The Official EF Security Thread | Read Disclaimer.

[doublethink]

****DISCLAIMER:**** Thieves read forums. NEVER POST YOUR OWN PERSONAL SECURITY SETUP. Even if you think you're just helping someone out. You are putting yourself at a great risk. DO NOT POST HOW TO BREAK INTO CARS. ^^^^After I have a mod delete your post all of us at honda-tech will beat you with hammers!. The Shame!!! If someone PM's you asking how to do it, (they'll usually have some bullshit story about locking themselves out) tell them to come to your house and you'll show them in person, then violently kill them with a blunt object. ------------------------------------------ Purpose: The reason I am writing this is because it makes me sad to see "Car Stolen" threads in here. I install professionally for a living, and I wanted to share some tips that can help make your EF harder to steal. I feel bad for guys who buy a simple alarm and feel its enough. It isn't. Trust me. Please keep in mind IMPROVISE on what you read here. Come up with your own ideas and make your setup unique. To catch some piece of shit in the act every second counts. ------------------------------------------ Without further ado: Section A: Physical Deterrents are the most effective way to stop a theif from taking the whole car. 1) Myth #1: "Tints will hide what I have." One common mistake people make is to leaves things out in plain sight. Just don't do it. No Ipods. No exposed guages. Remove the face of any radio. If you must have amps and a sub, HIDE IT WELL. TINTS DO NOT HIDE ANYTHING. Any person with a flashlight can see through any darkness of tint, so don't be foolish. Also, once you have dark ass tints, thats going to DRAW attention to your vehicle, which is often the opposite affect people think it will have. 2) Myth #2: "The car comes with an OEM steering wheel lock, that'll be enough." The factory honda shift lock can be broken by a big enough dude, sorry if this freaks some of you out, but its common knowledge, so don't rely on it alone. Get a steering wheel cover and a matching club. The club alone is easily removed by chopping off 2 sections of the steering wheel. The additional wheel cover stops this from being possible. Also don't forget you can get a completley removable steering wheel, if you dont mind carrying it. 3)Manual tranny: If you have a manual transmission, get a very thick clutch lock. Most of these are usually sold as "brake pedal locks" but don't bother putting this on the break pedal. I'm not going to elaborate why, but just block off the clutch with it instead. 4)Auto Tranny: If you have an automatic, get a shift lock. It bolts to the floorboards and prevents the shifter from being moved unless you unlock it. I have even seen places in NYC that weld them in for people. Pretty cool idea if you ask me. 5) Disable/Unhook the trunk release handle. Just use the key to open it from now on. The vunerability is not worth the convinience. 6) Window Warning. ALWAYS make sure your manual windows are FULLY raised, almost to the point the handle feels like its going to snap. Trust me on this one. Hatchback owners, dont forget your little vents in the back, close and lock them! 7) Myth #3 "My car looks like asshole, has tons of rust, but it runs mid 12's. No one will steal it because no one knows." This one is for you guys with sleepers and a TON of $$$ under the hood: Get Hood Locks and follow the tips below about alarms. You might say "expletive that its an eye sore" but if ONE shady person figures out what your running, its over. Think about it, can you tell the difference between a d15b1 or a worked b-series from laying under the car? So can they. 8) CHEAP and/or FREE: I worked with a kid who was very poor, but had an LS swap in his sedan. He couldnt afford any sort of alarm, so he took his ECU in the house with him every nite. It might seem a little annoying, but its effective. Another pretty ghetto one I saw mentioned once before was to put male and female connectors on the wires going to the under hood fusepanel, and take that in everynite. Tedious? Yes. Cost? Free. Effective? You bet your ass. You can also remove the alternator fuse and the car will only crank, thats another free one that will slow down a would be theif. 9) Kill Switches: You'll often hear honda guys talking about kill switches. Simply put, you cut the positive wire to your fuel pump, put a switch on it, and hide this switch in the car where only you can find it. PLEASE make sure the switch you use is rated to handle at least 10 amps of current, 20 would be even better. Make sure the back of the switch is taped up well so it doesnt touch the chassis of the car, which will blow a fuse or short the pump.... These are pretty effective but don't go too crazy with them because its very annoying when you get stuck someplace and the fuel pump won't prime. Originally Posted by FIREANT 10) Garage Fantastic security measure for keeping the car out of sight. A persistent thief can open a garage, so if you are out of town leaving your baby in the garage, take some additional measures for securing your car inside it (hell, take the wheels off and bring your lug nuts on vacation with you), and let your trusted neighbors know to call the cops if there is suspicious activity. 11) Blocking Park the baby facing a wall-- park another vehicle directly behind it. Be creative. It helps if the other car is newer and has chips (transponders) in the keys that make them hard to steal. Beware I have heard stories of thieves cutting branke lines and pushing other vehicles out of the way. I know it sounds insane, but there are some real ***got rambos out there. 12) City Parking Pay a few dollars for an enclosed parking garage that has gates/attendants...not perfect, but much better than the outdoor "anonymous drop-box" parking under bridges and on the edge of downtown areas. 13) Theaters, Malls and Sporting Events Avoid parking your baby at these places at all costs, if possible. 14) Myth #4 "People at meets/events are trustworthy." While meet-ups with friends can be fun, the huge meets are like window shopping for theives. They dont steal your car at the meet, but they take your license tag and note your mods for later reference...its the first step in casing you. We all want to think people are as honest and considerate as ourselves, but even pretty girls can be up to something. If you go to meets, be aware of this factor, dont ever flaunt your stuff to strangers, and never show your kill switches or other security measures to a stranger. Thanks to SECURITY for this link: 15) DIY Dead Bolt Door Locks Originally Posted by 94CivicSi The remote door locking kit came from JC Whitney. It's designed for cars that don't have power locks. Came with 2 actuators, 2 remotes, the "brain" and all the hardware you need. Cost was $69.95. The steel rod is available at any hardware story. Just drill a small hole in the end to connect the actuator to the rod. The threaded tube from the "Lamp" section of the hardware store. Just find the right ID to be able to slide the steel rod into it. I found the large nuts in the same parts bin, there's one on the inside of the door and one on the outside (visible in photo). Be sure to threadlock these. 1) remove the inside door panel and carefully pull back the plastic. 2) Drill a hole in the door, the proper size for the thread tube. Install the tube and nuts. 2) After cutting steel rod to the proper length, I just dabbed a little paint on the end of it, closed the door, and fed it into the steel tube (from inside the door) until it touched the door frame. The paint on the end showed me where to drill on the door frame. 3) Install actuator and connect it to the steel rod. The kit came with some rods about the diameter of a coat hanger to make the connection. The tough part was just lining everything up correctly. Mae sure you test it before you button it all up and make sure that the rod slides smoothly in both directions and that it doesn't catch on the door frame. 4) As for the "emergency release", I just used a piece of picture hanging wire and connected it to the steel rod where it meets the actuator. From there, I routed it through the door to a place that's hidden, but accessible if necessary. Now if the battery dies or the actuator fails, just pull the wire and the deadbolt opens. It'll be up to you to decide where to route it to. Here is the deadbolt unlocked: Here is the deadbolt locked: Here is the hole in the door frame that the deadbolt slides into when the door is closed: The one thing I won't reveal here is my "emergency" method for getting in. If the battery went dead or the actuator failed, I needed a way to still slide the bold out of the door frame. You guys can develop your own methods, just think "wire". Think "fuel door release" for inspiration. It's simple, but it's a good, effective system to prevent break ins. If anyone's interested, I can post a parts list and where the stuff came from. Total costs, maybe $75 and $70 of the was the remote locking kit. Section B: So you want an Alarm eh? 1) Buy quality alarms!! Stay away from whitebox shit on ebay. I can't stress this enough. The cheap shit is often missing really useful/important features, and many are a total BITCH to program the features once you get it installed. The DirectEd family of products is the largest distributor of alarms in the world, and for good reason. Lifetime warranty that they DO stand behind. Reliability and ease of programming make this a no brainer. Sorry to sound like a commercial and shit but I've been installing these things for 5 years now. I've seen the rest, these are the best, hands down. http://www.directed.com/security/default.asp 2) Power Locks Install power lock actuators inside the doors, that are only controlled by your alarm. pssst hint hint: WES V's install is clean and pictures: http://www.performanceforum.co....html ****These NEXT two suggestions are great but OPTIONAL, see note below: 3) No Key Handles Get rear EF Sedan door handles, without key entry points in them. They are identical for Hatch and CRX, just no key slot. 4) Unhook the interior lock switches as well. Set your alarm for "Ignition Controlled Locks" so when you turn on your car with the key, the doors will lock. When you arrive at your destination and shut off the car the alarm will unlock them for you too. ****note: If you do these 2 mods you are making your car very hard to enter without smashing glass, which a very good thing, BUT if your battery dies you must crawl through the hatch to enter the car, since thats your only manual entry point. Please keep this in mind I don't want to get flamed for this. 4) Passive Arming Make sure your alarm is set to "Passive Arming". You may be saying, ok what the hell does that man? Passive arming means once all zones (doors and hood) are closed, after 30 seconds it will arm and lock for you. So theres no chance you could forget. If you were, lets say too distracted by some girls ass in the parking lot, etc. 5) Install a Battery Backup. (DEI Part number: 520T) This little guy is like a battery JUST for your alarm. Disconnecting the main battery does not stop the alarm from sounding. You need to hide this very well, as its going to be the only thing keeping your alarm sounding if the theif is under your hood. Also it helps to relocate your main battery inside the car. Sedan guys you weirdos can use the trunk 6) Trunk/Hood Pins Hook these up always. Grey is hoodpin, solid dark blue is trunk pin. Basically anything that can open without the dome light going on must be connected to your alarm so it knows when something is being messed with. 7) Get creative with sirens! One thing I often do is "Disable Confirmation Chirps" which means when you hit lock/unlock the alarm makes no noise. Why you may ask? I then mount AN ADDITIONAL large siren under each seat. Now the son of a bitch in the car with the alarm on stuggles to disable it with bleeding eardrums. Story Time! I'll give you guys a for instance to illustrate: Theif (aka f*ckhead ninja) thinks hes hot stuff and the first nite he "cases the car" and trys to gain entry via the door/window. But as explained above, theres no way in hell hes doing that short of smashing my window. So lets say the second atempt a week later, he prys my hood open. The hoodpin triggers my alarm, as well as the shock sensor from the vibration. Since its a 2-Way paging system the remote is now going off on my hip if I'm within about a mile of the car. Meanwhile he frantically trys to get the car to shut up, and cuts the main battery cable. Still screaming. Plan B, cut the underhood siren and air horns. Still screaming. At this point a seasoned theif knows hes beat and will run. Any idiot who continues the bullshit finds himself on the wrong end of something that goes boom..... and I calmly break out my "self defense" story to the police. 8) Alarm Placement..... Behind the glovebox is a decent spot, basically anywhere BUT under the steering wheel is good. Unless its WAY WAY UP behind the cluster, basically if you have ever stripped an EF of its dash you can probably already think of a few great spots, I'm not going to list them all. Anywhere inside the car is fair game, make sure it stays dry, alarm brains cannot handle the elements. 9) Don't leave them a trace path!!! When you extend your wires AND make your connections to the ignition harness Follow Factory Routing and Loom. Reloom everything you do under there. Which ties in with point 10. 10) LAYER UPON LAYERS OF TAPE. By the time you re-loom everything and then begin taping it all up, you should go though a whole roll making layers around any connections made and your extentions. Your goal here is to make it as tedious as possible. Each annoying thing you throw in the way ups the chances of the person panicing or running. This is the ultimate goal, since you're following rule #1, which is leave nothing of value behind, his only option is to get the whole car. You can also use lawn edging or similar plastic to wrap your wiring. Nissians do this OEM from the factory and it really makes getting at the wires a pain in the ass. Then of course tape the hell out of it over that plastic coating. 11) Multiple Alarms I have sometimes read guys saying they actually use more then one alarm. This seems a bit overkill me, but honestly, its your investment. You must do whatever you can to protect it. 12) Flatbed... I forgot this in the original draft of this FAQ this one is very important. Some thieves use tow trucks or flat beds to steal cars. Your best defense against this is to follow everything that you see here, properly adjust your alarms default shock sensor, and add a clifford Digital Tilt Sensor: Originally Posted by clifford.com Detects even minor lifting or rolling of the vehicle without any of the false alarms common to all other tilt and motion sensors. A must for vehicles with upgraded wheels and tires. Automatically self-adjusting. Motion sensors like the DEI 500T can detect changes in vehicle pitch as well: (just FYI these are bitch to setup, but they really do work) Unfortunatley, as you may have already figured out, they might drive off with the car still making noise. This SUCKS because even the best setup security system cant fight against that.... or can it? that leads me to point 13..... 13) Important info about LoJack and other Tracking Technologies Originally Posted by Wes V 1. "GPS" in it's self is a receiving unit only!!! Think about those GPS units you can pick up for camping. The unit receives signals from a couple satelites and computes your location. If you mount the unit in your car, then the car knows where it is. However unless your car has a method of getting that information to you, it's of no use!! On a system that uses GPS data, the car normally has to use a cell phone line to transmit the information. 2. Any system that counts on the police "activating" it shouldn't be used due to the fact that you have to wait for the police to have the time and interest in looking for your car. With LoJack, you have to go to a police station and file a written report of the car being stolen before they will do anything. Think about how much time that alone will take! 3. When shopping for any "tracking" system, find out what the process is for you to get the location or status of your car. In other words, if your cars alarm (assume it's silent) goes off, does your car contact the monitoring company and they in turn contact you. How does the monitoring company contact you? If you want the monitoring company to track your car, do you have to go on the web to get the location or can you just call them and give an ID number. If the monitoring company gets a signal that your car is stolen, will they contact the police if they can't contact you? 4. Do you want a monitoring company to be able to shut down the car? Personally, I'd say NO. 14) Vacations Keep in mind if you go on vacation everything is on high alert. I often give one of my remotes to a trusted neighbor so he can disable the alarm in the event of a false trigger, since mine are usually really loud and I don't like getting tickets due to disgruntled people. Be respectful with your car and then when the alarm is going off for real you have a better chance of someone seeing the crime. 15) Mystery Tips!! A user from another forum who wishes to remain anonymous sent me links on some of his tricks which are very good. Feel free to check out these links. Very Clean Latching Fuel Cut Relay: http://www.performanceforum.com/bob/bob5/bob5.html Awesome Hidden Magnet Trick: http://www.performanceforum.com/bob/bob6/bob6.html And the main page with some general alarm info: http://www.performanceforum.com/bob/ ------------------------------------------------------------ These are only suggestions, just trying to help the HT community. These suggestions can really be used on any car, not just EF's. In closing, stay on topic, share ideas if you wish, but don't trust anyone. And don't disclose your setup here, its just not a good idea. ------------doublethink <---- hates thieves. . . . . . Modified by doublethink at 11:47 PM 3/13/2006

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[nostreble]

good stuff!

[WolfGod]

indeed, a very good read

[Smokinsax]

exactly what I was looking for!

[143MYVTECEF]

sweet! i got a lot of good ideas

[Stefndogg]

this should be a stickey what with all the ef's getting jacked on ht...great info

[beyondspexj]

post a link to this in the faq thread uptop!!

[Ak_ef9]

Vote for Sticky!

[Speed--Freak]

I vote for Prez....and a sticky too!!

[Twilight]

Good topic indeed.

For myself, i installed a high quality alarm, central locking and new door handles. Works great. Only once i had to go inside from the hatch.

And that was fully my fault, i washed the car and didint let it dry at all. I live in Finland and we do have artic weathers here. So it was -13fareinheit and i leaved it alone in the cold parking space. When i get back into my car at morning, the locks were frozen up. I'll never do it again.

[purplecrx]

Thanks for the write up. I learned a lot. STICKY!!

[civhatch90]

great stuff

[CRX Toad]

Originally Posted by purplecrx

Thanks for the write up. I learned a lot. STICKY!!

[MDN]

Good write up!

[drdisco69]

Originally Posted by CRX Toad

[ludesrv]

Having a peice of metal welded over your door handle prevents window insertion out the locks. I've done it to mine, ruins the paint on the outside, but I'd rather repaint a door then replace a car.

Now. Having 3-4 kill switches is key. Having one for the fuel pump, the battery, and the starter. Judging by where you are and how long you are going to leave, you activate 2-3 of them. Or all of them.

Both my cars have fuel pump cuts, my EF civic has a battery cut (relocated battery to the rear) and I will be extending the starter wires to the inside of the car to be able to cut the juice to the starter, if the car doesn't turns over, thats a bitch to take.

[92 si hatch]

Thanks I've been talking w/ the wifey about putting an alarm on mine. What would you suggest for sesitivity of the alarm. I used to live in vegas and have seen cars that when the wind blew hard it would set off the alarm.

[EJ1 wilcox]

Thanks for the write up!

I need to get on some of these security measures, I just barely finished and started driving my project EF... now it's time for some security measures.

I dunno though. I guess I have to determine at what point it is worth it to go through all the hassle. I mean, I park my car in my garage at night and during the day it sits out in front of my office where I can see it. Plus, I only have a total of about $2500 into it right now, and I have full coverage if it gets stolen.

I guess it will become more important as I put more money into it.

[Crimson_Tide]

good write up!! i vote for a sticky

if i catch a theif, hes getting a slug in one of his knees... not only will it immobolize him and give me a chance to beat his ass, but itll f*ck up his knee so bad he'll have knee problems the rest of his life
-Josh

[HAPRECYCLING]

you should just unplug your main relay!

[puffine]

sick write up. someone sticky this shit!

[Ass$nyper]

Sadly this is a very important sticky. I'm glad someone did this for us.

[Honda Crx]

Great topic!! I actually read it all.

[dohc_profile]

awesome....def something i shou8ld know all about. thanks

[pr3d]

wow..sheds light on a lot of known issues...good stuff thanks...