a s
Thread on m3 forum about a guy in the UK whose m3 was stolen like this. They came, did something, left, came back, opened it and one guy got in while the other two pushed it out of the driveway and down the street…(to be quiet)… Then they started it and off they went.
I dont know all about this…its like they did back in the day steeling cel phone signals…same thing…
Likely something where they can get the code/frequency just by sitting close with a scanner, similar to what was done in Gone in 60 Seconds. With that, the auto manufacturers likely use a known algorithm to generate the “secure” codes, so if you capture one (or multiple), you should be able to figure out others that would work. The fact that it worked on an Acura and a Honda says that whatever method they’re using is easy to guess.
The good thing is that while they may be able to unlock your Audi, it’d be harder to drive off with it thanks to the immobilizer. Not that it’s exceedingly difficult to bypass, but the added effort will keep thieves away when other marques are easier to grab.
They consulted the car manufacturers for the cars that this was done on. And the car manufacturers said that
FOB cloning can’t be done using any over the air method. Cloning is done using the drivers doors on Audi.
Most cars it has to be in contact with the drivers door to clone.
Getting in the car is not the difficult part, getting it running is. All the immobilizer cars from the B7s back use one way communication so if you were to throw a bunch of codes at it then something would probably stick. Kind of like how the guy steals the Jaguar and then tells the guy that tries to rob him that he needs a role model.
The B8s and newer cars use two way communication so I am not sure how to beat that.
It transmits over the air. The FOB doesn’t know your car is in range or where it is, so if someone is close enough, they could see what the key is transmitting. They would have to be fairly close, and probably need to capture a lot of data for it to work, but just because the manufacturer says it can’t be done doesn’t mean it can’t.
I’m sure if you asked the Audi dealer if you can get keys for your car without going through them they’d say no, but that isn’t the case.
Good to know and nothing like a good gone in 60 seconds refrence.
Through the air its encrypted and would take over 1000 captures to work.
Through the drivers door by contacting the door its not.
The key is cut from the dealer. The FOB is blank until You use a working one to set it.
Or the dealer sets it but they need Your car to set it.
Why don’t they just use rolling codes like on garage door openers?
I just remembered that when a tech replaces the access start control on a Q5 they have to use the scan tool to force the car to start. So I wonder if that is a basic setting or output test that you could force with something like a vagcom. That would be interesting!