As many of you know I do a lot of rebuilding of Theft-recovered hondas and tegs...I was putting in new ignition switch into a civic last week when an idea popped into my head that I thought I should share....

civics and tegs all use the same ignition switch setup. and the great majority of the ones I get are all broken apert in the same exact way by the thieves to take you prized mobiles. the electrical switch that actually starts the car is bolted to the mechanical switch on the opposite end as your keyhole...what they do is rip the cover off the column, unscrew the electrical switch and turn it to start the car...then they just smash the actual locked switch off the column to free the steering lock, etc...

so my idea as I was replacing the switch was to use some super strong loc-tight on the screws that hold the electrical switch to the mechanical switch...this way your typical theife cannot get it undone w/o some serious tools and time...and chances are slim he will have either. but if the slim chance ever arrose that you had to replace the swich for maintence reasons you could still get it undone in a shop environment.

sure it won't stop the well trained professional thief who is out collecting r's, but it will stop 99% of the crack head typical car thiefs out there...or atleast slow them down a whole hell of a lot.

just thought I'd share.

dave w

 

Nice tip. But nothing works better than a secluded, locked garage with your moms Lumina blocking the garage door

 

Sounds like a good idea.
How do you take the cover off the column?

 

the top just pops off (with some force ), and the bottom half is screwed in with 3 screws.

dave - when i was on vacation in june, we came back to our hotel to find 3 sketchy-looking guys eyeing my car the second night we were there. so i tried to come up with a way to inhibit the car from starting . . . i ended up pulling the ignition fuse from the fusebox under the hood, and that definitely worked! i had to re-input the code for the radio every morning, but it was worth it.

my $0.02. unfortunately this cuts power to pretty much everything in the car, so having a remote 'ignition fuse switch' would pretty much be impossible, unless it had a separate power source.

oh, and dave - the thermal is off my car now, it was so friggin' loud after i installed the JDM 4-1 header and 2.5" carsound cat. i put an SMSP 2.5" adapter on my stock exhaust, and it's too quiet now! i need to find a nice axle-back now . . . maybe the 5zigen fireball? is that loud?


[Modified by R1020, 3:43 PM 8/27/2001]

 

Fireball axle-back = nice tone, but quiet.

 

Does anyone make a steel column cover? You know the ones that lock, cover the whole column and are a bitch to get off? I know they make them for some domestics but I don't know how well they work. Seems like there would be a high demand for one that fit a G3 teg.

 

h-pimp -

it is quiet? i want something with nice tone, and a bit more aggressive than stock. and good fitment is a must!

 

That's good info, but also realize that you just told everyone how to steal cars...

Never tell your secrets publicly. You never know who is reading...


[Modified by FBP_1171, 1:14 PM 8/27/2001]

 

Slightly louder than stock (not much) and the fitment is OE ****** M!!! I've never seen a better fitting aftermarket muffler.

 

h-pimp: excellent! is it fully s/s?

and FBP, i guess i wasn't really telling them how to 'steal' them, more how to protect. it's a bit more sophisticated than i lead on, just check it out for yourself and you'll see what i mean.

 

The canister is, but the piping is aluminized (but very nice). My friends with hybrids tell me I got ripped off because it's so quiet. I just laugh at them and their MONSTER DUNK racket cans! APEXi muff's are nice but the fitment leaves a lot to be desired. And I'm not bashing either, cuz I've owned a Dunk 115 and WS and they both got SOLD!

 

sweet. yes, i'm looking for OEM fitment, a quiet yet aggressive sound, and s/s. coming from a thermal, anything will be quiet!

thanks for the info, h-pimp!

 

well there is a whole lot more to stealing cars then what I disclosed and nothing I said can't be learned on the streets or in a shop manual...

dw

 

FBP: Come on now, I've never stolen a single car in my life (never had the desire to either) but I could have told you how. These things are secrets, and that method is by far the most commonly used that I've seen.

Plus, like he said, ITRs are generally stolen by people how are out looking for them specifically, a lot of them are towed away so these steps wouldn't have helped anyways.

 

Not picking on anyone, just saying there are a lot of questionable people out there who don't need any encoraging... Just the nature of a paranoid R owner. I know that is not ALL it takes to steal a car, but as I said don't give those who are of less moral character insight into things they would not have otherwise known. They don't all have the common sense to go read a book. Not all criminals are smart, otherwise they wouldn't be criminals.

 

Good Tip, but why not get the powerlock?

 

Dave How about just drilling out the area where the head of the screws go(So when you try to put a screwdriver there its all just smooth metal the + part would look like an o ), I know I dont have any plans to unscrew those screws.

 

Powerlock is trash.