“This is the only way…”
Every year, hundreds of thousands of cars are stolen in the US. To help protect her new Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 from theft, one woman says she installed an immobilizer shortly after buying it.
Wolf (@elisiwolf) published a video explaining that concern about auto thefts prompted her to buy an immobilizer, also called a kill switch. She says everyone should consider getting one for their vehicle.
At the beginning of her video, Wolf demonstrates how the immobilizer works. Hers looks like a small white pipe protruding from the floorboard to the left of the pedals.
“If I pull this out, the car literally does not turn on at all.” She pulls the top cap of the immobilizer off, then attempts to start the Mustang. The engine doesn’t turn over.
“As you can see, it’s doing nothing,” she narrates, before placing the cap back in place. “But if I plug it in now, it’ll start as normal,” she says, before pressing her sports car’s push-to-start button, which brings her engine to roaring life.
Wolf urges anyone with a costly performance vehicle like a Shelby GT500 to buy an immobilizer due to what she calls a rampant string of automotive thefts. “This should be absolutely required if you get any type of high-end sports car,” Wolf says.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that from 2019 to 2023, vehicle thefts spiked sharply before falling in 2024.
Wolf also claims that criminals are becoming more effective at stealing cars.
“They’re able to steal anything and this is the only way they’re not able to steal it. For this it would take several hours just to figure out what to do with it. At the very bare minimum,” she adds
Research supports this claim. Scientific American reports that car theft has become increasingly “high tech,” with thieves hacking into computerized vehicles. Many thieves, the outlet notes, can access a vehicle by hacking into one of its computers.
Comparitech also reports that thieves use “relay attacks,” in which they ping your key fob’s radio signal and store it on an external device. That radio signal can then be used to unlock your car.
Immobilizer devices like Wolf’s send an encrypted message to a car’s electronic control unit (ECU) “to confirm that the person trying to start the car is indeed authorized.” If the correct key, and in Wolf’s case, the top plug of her immobilizer, isn’t present, then neither is that signal. Therefore, the engine cannot be started.
Wolf says she bought her immobilizer from Ravelco. According to Ravelco’s website, not a single car outfitted with its killswitch has ever been reported stolen. The business also states that each of its immobilizer plugs is unique, so there is virtually zero risk of a thief obtaining a similar immobilizer to use to access your car.
Ravelco adds that its wiring harnesses are integrated into the vehicle’s system and aren’t color-coded, meaning that even if a thief can spot the device and remove it, they’re going to have a very difficult time hot-wiring it, as all of the wires look identical.
There’s no such thing as a theft-proof vehicle, but the Department of Justice reports that immobilizers are an effective safeguard against theft. “Vehicles with immobilizers are much less likely to be stolen than their non-immobilized counterparts,” the agency reports.
Motor1 has reached out to Wolf via TikTok direct message and Ravelco via email for further comment. We’ll update this if either responds.
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– The Motor1.com Team