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Recently our country police office released info about a new technique by car thieves. They seem to be able to disable your central car locking system by jamming one door, as posted:

Attention, new thing of thieves.

While your car is locked, they slide a 5 cent coin in the door handle of the passenger.

When you leave, nothing happens but when you stop and close your car, the central locking will not function normally and the car will therefore remain open.

As soon as your departure, the thieves who have followed you will be able to penetrate in your car and steal everything that interests them.

You have to control your doors to each closure.

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How is this possible?

4 Answers 4

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To be honest, I've been unable to find a vehicle this works on. In principle of course, where it works, it will be because the central locking mistakenly thinks the door is ajar. It doesn't work on every brand of car though. At least on my Toyota, and my wife's Suzuki, the mechanism appears to be specifically designed to avoid such tampering.

That is to say, I have a strong suspicion this is a hoax.

Jamming the remote with another -- since they all use the same carrier frequency -- is much more effective and common among thieves.

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  • I have changed my mind and marked this as the answer. I have been testing it as well, and I have not been able to replicate the issue as well. Feb 4, 2016 at 1:38
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The principle is the same as if you've left a door ajar ... the system will not lock the door. I've had this happen many times in my truck where one door or the other doesn't close all the way. The system recognizes this and won't lock the doors. I will click on the remote twice to lock and then acknowledge (through a horn beep) the locking of the doors. The only thing is, the horn beep never occurs and the locking for the door which is ajar doesn't happen. The principle is the same here because the system views the door as ajar.

If your locking system has the same setup with an audible acknowledgement of the doors being locked, ensure you are paying attention to it when you walk away from your vehicle. This is the best insurance against would be thieves.

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  • Thanks for the best-insurance-tip Paul! I guess checking the doors manually would also be good then. Just worried :) Thieves are pretty smart with these smart coin tricks! Not a magic trick, a trick that could cost you your car! Dec 15, 2015 at 10:39
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I've checked with W203 2010 and the central lock works. Also with a friends KIA and Toyota. Central lock still works. I also suspect this might be a hoax.

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Doesn't work on Kia Soul, either. I can even hold the door handle as far open as it will go without actually opening the door, and the door still locks with the remote.

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