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Vauxhall Vectra C PIN code hacking

By Jestine Yong on May 15, 2018

Vauxhall Vectra C PIN eeprom code hacking

Hi!

Today I faced with a serious problem on a Vauxhall Vectra C 2.0 diesel 2002 year car, for some reason the transponder in the ignition key was not recognized by the car and it refused to start. After making the diagnostic with my diag tool I recognized the problem, ecu is locked because the immobilizer can’t recognize the code from the key.

The main focus in this text is how to find the “magic number” which opens all the magic to program a new key to the car and not how to add new key. Maybe that comes in some other article. In the absence of a tool to read the PIN code from the ecu or the dash through more convention situation, through the OBD connector, I decide to make the stuff manually.

Here we go:

We need to take out the dash board and completely disassemble it to find the 93C66 eeprom. In that small eeprom is the “magic number” what is called PIN code and is needed by tools to add/program new key to the car.

To read this type of eeprom you can use any compatible programmer, or even you can make one by yourself in seconds. This is a simple eeprom and very comfortable to work with it.

After you read the content from this eeprom look on the offset: 1E9 to 1EC at that offset you will find the PIN code what you will need to enter whenever you will add a key to the car.

Here is a picture of the real situation:

This is only valid on this type of car, but the same method can be used on any other cars too. The PIN code is on some other location or maybe another type of eeprom is used, but the idea is the same. So, no expensive tools are needed to get the PIN code from the car. The PIN code can be extracted from the radio or from the GID display or ECU etc.

Be warned!

If you take out the radio, it would be nice if you have the unlock code for the radio. Otherwise your car radio will be locked and you have to unlock it.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial and will save lot of repair time.

This article was prepared for you by Christian Robert Adzic from Novi Knezevac-Serbia.

Please give a support by clicking on the social buttons below. Your feedback on the post is welcome. Please leave it in the comments.

P.S- If you enjoyed reading this, click here to subscribe to my blog (free subscription). That way, you’ll never miss a post. You can also forward this website link to your friends and colleagues-thanks!

Note: You can check his previous post in the below link:

https://jestineyong.com/lada-111-1-6l-16v-2005-year-immo-off/

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18 Comments

Eritai

May 17, 2018 at 10:08 pm

Thanks a lot

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Andrew F. ali

May 17, 2018 at 10:45 pm

I always enjoy your letters. I seem to realize how much I need to know and you explain things so easy to understand. Thank you for yet another beautiful article.

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Richard Anderson

May 17, 2018 at 11:32 pm

PIN code from the car. The PIN code can be extracted from the radio or from the GID display or ECU etc.Does this indicate that their are 4 different pin codes or just 1 pin code?

Is this an instance of some one Car Hacking or a bad component?

That is the way all industries are moving Pin codes for every thing.
Access to these Pins is a big security issue it's getting worse as we WiFi everything.

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- Christian Adzic
  
  May 19, 2018 at 3:49 am
  
  Hi!
  Thank's for supporting my article.
  The pin code can be extracted as you wrote, that's true.
  I described only one way, maybe I will show in the future how to extract it from the other components, if there are a request for.
  The methodology is the same as in this article, I won't make replicated articles....
  
  The pin code is unique for every car.
  In all the modules where are pin codes in the same car are the same pin's too.
  So, if you would extract the pin code from the GDI or radio etc. you will get the same pin code.
  
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Kigoma charles

May 18, 2018 at 12:53 am

Well it has been a very good information and we should thank God keeping you guys and may the lord reward you abundantly.

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Justice

May 18, 2018 at 6:39 pm

Wow Christian there is no end to new informations. Excellent article thanks a lot.

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Robert Calk Jr.

May 18, 2018 at 10:02 pm

Thanks Christian.

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Albert van Bemmelen

May 20, 2018 at 1:30 am

Thanks Christian. You always make it sound so easy but I doubt finding the serial key ever is. However it would also be interesting to know a bit more on the extracting the serial key with your diagnostic tool on how you recognized that the problem was that the ecu was locked.
I do not own a car myself but it probably would help many readers to know what OBD diagnostic tool is a good choice to buy and how to use it in such particular cases. As it is the first step before even dismantling the entire dashboard.

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- Christian Adzic
  
  May 21, 2018 at 6:22 pm
  
  Hi!
  I appreciate you are supporting my article and I really love your precise pointed questions.
  Through your set questions in your reply I would say we can open several ways of answers which would be hard to manage through this kind of "chat" but we have several options.
  
  For now, my mayor answer is:
  In my articles, I'm trying to focus on the exactly problem like in this article, the extracting of the PIN code.
  Why is this so?
  Because if somebody deals with lets say with cars on this level, and he/she knows does a PIN code is needed, then they also have enough skill to go through a walk-through and finish the job.
  Or even they can modify this article so it work's in their situation too.
  
  There is another interesting article I wrote about the Immo system with some bonus info's here: "Lada 111 1.6L 16V 2005 year – Immo Off" (search for this title), but I don't like to replicate info's in my articles or even replicate the repair process just because the actual repair hob is for another type of tool but the repair process is the same as in my previous article.
  
  Another way to answer to your question is:
  We can write repair walk-through articles for repairing electronic/electric tools and maybe we should also write some sort of tutorials how some technologies are working.
  And now we comes to the OBD question from your reply.
  If the readers indeed and the owner of this site agree I can sometime write articles like tutorials of technologies. I mean, lets say, in this case some tutorial about the OBD standards, how they works in the real life, what tools to buy or use, how to identify problems etc. etc...
  That would be a really big challenge to write and a honor to share my knowledge with the peoples over the globe.
  But, keep on mind, all my writings will be as simple as it can be, without alien technology.
  I can remember when I was a child, one of my favorite TV series MacGyver from 1985 or so. Maybe MacGayver was my subconscious leader and there fore I'm today solving problems in very "simple" way...
  Beside my job where I deal with electronic revers engineering I'm a rescue diver too.
  Under water in the dept I don't have much choice to get to the surface alive.
  Just keep thinks simple as it can be. 🙂
  
  So, if wee need here, and we have place here for tutorials for lets say OBD stuff, just give me green light.
  
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  - Albert van Bemmelen
    
    May 23, 2018 at 7:09 pm
    
    Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions Christian. It is completely understandable that you keep your article short and simple but in the same time this generates a lot of questions that any OBD/car beginner (like me) needs to know. A complete OBD tutorial is not needed but some photo or info of the OBD you used would have been nice. Now it indeed looks a bit like a MacGyver episode. By-the-way: The new tv-serie Scorpion is great too!
    
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Yogesh Panchal

May 20, 2018 at 1:10 pm

Christian,
Thanks for sharing the information.

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Gary Gemmell

May 21, 2018 at 5:36 am

Always great hacking there Christian you are my favourite poster on here!

Keep up the good work!

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Christian Adzic

May 21, 2018 at 6:27 pm

Generally speak:
Thank's for the nice words.
And thanks for Mr. Jestine who realized this kind of community.
My best regards.

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Lad

May 24, 2018 at 3:58 am

Christian, thank you for your article. I support Albert. Please write more articles/tutorials.
Thanks again.

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moshe jacobson

May 25, 2018 at 10:35 am

Wow Christian...this short article opened a tiny crack to a whole new universe to explore.
i think more articles on this universe would be absolutely fantastic.

thank you for sharing

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brou alexandre kouassi

May 21, 2019 at 8:50 am

Very good tutorial

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chupo_cro

December 18, 2021 at 8:20 am

Da li to znaci da je PIN u EEPROM-u spremljen bez ikakvog kodiranja? Nije koristen ASCII ili XOR s nekom vrijednosti? Kako si dosao do informacije o tome na kojem je offset-u spremljen pin?

Does it mean the PIN is stored in the EEPROM as raw bytes? No endoding such as ASCII or maybe XOR with some value? Where did you find the information about the offset at which the PIN is?

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djamel eddine

August 16, 2023 at 9:44 am

merci
une sauvgarde du Eeprom.Bin est precieuse
====================================

THANKS
A backup of the Eeprom.Bin is valuable

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