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Comment by ghiotion | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if lock bumping really works. I've also got a set of Auto Jigglers (btw, the police get really pissed if you have these things, so don't carry them around in public), but they don't work at all. At least, I've had no success starting or opening my own Toyota Camry.

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Bumping does work, but not on automotive locks, as they have a different internal structure. Most lock manufacturers have come up with bump-proof or bump-resistant locks now that bumping has become more known.

That said: bumping is cheating :D

My dad was a mechanic and long story short, he could open any vehicle in under 30 seconds with the 'jimmy sticks'.

I worked with him a lot during my youth, and I am decent at it. However, the way new cars are designed it is getting a lot more difficult to do this, so most people will pull at your window now around the edge and slip down basically a coathanger to hit the unlock button.

With jigglers it seems to be all about probability. IIRC they only worked for american cars (and even then it might have been only older models).

Bumping OTOH seems pretty reliable. Just that I'm afraid to try it on my front door for fear of ruining the lock.

I've heard that about auto jigglers only working on older model cars. The set I have advertises that they work on both foreign and domestic. I think my camry is a 2002. Anything post 2000 is a dicey proposition. And obviously, they won't work on cars that have the computer chip embedded in the key. I have no idea how you'd pick one of those.

There was a woman on Click & Clack last weekend who was looking at a $2000 key replacement from Saab for her key with an embedded chip.

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