Hey guys, I just thought of something that may be able to save some cars. Sorry if its technically stupid or wont work for some reason. Just throwing out a thought and get some opinions.

I want to basically extend my ecu to my trunk, so when I go to the movies ect..., I can pull it out easily and shove it in my girls purse or carry it in a backpack.

I know that prepared thieves will carry a ecu w/ removed immobilizers, but hopefully this will defeat that since I will be using different plugs on it(pictured) THat way the only way to hook up an ecu is to splice each and every wire taking up their precious time. Plus I plan to use connectors that are modified so ONLY my connectors work.



The drawbacks that come to my mind:

1- MAYBE signals will get messed up since the wire is so long? (I dont know **** about electronics)

2 - Ecu resets every time

Throw in your opinions or anything I can do to make this work better. Thanks.

 

waste of time... you'd actually be making it easier for thieves.

 

what if they just take your car with a flatbed?

 

Why would it make it easier to take if they cant plug in an ecu? Can you please explain?

Of couse they can use a flatbed, but this is just an additional layer to overcome for those without flatbeds.

 

put it in ur glove compartment so u can take it out easy

 

They can still gain access to the factory plugs in the pass. footwell, unless you are planning on cutting the factory harness and extending??

 

The factory plugs will be in the ecu when i take it out. Extending to the trunk to me would be easier to take out and less noticable. Plus I store all my crap in the glovebox

 

If the factory harness plugs are removed and you use some 3rd party ones (lots of wiring) then yes they'd have to have YOUR ECU to drive it.

Itd prevent them from driving, but not towing. Still a possible (although very time consuming) method of prevention.

 

Why post something about theft protection on the internet anyway? I know you are trying to help, but thieves lurk this and many other websites.

 

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Word

 

That's a good idea. Makes towing the only way they can steal your car. Foils the random theaft, ideal for going out etc, but if someone really wants your car they'll do some planning and flatbed it.

 

just get insurance and don't worry about it.

 

well thanks for the replys guys. Insurace cant replace certain things.

 

I used to know a dude who did this with an EG. He bought some plugs off of a guy who was making conversion harnesses and cut off his factory plugs. He then soldered up an ECU side plug to the chassis harness and made a subharness using two sets of chassis side plugs. He kept the ECU and the subharness in his backpack everywhere he went. I'd get an update from him but I haven't seen him in two years.

 

Im going to build it. I thought this would have gotten more positive responses being the ITR forum and all Ill let you guys know how it goes.

 

couple things..

if you had a cut off switch somewhere it would be just as effective at stopping theives. Without the cut, you cant start your car - without the ecu, you cant start your car. If a theif tries to tow - in both situations your car is gone.

If you extend the ecu to the back, you can also pick up noise in the signal, some of those wires also may not take well to being extended beyond their stock location. This is especially true if you have a stereo in the trunk, unless you are definetly away from power wires (which could potentially radiate ignition noise) then you might ask for trouble.

Above and beyond all that, assuming no error in your splice and resplice job - your still only taking out the ecu, the car is still there for the pickings.

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All the power to you -but- heres something I might think about:

1) Try using a cut of some sort, fuel, ignition - even your ecu, kill all the wires to the ecu if you wish, or just the main power.

2) spend the time layering your security instead of relying on one thing (ie, alarm, club, hood lock, backup siren ... anything)..

i'm just trying to get you more bang for your labour hours

-Shane

 

this has already been thought of, thieves can still take it. remember if someone wants it bad, they will get it one way or another

 

focus more on the making the car not able to roll, i think this would be more of a good idea to spend some time thinking about.

 

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nice drawing of R lol

 

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nice drawing of R lol</TD></TR></TABLE>

haha yea, your MS paint skills OWN!

 

u can always get a quick release steering wheel, that will stop ur random thieves, maybe not the prepared 1's but how many actually go that prepared?

 

i think it's a good idea, similar to the relays and bypasses i've seen. much more effective than a switch that's left in the car. pop the relay out, connection gone. a bit easier to carry around than the entire ecu too.

good stuff

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Lmaonade &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">put it in ur glove compartment so u can take it out easy</TD></TR></TABLE>

I would do this... plus, swap the positive and negative pins on the harness and inside your ECU (PITA) so that if anyone plugs another ECU in, other than yours, it gets fried

Yeah, just make something slightly different about the harness so that only your ECU would work. Or, I've seen and heard of kill switches put in such randomly cool places that no thief would find it (even I couldn't find it, after being told where it was!)

-Chris

 

no matter what you do to stop theifs.. they will still take it if they really wanted your car..

like the other guy said.. flatbed/towing car.. will do theif's job..

make sense?

 

I personally thing it's a good idea. Though I'm not too keen on the thought of puting it in the trunk. When extending the wires you run a very good chance of several things going wrong like:
1) Several places for the sheathing to rub off creating shorts
2) Wires being to long, lowering the signal strength going to and from the ECU
3) Having to get out of your car to plug in your ECU

I like Chris' suggestion on using the glove box. I would also go as far as using different plugs instead of all of one kind. Also, make sure where you cut the factory harness off of the wires down by the kick panel...when you go to extend the wires to whereever you decide make sure you solder everything. Personally I would use heat shrink and solder the wires.

If you DO do this install/conversion do a write up on it but make sure you keep the type of plugs you used out of the details