Ok, I bought an OWNERS MANUAL for my daughters recently purchased 1999.

It tells me all kinds of things about Setting up the anti theft on the radio, it tells me that I will get a "LOC" on the Display if this radio has been locked and I cut Power to it. There is nothing in the book as to how I know IF the previous owner keyed in a anti theft code.

Question is, How do I know if I can pull the battery on this car without humping up the radio if the P.O. did set up an anti theft code in the radio?

With the side Posts on the battery it's almost impossible to use jumper cables to keep the connection as I pull teh battery out. I guess I could put a 12V charger in the Cigarette lighter as I disconnect the battery.

 

IIRC, if the Passlock system is active and you lose power, the radio will not play unless a dealer reactivates it. If the original owner did not activate the system, then you're golden.

 

Yeah, I know. But does the radio give me any indication that it has been activated?? Nothing in the Owners manual mentions some Displayed, something that tells me it IS activated and nothing on deactivating without knowing the personal code.
Pulling that battery to find out is ridiculous. Going to a dealer so he can charge me $100 to deactivate is also silly. So back to my original question: Does teh Radio display anything to let me know that this radio is activated?

 

Not that I know of.

 

you could just chance it considering the odds that it probably isn't activated, and rather than taking all the time and effort of dealing with the dealership just got ahead and put in a fairly nice inexpensive aftermarket one rather than the stock. i'm sure your daughter would love it

 

The manual for my 2001 says that a light next to the power button will blink if it is activated. It's been a week or so since I read about this, but I believe that there will be "SEC" somewhere on your display as well. I'm not sure about the exact letters, but there will be something on your display and the blinking light if the previous owner has activated the system.

 

Gm can tell you the factory unlock code from your vin #

 

No they can't.

There is a little red LED on the left side of the radio face if the radio is in protection mode, the LED will flash about once every second when the key is turned off. If the Led is not flashing then the radio is not in theft-lock mode and will not lock up when the battery power is removed.

If you do accidentally lock it, let me know and I can get you the unlock code and give you detailed instructions on how to unlock it AND disable the theftlock feature so you won't have to worry about it again. BUT you can ONLY enter the code if the radio is "locked"

 

Or you can try this....

01. Turn the ignition ON (The radio displays LOC)

02. Hold down the Radio Presets 2 and 3 buttons for six seconds

03. The radio display changes from LOC to a three-digit number. Write this number down. Don’t take forever, fifteen seconds max before the next step.

04. Press the AM/FM button

05. The radio display changes to another three-digit number. Write this number to the right of the first one.

06. You now have a six-digit number, the first three digits are from STEP 03 and the last three digits are form STEP 05

07. Call 1 800 537 5140 08. Press 1 then # (pound). You’ll hear “Invalid Code, try again”

09. Press 139010 then # (pound). You will be asked to enter your four or six digit code followed by * (start)

10. Enter the number from STEP 6 then * (star)

11. Listen to the four-digit number and write it down. It will be repeated twice

12. Turn the ignition ON (The radio displays LOC)

13. Use the MN and HR buttons to enter the code from STEP 11

14. Press the AM/FM button. The radio display changes to SEC Your radio is now “un-locked” and usable. The Theft-Deterrent feature is STILL active! If you want to disable it, use the instruction on page 3-27 in your Y2K Owner’s manual. Use the code from STEP 11 instead of your personal code.

 

I am not sure if the number is the same as what I posted quite awhile ago, but when I had posted that, the number worked for about a month and someone new posted that it was no longer active... I cannot find the thread now though.