Delco Theft Lock Radio

jhm · November 20, 2003

I have my radio/cd player set up for the theft lock. Supposedly if the radio loses power like when someone steals it, it is inoperable until you enter the secret code you previously entered. The LED blinks warning the thief (who supposedly knows what it means), and he will not take the unit. When my battery post rotted off, the dealer replaced it because it is still in warranty. When I picked it up I WAS EXPECTING TO HAVE TO ENTER MY CODE TO MAKE THE RADIO WORK. To my surprise, it was working fine, no need to enter the code. What is up with this?? Does it need to lose power for a long time to lock up???

pcrow · November 20, 2003

The radio knows the vehicle it is installed in. The radio ID (sort of a serial number) is encoded into the BCM (body configuration module) of the truck, and the VIN (or a portion of it) is encoded into the radio. The radio will work fina as long as it is installed in that particular vehicle.

jhm · November 20, 2003

That is not what the manual says, it says if the radio looses power for any reason it will need to have the secret code entered. Is the manual wrong? My truck ia a '01.

carguru · November 20, 2003

It is possible the dealer retrieved the code and reset it for you. Did you lose power before the battery was replaced? There is also a possiblity that the dealer hooked up a small backup battery to not lose all the settings before the unhooked everything.

jhm · November 20, 2003

The battery was dead but had enough to power the dome light when they towed it in. Maybe they did put a back up power supply on to keep the settings.

pcrow · November 20, 2003

Interesting...My '03 had a am/fm. I had it swapped with the am/fm/cd from another '03 on the lot. It immediately came up as being locked. The dealer had to connect to the computer and "introduce" the radio and vehicle to each other. Since then, I have had the battery completely disconnected and removed for hours at a time and the radio has been fine. I don't know any more than what I was told, and that was that once the radio was matched to the vehicle, it would only work in that vehicle, until a dealer re-codes it.

k1500chevy97 · November 20, 2003

werd that theft lock works this way

jhm · November 20, 2003

pcrow, Do you have the theft deterrent on? if so you will have a red LED blinking when the engine is off. If it is on and you can still disconnect power without locking, then I guess it is matched to the vehicle.

LogixRat · November 20, 2003

So what you're saying is the thief should just steal the whole vehicle instead of just the radio! Hehehe.

carguru · November 21, 2003

For the '03, they program the VIN number in. Once the VIN is programmed in, in the event of any power loss, the radio "talks" to the BCM and checks for the VIN number. If the VIN matches, then it unlocks. Otherwise it locks the radio. In the pre '03 models, the radios were independent of the BCM.

BTW, the backup supply is very easy to make. All you have to do is get a cigarette lighter plug and a 9V battery plug. A couple of simple connections and a 9v battery, you are in business. I can post the directions if there are any interest.

jhm · November 21, 2003

Carguru, that must be how they kept my radio (and other things) from being cleared. I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN THE BACKUP SYSTEM YOU REFERRED TO!

pcrow · November 21, 2003

Yes, the theftlock is on (LED blinks).

silverado man · November 21, 2003

From what I understand 03's have the theft lock on all the time because it is referenced to the VIN of the vehicle. So if it get taken out of the vehicle and put into another it won't work until the VIN of the new vehicle gets programmed.

Dave J · November 21, 2003

there are things a theif can accompolish if they have your vin #, one one can keep it covered with a small peice of paper or a small card like a busniness card so it can't readily be read from outside the vehical.

jhm · November 21, 2003

My vin is etched in all the glass. They do this at the dealership free, you get a discount on insurance (at least my policy) for having this. The idea is if they steal the vehicle, they have to replace all the glass to wipe out any record of the original vin. Replacing all that glass is costly, so they hopefully will go somewhere else..