Shock sensor does absolutely nothing to protect rims even when used in conjunction with wheel locks. I'll tell you how I know. Several years ago before I got into this whole mess, I owned a Corolla with some Kosei K1 rims. The car had a Bulldog alarm installed by a "professional". The alarm went off anytime a loud truck or a ricer with a system drove by. And yet, thieves had no trouble stealing my rims and mangling my locking lug nuts using the method I described above without even chirping the alarm. They didn't cut the siren or battery. Later they came and finished off the car taking a custom installed AEM EMS, some gauges, my optima battery, and some other things.

Then I got this Civic. I knew already that these cars are pretty commonly ripped off, but owning a Toyota didn't protect me anyway. First thing I did was put an alarm on it myself. I wasn't satisfied with how the "professional" had put an alarm on my Corolla that did absolutely nothing. Infinitely paranoid, with the memory of getting ripped off as a constant motivator, I took on one project after another further enhancing the security on the car. Here I am today.

At first I thought I was pretty well protected, but the experience getting my rims ripped off kept nagging at me. I almost wished someone would try to steal my Rotas so I would know if they were safe or not. So what I did was put the driver's side front on a jack, arm the alarm, and attempt to steal my own rim. When you buy locking lug nuts, they come with enough for a 5 lug car. So I didn't mind mangling four of the locking lug nuts. My first try ever at ripping something off and I was able to do it without tripping the alarm. After a few tries, I got it without tripping a warning chirp. I tried it again, this time for the purpose of increasing the sensitivity on the shock sensor. Even then, sometimes it will ignore even a big thump on the wheel. With the sensor setting sensitive enough to protect the rims to my satisfaction, I was experiencing almost constant false alarms. I no longer use a shock sensor on my cars. This is how I became intimately familiar with motion/proximity sensors.

Please, replicate this experiment and let us know your results. My personal experience is not intended to take the place of fact. It's just something I use when giving advice.

Again, DEIs 508D sucks. Get the Crutchfield AU94T.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by suspendedHatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Again, DEIs 508D sucks. Get the Crutchfield AU94T.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I have not had much luck with the 508D myself

 

Usually shock sensors dont reach max sensitivity until 1-2min after the alarm has been armed. I had a lot of luck with the clifford omni sensor.