Koko4

I am about to travel cross-country, from GA to CA, in my 97 Civic. Today I went and bought one of these:



Now I know if the thieves really want to get past it, they can; but more than likely, they will just move on to an easier target.

I think it will be a good deterrent for would-be thieves, but I've heard that our generation of Civics are among the most stolen cars in the US. I will be camping in national recreation areas and parks for a good bit of the time as well, as we do not have the funds to be staying in hotels every night..

Aside from buying the Club, keeping all of my valuables hidden in the trunk or glove box, keeping my windows all the way up, and not parking in isolated nooks/corners, is there anything else that I can do to help my car from becoming stolen while I'm out there? I'm kind of worried because we will obviously be somewhat living out of the car, and would be totally screwed if it were stolen at any point in the trip. I'm not looking to install an alarm or anything like that - just wondering if there is anything relatively simple or obvious that I am forgetting (for example: I hadn't even thought about the Club until about a week ago =/)

EsotericImage

iTrader: (8)

the club is a joke, get a refund. they can just cut thru the steering wheel in 30 seconds.nothing can stop a tow truck..

You can pull the ECU from the kick panel and/or dis connect main harness under hood near the clutch reservoir.

jbpnoman

Buy a good, two way alarm system and install it.

mikekh10a

iTrader: (2)

install some kill switches, possibly 1 for your main relay, the other for your fuel pump. easy, will take less than 2 hours to do both.

though a tow truck can tow it and screw you over regardless,
if you're just worried about the run of the mill guys, if they can't start your car in a few minutes they will move on.
if you want to use the club go ahead, you could also get a clutch lock.. the key is to have lots of layers.

stowne78

If you don't want to get an alarm, then get 4 deep cycle 12V batteries, put them in your trunk, hook them up in series and run the cumulative positive and negative 1/0 wires to a 500:1 DC transformer. Run the secondary 10AWG wires to two thick copper or aluminum plates on the back side of your steering wheel, one on either side. Make sure to put in a kill switch next to your steering wheel that is hidden.

When that theiving bastard breaks in and grabs your steering wheel he will be electrocuted with 24,000 volts and essentially your car and hopefully the theiving bastard will be there in the morning when you get back.

EsotericImage

iTrader: (8)

^^
Lulz for originality!

Emeraldbomber

Holy **** that was awesome

jbpnoman

/notlegaladvice

B_Swapped93

That's as bad as the guy who made a thread about putting car batterys in his hatch and having the thing being given constant electricity.....then it was pointed out that door handles were plastic thus non-conductive.

jbpnoman

I was the one who pointed out the plastic. I also pointed out the fact that the body is used for ground, and that idea would basically fry his entire car as soon as he hooked it up.

hachiebang

What about parking front in into a spot that has a curb since your car is a fwd? I heard that works against tow drivers to slow them down at least.

jbpnoman

Not really. Takes 5 minutes to put the front wheels on dollies, or 1 minute to get into the car and put it in neutral. Parking into a curb doesn't do anything.

Koko4

Are there really a bunch of thieves in tow trucks, constantly driving around snatching up cars, though? I'd think the more likely threat would be people just seeing the opportunity and taking it. I'm strongly considering the main relay kill switch, but I'd have to go to Pull-a-Part to cut up the harness in case I ever wanted to reverse it back to stock. Thank you guys for the suggestions, especially the idea with the 4 12v batteries. That'd take the cake, if my Honda's trunk space wasn't going to be so occupied to begin with! Haha

jbpnoman

You'd be surprised.

Just go drop a couple bills on a good security system with a two way pager, tilt, window, and ignition sensors, have it professionally installed somewhere that ISN'T Best Buy, and call it a day.

B_Swapped93

lojack pretty good from what've heard

jbpnoman

LoJack only works in localities that have the equipment to find it. That's generally restricted to major cities and the surrounding areas.

B_Swapped93

True^

was more thinking of just a generally good alarm system to have if you live in a city/big town, but yes it would be near useless "out in the sticks". if it's stock/stock looking then you'll be far better of then if you were traveling in a Type R or Si. imo you'll probably be fine pic of said car tho ??

stowne78

Lol don't tell anyone.

The security system I have has an option to plug in a GPS tracking device....if my car wasn't always garaged probably something I would've added. The brand is Compustar.

jbpnoman

Not telling anyone doesn't stop you from catching a charge when someone tries to steal your car.

JDM_EK99

i live in california and have had a car taken from me all you need is an alarm and a kill switch park it in a garage if you can if not try to park in like a drive way and have someone park behind you if you do that they wont even bother with it by the way which part of cali are you coming to ?

gzes

You can get a boot and boot the front wheel. You can chain it to another car where it is not noticeable and yu can park cars around it one behind one on each side and parked up to something. Yu can pull the wheels off at night and store them inside

Fnix

iTrader: (1)

Was thinking of going to a place and having them install kill switches. Does it only take 2 hours for a fuel pump/main relay kill switch install from someone who knows what they are doing?

jbpnoman

Hell, I could install a fuel pump kill switch in 10 minutes...If it takes them 2 hours, they'd better be tucking the everliving **** out of those wires.

NVturbo

stealth 2-way alarm, hidden kill switches, and COMMON SENSE. You should've had the first two already on the car the day after you bought it.

street93eg

Just put some stock rusty steelie rims on and some random plasticoat colors all over the car and throw a tape deck in just for kicks. When you get home just peel off the plasticoat.

Or just slap a daewoo logo on your car...