Stealing cars by hacking into headlight wiring

Read these articles about car thieves hacking into headlight wiring and being able to unlock and steal vehicles. Talks about hacking into Rav4's headlights.

I this an an issue for 4R too? Just another thing to worry about besides catalytic converters.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/shade...-cars-by-injecting-code-into-headlight-wiring

https://www.techspot.com/news/98245-car-thieves-using-fake-jbl-speakers-not-keys.html

 

That's it, nothing we buy we own, the beast is tracking us night and day, our wives are being titillated by Max Headroom, and Akio Toyoda's probing me every time I sit in my 4Runner. All is lost.

People, the only sensible solution to this madness is to buy a manual GR86.

 

Interesting articles. The good news is that I don’t think the 4Runner runs CANBUS for any of its exterior lighting. It may have it for other sensors and systems. Sometimes it helps to have a dinosaur.

 

The 2019 and prior 4runners are even easier to steal.

 

i believe 2020 and up headlights are run by CANbus by virtue of option control through headunit and auto highbeam.

how so?

 

One reason skeptical about remote starters. I have trackers in the vehicles.
Even disturbing the vehicles sends a text message alert.

 

I have motion detector in it and on it for the doors when parked in my driveway. Also have a kill switch and other disabling features. They may be able to get in it, but they’ll have to tow it to steal it.

 

Is this a mod done by you, or a shop nearby? Tell us more please... thx.

 

we don't have anybody that sophisticated around here, just random meth heads looking for unlocked vehicles to pillage

 

This is likely true in the majority of places. Truth is, if someone is smart and motivated, they will find a way to get pretty much anything. About the best one can do is figure out how to deter the average opportunistic thief.

 

I'm pretty sure the easiest thing is to just smash the window lol. I'm guessing the ones that are stealing it through the headlights are wanting to sell the vehicle and don't want to go through the hassle/cost of replacing the window. Is there a write up for installing a kill switch?

 

even if you smash the window, still have to start the vehicle somehow. I'm not an expert on the subject but I don't think it's as easy to hot-wire ignitions on modern vehicles like it was in the old days.

 

Yeah I meant that if someone wanted to steal something inside they would just bust the window rather than try to unlock the vehicle through the headlights. I agree it's probably harder to hotwire on the newer vehicles since it's built more like a computer and tracking. Just like vehicles evolving in technology, thieves are evolving in how they steal vehicles.

 

The best thing to do is to make sure that you have good insurance and your comprehensive covers theft. If you have mods, add a rider to your policy to cover those as well.

 

Insurance doesn’t help when you have to wait for a new replacement for 4-6 months and most policies only give you 2-4 weeks for a rental.

 

Found some YouTube vids to help with the kill switch. It actually isn’t that difficult once you confirm the best power cable to interrupt and ensure your vehicle can’t start. Keep in mind not all years have the same layout, but good way of trying out what will work is just pulling a fuse and trying it out. The motion detector I’m using non wifi based one’s so less likely to be affected by a Wi-Fi jammer, and the base unit is directly wired to my network. I have the Ultimate9 throttle controller which makes my gas peddle unresponsive.