The battery got changed on the AT Ford Thingy, and the radio is demanding a code before it will play for me. How do I work around this without having to fork out hard cash at the Ford dealership?
Someone said it’s the kind of thing crims learn in prison, but I forgot to ask the Chief when I saw him, so if any of you ex cons out there can help, I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks!
Here in the USA you just call the dealership where you bought the car with the VIN number and they should have your radio code in the computer.
Otherwise, if you pull out the radio unit it should be on the back of the unit, the 4 digit code.
[quote=“tommy525”]if you pull out the radio unit it should be on the back of the unit, the 4 digit code.[/quote]That’s a total rubbish security system then. It’s more visible to thieves than to the owner :loco:
I found my written on a piece of paper that came with the car, together with handbooks and all that stuff.
I have been told by a reliable source that if you either leave it disconnected for a long time or put it in the freezer over night then the radio should revert back to its original factory settings which do not require any codes to reboot it.
Otherwise the code may be printed on a sticker somewhere on the unit casing.
I have no personal experience doing this however, so I cannot confirm that it works.
[quote=“sulavaca”]I have been told by a reliable source that if you either leave it disconnected for a long time or put it in the freezer over night then the radio should revert back to its original factory settings which do not require any codes to reboot it.
Otherwise the code may be printed on a sticker somewhere on the unit casing.
I have no personal experience doing this however, so I cannot confirm that it works.[/quote]
haha wrong go.
It will NEVER work without the code, no matter how long you leave the battery disconnected. And If you freeze the radio that will solve your problem because you will need a new radio.
The code is on the back of the unit. Go to one of those stereo places for cars and they can find the code for you for pretty cheap. Maybe 100 or 200nt. Or even free.
OR? get rid of the original radio and put in something decent?
[quote=“sulavaca”]I have been told by a reliable source that if you either leave it disconnected for a long time or put it in the freezer over night then the radio should revert back to its original factory settings which do not require any codes to reboot it.
Otherwise the code may be printed on a sticker somewhere on the unit casing.
I have no personal experience doing this however, so I cannot confirm that it works.[/quote]
Ouch mate, you might know your stuff mechanically but please don’t touch any electronics. Please 
Stray Dog, please don’t bung your radio in the freezer because half the components inside will just burst.
email sent with a contact in Taiwan.
You might also check some of the Ford forums on the internet.
For my last 4 autos, I could find the various diagnostic codes in one or more of the owner tech forums online.
This might be a good source to look.
[quote=“Big Fluffy Matthew”][quote=“tommy525”]if you pull out the radio unit it should be on the back of the unit, the 4 digit code.[/quote]That’s a total rubbish security system then. It’s more visible to thieves than to the owner :loco:
I found my written on a piece of paper that came with the car, together with handbooks and all that stuff.[/quote]
I dont know if this is news to you or not, but car stereo thieves rarely go for the factory installed radio shit. Its not worth it to them. And the fact that the radio code is on the back of the unit means it has to be removed and that takes a bit of time and a wee bit of skill. This is only to prevent high school kids from stealing your radio. Nothing to do with the real crims.
But people forgetting their codes is endemic. Happens all the time. So they have to have a way to rectify that situ. Hence the removal of the unit with the code behind.
The coding thing looks good, is there to prevent your high school or junior high kids from mischief. Thats all.
Real stereo thieves dont want that factory shit dude !!
How does it prevent anyone from stealing it if it has the code on the back? What’s the point of it?
[quote=“tommy525”][quote=“sulavaca”]I have been told by a reliable source that if you either leave it disconnected for a long time or put it in the freezer over night then the radio should revert back to its original factory settings which do not require any codes to reboot it.
Otherwise the code may be printed on a sticker somewhere on the unit casing.
I have no personal experience doing this however, so I cannot confirm that it works.[/quote]
haha wrong go.[/quote]
Well true in part it seems:
“When the first batch of Philips 22DC752 series came out in the early eighties (the first radios ever to be coded) it was possible to put the entire radio into the freezer overnight and defrost it the next morning. The code chip (ER1400) would loose all it’s memory and you could put in a new code of your own choosing. Needless to say, very shortly after the manufacturers found out that the security could be easily overcome this way, they changed the specification of the chips so that this could not happen. This proceedure has never worked on any make of radio since this time. Rumours soon got around in the trade and in the public domain that this was an easy way to get over coded radios, and people started putting all makes and models in the freezer. I am not sure how many were totally destroyed this way, but we had one customer who destroyed a £450 Pioneer Car Radio Cassette this way. Modern units cannot stand temperatures of minus 20 degrees Centigrade; they give up the ghost. The code chip inside may be able to stand low temperatures, but it will still retain it’s memory and the original programmed code; however it is unlikely that the processor (the heart of the radio) and other components will survive; the chances are that the unit will be damaged beyond repair. So don’t try it! Believe it or not, this rumour still survives and customers are still passing on these ‘pearls of wisdom’ to their pals over 20 years later. The only safe way to get the code is to connect the unit to a computer, interface and probe which reads the actual code number programmed into the chips”
My information was gathered at that time when stereos could have been frozen. I haven’t had the problem of restoring codes since the early days of introduction.
They didn’t have Flash RAM in the eighties.
Get thee to a garage, they should have a bag of tricks to unlock it. You’ll need to find one with environmental suits so they can enter your car safely.
FActory radios take a bit more time to take out then its worth and only fits those particular models. And its not general knowledge that the number is on the back of the casing bro.
They are of very little value to thieves. A 1000 dollar stereo upgrade that you paid for as an option on your new Audi is only worth bout 20 bucks on the street !! Not worth the time it takes to fiddle around hidden screws to remove the sucker.
The real protection that keeps your radio YOUR radio is that fact that they are worth so little money on the black market.
[quote=“llary”][quote=“sulavaca”]I have been told by a reliable source that if you either leave it disconnected for a long time or put it in the freezer over night then the radio should revert back to its original factory settings which do not require any codes to reboot it.
Otherwise the code may be printed on a sticker somewhere on the unit casing.
I have no personal experience doing this however, so I cannot confirm that it works.[/quote]
Ouch mate, you might know your stuff mechanically but please don’t touch any electronics. Please
Stray Dog, please don’t bung your radio in the freezer because half the components inside will just burst.[/quote]
I am a qualified technician, which means I know a fair amount on electronics, but it doesn’t make me an expert in all electronic fields I admit. It is known widely however that extremely low temperatures may effect batteries and certain memory storage devices which rely on a constant power feed but not so many types of conventional electronics. For circuit board components to “burst” would be very unusual and I very much doubt true at all. Read about extreme low temperatures and electronics.
The main component of a car stereo that could suffer lat low temperature could be a liquid crystal display which could expand and crack given long enough and a cold enough environment to do so, which is why it used to be recommended to leave a stereo in the freezer for an hour before removal. Or over night at a higher (low) temperature.
Recovering a computer hard drive by freezing may be of interest to anyone that believes circuit board components will burst at low temperatures. 
Bursting electronics at freezer temperature only would simply make many products potentially dangerous for use in many areas of the world.
Additionally many factory fitted stereos these days are designed to only fit the fascia and/or dash of a specific model of car, reducing demand for stolen stereos significantly. This has lead to a reduction of many security coded devices.
I expect that most stereo shops in and around the city will have the means of recoding your device. It shouldn’t cost much.