Did anyone ever stop and think that some (most) of these "people" that always come here and ask for radio codes are thieves? Off the top of my head I can think of at least three people from this forum that have had their gear jacked in the past few months. And everyone knows how bad that experience is. People work hard and are proud of their gear, and put many hours and dollars into the concept and install of their systems, and to have some lowlife loser come along and take it all away is sickening.
I mean think about it for a second. Almost every single person that asks for these things are on their first post, just signed up seconds ago -- they never come back, they never say "hmmm this is a cool site and very imformative, I should stick around". And they all have some unique and clever story as to why they need the code. I bet you anything that a good percentage of these people are thieving as!wipes who come to places like this for codes because it is fast, safe, and easy.
I know Jenn and some others are only trying to help, and they do a great job and we thank them, but I say we make a new policy of telling them to get f!cking lost when they come here asking for codes. People who steal from others, and especially car thieves, need to have their heads caved in among other things. And for us to make it easy for them makes me sick.
I am mad just thinking about this now and I am going to go hide by my truck and kick the livin' cr!p out of anyone who suspiciously looks at it.
Because most newer radios will reset themselves after a given amount of time after being unhooked from power, say an hour, or a normal amount of time someone would unhook their battery to work on or replace a part. They have an onboard battery or memory charge that lasts for the preset amount of time. Not all decks do this however. This was designed into the radios to try to stop theft of factory components. The thought being that a radio that had been reset would be useless to a thief without the code. And you (legally) would have to go down to the dealer and have them hook the radio up to a computer to generate another code into the radio's temporary memory. But this totally backfired because of forums like this one and azzholes that made dedicated sites just to list codes. Theoretically the dealer is required to ask for your car's VIN# to verify it is not stolen, but they usually don't bother. And all you need is the serial number that is attached to the top of the unit. Whoever thought of this whole plan is an utter f!cktard.
And if you think there is less money in stealing factory radios than Pioneers and Alpines, think again. A thief can only get 40-60 bucks for any standard aftermarket head unit, no matter how nice it is, but they can get a hundred or more for the factory units that are in very high demand from car dealers. And where do you think the dealers magically get all these "replacement" decks that they jack up customers for $400 bucks from??
Interesting .. . .. well I havnt gave any codes away, cause I didnt know they had any (LoL) .. . but yah, drill em first ! Any gaps, we can run them off ! ! ! CHARGE ! ! !
It's kinda like the same thing with the pawn shops or fea markets. You look around at all the stuff that is, face it, mostly ripped off from someone else, and you see the proud look on the vendors' faces. They know what they're contributing to and enjoy profiting from it. I look around in amazement and see nothing but cut wires and scratched off serial #'s. Pathetic.
I hate car audio thieves! I've had a couple systems stolen from me after dropping a $1000 or better in them. Like john travolta in pulp fiction says "it would have been worth him doing it, just to catch him". A friend of mine mounted razor blades on the back of his box. someone tried to steal it and cut his finger. He left the box. I dont have to worry about that though this time. They'll need a plasma cutter to get my stuff out.
Your heart is in the right place though