I've been thinking over this idea for the past few days. Is the LED/light more helpful or harmful in the concept of security? I understand there is a risk/reward relation to theives, and while the light shows the risk, our cars offer the reward. Now a days any car that has a security system most likely has some sort of light indicating the car has an armed system. Some are dim red lights flashing in the dash, and some are the bright blue LED of the Viper system I've seen in a buddies car from a pretty good distance.

My question comes in the meaning of that light to thieves. Do they see it as a deterrent and a reason to avoid the car because it will be that much tougher/challenging to get away with the goods safely. Or do they see it as a reason to consider the car more for a heist because the owner felt he needs to protect the vehicle more.

The viper system my buddy has, has that bright blue light that can be seen from a very good distance away, it almost draws your eye to it at night. This made me think more and more into the psychology of a thief, their eyes and thoughts have already been brought to the car, so in their casing on the car that has already presented itself to them. like "HEY! ME OVER HERE WITH THE SHINY BLUE LIGHT" after they see it they think "oh integra, those usually have some good stuff" but now again comes the question, is it a deterrent or an enabler? Also this light is bright enough to give away some of the visuals inside the car, like whats where, the thief can basically see in side the car where the light shines, so even if its left up it would need to be dimmed a little bit.

I'm looking for the opinions of the community and their thoughts on the idea. So please chime in, especially if you have a shady history in the car "business" or are a professional installer, because to beat a thief you have to put yourself in their shoes and think how they would. We have all read the 90 minutes to protect the teg thread, and all have installed layers to slow down a thief, but I haven't seen the discussion of the mentality of the thief, thats also a layer.

If you can get in their heads, thats another "layer" in your security setup. If you cover up the light and they decide to hit your car not knowing that car has a system it goes off and they didn't expect it, now they panic and have to re evaluate, for the non-pro thief the mentality is "oh **** I wasn't ready for this" and they hopefully run leaving the car un touched, while the professional thief adds about 30 seconds to his time on the car determining how to kill the alarm and or wether he should leave or not. I understand if they want your car bad enough they will get it, and this is only good for a thief's first encounter with the car. if they come back again, they know its there and will have added that in to the breaching plan.

With these two ideas I've come up with two solutions which both have their pros and cons

1) Leave the light visible.
Pros- the thief knows what they're getting them selves into, and have to think about how much of a threat the alarm will pose to their success or failure. it will also potentially save any damage from the thief because the alarm might turn them away.
Con- The thief knows about the alarm and create a game plan before he touches the car negating his need to think on the fly in dealing with the alarm. The thief can also see the visible contents of the car and anything left out in plain sight.

2) Cover the light
Pros- The thief doesn't know about the alarm until it has been set off, he now has to deal with the screaming alarm and think wether or not he wants to stick around and attempt to disable it. It creates the surprise effect which might scare him away because the thief wasn't factoring in an alarm
Cons- The thief might feel more comfortable with a more forceable entry which creates damage to be covered by the owner.


I'm stepping up my security game and I'm gonna get a system soon so I'm looking for HT's opinion on this topic, so please toss your hat in the ring so I and any other member looking for some guidance can pull from a large base of opinions.

 

First of all, I don't think you truly understand the concept of having a security system on a car. It is there to deter thieves as well as keep the car from being stolen. Yes, there are numerous shops/individuals that do halfass install jobs and the alarm module along with other components are EASILY detected. This is the case because of two major things: laziness and pricing. These installers don't care to hide the components because they feel it will take much longer to keep it out of reach so they usually just wire it all up and stash it under the dash. Just take a look and everything is there in plain sight. And most likely, the car owner doesn't want to pay for a stealth alarm because the installer will charge more to hide the components/wiring. Installations with closed end cap and butt connectors is a DEAD GIVEAWAY that there's an alarm system on the car.

For my installs, I purposely make sure the LED is visible as you walk up to the car. Some would-be thieves are intimidated by it and will not bother dealing with the attention of the siren and lights going off once the car is tampered with. And of course, there are those professional thieves who will try to take the car no matter what. You just have to make sure the siren is well hidden somewhere in the engine bay, all alarm components are not visible, and add as much layer of other security methods as possible. All the cars I have installed an alarm setup on, have NEVER been stolen. Yes, some have been vandalized and theft has been attempted on them, but they are still with their rightfull owners. You just have to know what your're doing.

As for the "bright" LED lights attracting attention, that's not really the case IMHO. If you are driving a modified Honda/Acura, that itself is a bull's eye target. Aftermaket exterior parts, wheels, etc will definitely attract thieves more than a flashing LED alarm light. The sad part about a lot of people (who drive Hondas/Acuras) is that they care more about buying all these fancy parts for their cars but skimp out on a stealth alarm. They seem to have the "it won't happen to me" mentality. Car thefts can happen anywhere, not just a parking lot. Thieves don't care if there's a child seat in the back or if the car is in a nice neighborhood. Their mindset is taking the car for their own personal gain. Better make sure the car is protected before doing any mods to the car. And yes, stock cars are stolen as well.....for their parts.

 

Agreed.

My LED is front-and-center on the top front of the dash on that little panel that covers the center dash bolt. You can see the bright blue LED from 360 degrees around the vehicle, and it's bright as heck. And this is just where it begins.

 

I've never installed an LED in any of my stealth installs. To each their own. You can go either way, for me, I'd rather the thief not know an alarm is installed - surprise.

An LED is only a deterrent for amateur thieves; professional thieves could care less, it just let's them plan accordingly.

 

That's one of my reasons to have one visible....so dumbass wannabe thieves don't bother messing with the car.

 

Better to have the LED, the "pro" who could care less will test to see if there is an alarm anyway, LED or not, so not having one leads to higher risk.

A few years back we did 30+ cars for an old folks home, constant break-ins in an underground garage.

We installed a flashing LED in the cars, no alarm, the break-ins stopped, yes LEDs are a deterrent. 94

 

Ditto, same location. It's a good un. I'd add extra wire to the LED so it's miles away from where the brain is.

+1 And if you're worried about the LED giving the game away on what alarm you have, then get a different coloured one from ebay or wherever and use that in place of stock, so if stock it's blue get a red one and vice versa or go weird and put in a green one. Of course it goes without saying(IMHO) you never put a sticker in the window advertising what alarm you have. The flashing LED ones from Clifford and Viper are even dafter, again IMH.


Not as extensive an experience but a cheap arsed mate of mine installed an LED no alarm and the car was left alone.