Whats the best thief protection device available?

[Fox Hound]

I'm sort of paranoid about getting my car stolen and was wondering what kind of protection everyone is using and do you think its good enough? What products work and what doesn't? (IMO burglar alarms are useless...)

Are there any previous car theives out there who can give us ideas on what they had problems with?

So far, I came up with The Club, Steering Wheel to Brake Pedal Club or some kind of fuel or electrical cutout switch (vendors unknown, maybe homemade ones?). Any other ideas?

[WheelsUp]

Well I am no thief by any means,but short of a handgun or a 150 pound rottweiler not very many other things will stop a determined thief,what might slow him him down is this,get an alarm system,I have had a Clifford on my car now for 10 years,car has been broken into but not stolen,so I ditched the siren and left everything else intact,shock sensor and ignition kill,it works pretty good I have told friends of mine to take my car somewhere,forgot to tell them about the alarm and they could not get the car started,but a determined thief will find a way to steal your car if he wants it.

[PKRWUD]

Forget anything that attaches to your steering wheel. Bolt-cutters will go right through your wheel, and the device slides right off.

The best thing I've found is to remove the rotor from your distributor after you park it. It's free, and the car isn't going anywhere without it. And, the odds of a thief having a 5.0 rotor on him are pretty rare.



Take care,
~Chris

[Shelby428cj]

AVITAL and Clifford are the best!!!

[Fox Hound]

Removing the rotor is a good idea but not too practical. The next step from the rotor idea is to have a electrical cutoff switch which would act like the rotor removal. My question is which wire do you use? Does anyone who installs car alarms with the ignition kill know where this system connects to? I bet its some wire going to the ignition coil somewhere...

[PKRWUD]

You could put it inline with the pos. primary coil wire, or the inertia switch wire at the fuel pump relay.

The rotor is still better. You think you're gonna hide that switch someplace a theif hasn't heard of before?

Good luck.



Take care,
~Chris

[Lethal5Oh]

I gotta agree with Chris here. An alarm isnt going to do anything because the D### things are always going off and everyone ignores them. A thief will probably look for some sort of kill switch. And the club is so worthless that even i could get it off and ive never attempted it before. Your best bet is to do something that a theif will not of tought of such as chris's idea of removing the rotor. I have heard some people who like to brake in to cars talking and they usually wont bother with cars with just the blinking red light. They dont want to take the time to mess with the alarm. But (famous saying here) if the thief wants it he'll get it.

[RED92LX50]

If you get an alarm. get one with the Pager option. That way, when your alarm goes off (and you are in your office, or apartment, or restaurant) and you are out of range of the siren, you will get a page and can go see what is going on. I have one called AutoPage, and the range is pretty decent (maybe 100yds?).

[bigred90gt]

I think the best thiec protection is an alarm siren and a Smith & Wesson. If you hear the siren, use the Smith & Wesson. They will only try once. On a more pollitically correct note, you can have kill switches installed. A friend of mine had a chevy truck with a 5 spd tranny. To start it, instead of pushing the clutch, you had to mash on the floor under the clutch. He would leave his keys on the dash and the windows down and never had the truck stolen in the 3 years he had it. A nother friend has her car set-up to where you have to push and hold the window up switch while cranking it to get it to start. I don't know where they got those kill switches, but I can find out if you would like. Let me know.
Caymon

[eatsgmcar]

Remove the tires, put them in the trunk, keep the nuts
with you.

[Mustangbelle306]

How about LoJack? I heard it was about $500 to install, you get an insurance discount, and its pretty reliable...? Not too sure though...if I gonna park my car for a long time (month or more) I take the shifter out Takes about 10 minutes, and if they tried to break in the car, they'd get a pretty nasty surprise upon entry!

On a lighter note, I've noticed that the ghetto punks around here don't even pay my car any mind because its unricey and no wing...I guess that means its not a hot item! I guess that's one GOOD thing about the import craze

[rppngears]

I used to be a car stereo installer at Sound Solutions, and in my opinion alarms do work. Unless you have a $30,000 or up valued car, the theif probably isn't singling out your car to steal. Your car was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you in a parking lot with say 20 other cars, the thief would probably pick the nicer car, but also one that doesn't present to much of a problem to steal. So he may come up to your car, but once he see's the blinking light, he may very possibly move onto the next car that doesn't have the alarm, just because why pick the more difficult one. Alarms, are not hard to disable, the starter kill relay is usually located right under the dash; but they do take time!!!

The key is, whatever you have, make it known somehow to the thief before he gets started, because once he breaks the window and is inside, he's already decided he wants your car and is going to be more determined to get it. Not to mention, he's broken your window and who knows what else while he's in there.

You can make your alarm much more effective than it is by relocating some parts and doing the job right. Put the starer kill relay in a concealed location in the engine compartment, use a backup battery for your alarm. Most important, replace the useless N.C. Starter Kill Relay with a N.O. Relay. Otherwise, when the thief pulls the fuse on your alarm, the car will start like the alarm isn't even there. You can choose some other wires to interupt as well as the starter wire, such as the fuel pump power. Just connect it to a relay and then tap it to an alarm output. As long as you use a N.O. relay located away from the alarm, it would be pretty difficult to figure out exactly what you've done in the 10 min the thief has to steal the car. Also, wrap your wires in loom and try to make them look as factory as possible, and adding a backup siren, or an near ultrasonic siren inside the car isn't a bad idea - but make it difficult to get to.

My recomendation for a good alarm is the VIPER by DEI. They also have a remote paging system that works fairly well.

[LxMustangRacer]

There's this anti-theft device called the auto taser. Basically it's a cross between a taser and a club. It locks onto your steering wheel and looks basically the same as a club, the only difference being when you touch it you get shocked as if someone hit you with a stun gun(I don't think it's as powerful). I really don't hear much about them and have no idea how well they really work. I gotta say though, the though of someone attempting to steal your car getting shocked is very appealing.

[RoadWarrior]

I like the idea of a well placed ignition coil under your seat. Mount the switch outside under the car or something because no body looks for switches under the car because most of the time alarm switches are inside the car. And DONT FORGET TO DISARM IT. that would give the thief a big problem, like 40000 volts up the A&%.

[srv1]

you guys have good ideas, but some are expensive. the easiest to have a small kill switch. wether it would be for the computer, ignition or fuel pump, any of these are very effective. will the thief find it? most likely not. he doesnt want to draw attention to himself by taking his sweet old time finding a switch that isnt easily accessable. you want ideas where to put a small micro switch? here they are and i guarantee they wouldnt fiid them.

1. put a kill swith under the shifter boot.
2. your vanity mirrors that have the lights in them, put the swith under or around the mirror. if he so happens to look up there he would most likely think it is for the mirror anyways.
3. under or around the ebrake lever or the button for the ebrake lever as the switch.
4. use the dome light swith
5. put an extra swith on the side of the seat. the thief most likely would not look there, if he did, he would think it is the power seat button.
6. in the armrest of the door underneath it. put it in an access screw hole.
7. if no rear defroster was equipped in your car or you are not using it, get the switch from the dealer if you dont have one, or use the defog switch you have as one if you dont or cant use the rear defog.
8. same idea as the defog switch, but use the foglamp switch if your car doesnt have them
9. use a map light switch.

those are just some of the ideas i could think of.

[Chris_H]

For what its worth, I installed a kill switch for the fuel pump. It may not be the most effective, but if they find the switch, they can have the car. There are times when I forget that its armed and the car won't start. Also, it may work good for a carjacking, should I happen to forget the Glock at home, which almost never happens. Just a thought. Placing it in the right place for access and making it look normal is the key. Hope this helps.

Chris

[93GTDIN]

The problem with the anti-theft devices mentioned here is they fail to take one thing into account. Fox bodied 5.0's, especially late model versions, are very popular among car theives. Lets face it, they are easy to get in to, easy to hotwire, and easy to drive off just like the camry, the most stolen car in america several years running. Only, mustangs have incredible aftermarket value and are worth more when parted out. I know, that in austin, there is actually a club that is devoted to stealing 5.0's. I imagine any other fairly large city has such a community, at least to some degree.

So we're at a double disadvantage. They're 10 year old fords and they're hot cars.

Personally, I feel that alarms are not useless at all. If nothing else, the alarm will give the theif a sense of urgency, which in at least a few cases will prompt the theif to leave the car as it sits. That alone is worth the cost.

As far as all the clever homemade remedies mention go, they're great, the only problem is, the theif figured them all out way before you did. Hell, it is his profession after all. It may take all of 1 minute to press all the buttons in your car, and if one of them happens to be the kill switch, he wins.

In my opinion, an effective homemade remedy would involve something that makes the theif think he's gotten the car, when in fact the device kicks in after he's driven a block or so. For instance:

On his 80something supra, my dad had a switch, that had to be pressed after the car was started. If the switch was not pressed, the engine would start and the car would go. 30 seconds and half a block down the street later, the fuel pump would shut off and the theif would then conclude that he stole a POS. (especially effective on 80's model supras)

my $ .02

[todd95GT]

A high balcony about 300 yards from your car, night vision goggles, and a Remington 700 .308. Just be careful because the rifle round will go right through the thief, through your car door, and lodge in someone's house behind your car. Oh but what a good time would be had by all!

Here's my simple opinion from a law enforcement perspective. This, of course, is solely my own personal opinion and I can only speak from my experiences as a resident of South Florida. There aren't many cars that are stolen for the sake of shipping them overseas or chopping up as much as we like to think or precious 'stangs are THAT valuable. Here, the popular rides are Saturns, Camrys, and Corollas. Why? You can open and start the things with a pair of scissors. Even though the devices such as The Club, etc. are very easy to get around as Chris accurately mentioned, the common punk joyrider isn't going to go through the hassle of breaking it. Here in Palm Beach County, I would guesstimate that 90% of all auto thefts are young idiots that need transportation back to the city they live in. They typically steal one, dump it at their destination and then steal another one to get back.

I had an audible alarm on my 'stang and it was still burglarized. A glass break/impact sensor is highly regarded in my book. I did NOT have one at the time.

Though not a huge deterrent to a "good" car thief who can get in and take your ride in a very brief amount of time, park it as close to a light source as possible. If you own two cars, park it ridiculously close to your other one so that access to the driver's door isn't quick and probably not quiet either.

Without mentioning names, two highly regarded Mustang specialty shops here in Palm Beach County, Florida, both which have very good reputations for putting out some fast machines, have been involved in stealing parts from customer cars, operating chop shops, and goig as far as to copy keys to customer cars, stealing them after the owner takes it home, and dumping the car less the new parts they had recently installed.

Like everyone said though, those that are determined to take your ride will, in fact, take it. It's a sad fact, but it's very true. Lojack is a nice tool but very few police departments have the equipment. Even fewer patrol cars within those few departments are equipped with Lojack receivers. And by the time you realize your car is gone, and if you're lucky enough to have a police agency equipped with the receiver in your hometown, by the time it's found, it's already dumped and damaged.

Sorry for the long post. Just my humble opinion on theft protection.

[BilLster]

good insurance a friend works for a towtruck company and one of there guys stole over a dozen high priced cars without even knowing it a guy offered him cash the first time to Tow his car he locked the keys in later he offered him cash to tow friends cars as a gag so he told him not to tell anyone well the guy towed these cars to where the guy wanted for like $50.00 bucks a piece the only thing that stopped it was the cops pulled the tow truck driver over because the car he has towing was reported stolen he might still go to jail. but the moron only got like $600.00 bucks and was so stupid he didnt relize it.

[RPM427]

I have a friend that is really big into stereos and stereo competitions. He has had about $10,000 worth of stereo equipment stolen out of his car (2 break ins) off campus while at school. He has always had an expensive alarm on it (I think its from audiovox, that pages him and will tell him what door is open and if the windows have been broken, etc) . That didn't seem to help him cuase the assholes would have loaded the stereo into thier car and driven away by the time we got to his car. He got sick of this and mounted a few piezo sirens in the car. I have heard these go off standing accross the parking lot and had to cover my ears and turn away. If the alarm senses a window break or a door/trunck/hood opening while the alarm is armed, it will set these things off. The manufacterer claims that the sound (if you are in the car trying to steal something) will make you VERY disoriented and make you want to throw up. It is impossible for someone to be with in 10 feet of the car for more then a few seconds, let alone in it triing to steal the stereo. he has had his car broken into but nothing was stolen.