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.