RiceRacist

Pulled this from another site

• ALWAYS use common sense. Don't 'bump' where you live, esp. if you live in an apartment
• If at all possible, avoid putting any stickers on your car (be it performance or audio) they just scream "steal me! steal me!"
• If you go to car shows/soundoffs, I suggest removing your license plate temporarily. This will at least make it hard for people to remember your car is packing what gear(s)
• Consider getting dark limo tint and car cover. Remember - out of sight, out of mind.
• when you go to a mall or a store, turn down your system at least 2 miles BEFORE you get there. When a thief hears you bumpin down the road, he will follow you till you park and jack your equipment when you leave. Anybody who's desperate for money will do ANYTHING to steal something.
• Please Please Please install an alarm. I know about 30 people who pack thousands of dollars worth of competition-grade Audio Equipments in their SPL vehicles and they don't even have a $100 car alarm How stupid can you be..
• 'modify' your car alarm.. It might be an overkill, but I'll install 10 additional siren around the car - two inside the hood, two underneath beside the cat, two in the trunk, and four in the cabin. Thieves don't have enough time to cut all those wires while they're blaring 130bD.
• I betcha right now I can guess where you all have your alarm brains.. they're under the dash. right? that thing can be disabled in less than 5 seconds! Don't be a fool, move that brain somewhere hidden. Mine has mixed wire colors and false wires all around, Not even a professional installer can unload it.
• modify your Kickpanels to hide the hood release latch under the dash. Mine is covering the whole thing so you will have to reach inside the kicks to pop the hood. One time I took it in for an oil change it took the guy about 10 minutes to figure out where the hood release is This is extremely important so that the thief can't disconnect your +12 source and disable your alarm.
• I can't emphasize enough how extremely important security screws are. These are oddly-shaped head screws that you can get from any hardware store. Nearly ALL thieves carry a flat screwdriver and/or phillips screwdriver all the time. A hex or square head screw will definately slow them down. If your amp is bolted to the amp rack like this, there's NO WAY they can take your equipment.. but make sure your amp rack is bolted as well.
• Ask your insurance provider if they can cover your equipment.
• Be careful on who you show your system to... remember that every person is a possible thief. Even people who post here.
• Don't leave anything "interesting" inside your car (cellphone, jewelry, heck even a quarter) this will only attract passerbys that can possibly lead to theft.
• make sure all your fuses are good and have the right rating. Moreover, make sure your equipments are FUSED. In worst case scenario, after an equipment is stolen, wirings short out literally putting the car on fire.

The next time you roll down the parking lot, remember to keep them bass down cause having a system is like having sex--- you'll never know when you're gonna get jacked


Additional Tip: For those of you with websites about your ride... BE CAREFUL! That website can easily turn into a 'shopping catalog' for a thief. Try not to list personal information on the site (ie what city you live in, what school you go to). If you have any pictures of your ride, always blot out the licence plate. Also, if you have your own domain name try to use a different mailing address then the one your car is located at (ie Use a PO Box). Remember that's public information and can easily be obtained by doing a "WhoIs" report (http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois).

ALSO-- Manual fuel cut off switches.....hey they cost a freakin dollar. Invest in them. Its a simple cut and splice between the fuel pump line and will **** the hell out of anyone attempting to move your car.

Speaking of the hood, Hiding the hood pop switch is a step in the right direction but will only stop petty kids who are just f'ing around in the game. The real vulnerabillity is in the line that connects the lever to the hood pop mechanism...in most cars these are routed throught the driver side fender. Pull the plastic molding back strip the insulation and get a plier to pull the wire inside and POP ....you have an open hood.
solutions? reroute the wire somewhere else or add additional lines to confuse.

The main point is no matter what you cannot stop someone from getting into your car. You can SLOW them but not totally stop. There are big holes in the side of the car covered with glass....i believe people call these windows. Since it is imposible you to stop someone from getting in one should focus on slowing them down as much as possible as well as preventing the moving/disabling of the car.

An expensive alarm won't do much for you. They are all the same with some added bells and whistles. All you really need is a starter kill, and dual stage siren....an expensive alpine alarm with LCD screens does not do anything if it can be yanked from under the dash.

BUY A PEDAL LOCK
[someone] has thought many hours about this and still have yet to figure a way around it. The infomercial is correct. That pedal is made of some hard freakin steel. And even if you could manage to break the pedal off youd have to sit with your *** facing either up or our of the car for a long period of time....not something smart to risk..

Record time sawing through a steering wheel....48 seconds.

I don't know if alarm stickers (such as "Protected by Viper", etc) is a good idea or not. Some say it's a good deterrent, some say it makes it easy for code scanners to 'unlock' your code. If somebody knows more about this issue, please shed some light...

Another security feature that you can get is Wheel Locks. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...39244 I don't know yet if it can be defeated, but it's worth a try.

LoJack is also a good investment. Although they run around $600 installed, you might get something in return from your insurance company just for having it. Also see 'peace of mind'

IMO, the *only* equipment that you cannot protect is your subwoofers. Whether you put a grille or not, if a thief can't pull it out, he will stab it with screwdriver. (reconing a sub is way cheaper than replacing it)

Good advice given above. I have had attempts to take tires and rims. The locks were hidden inside the hub cover. They took the covers but the rims and tires were still there. (Vibration sensor was turned off at the time).

I was hit again for the stereo at another time and place. Since I no longer own that vehicle, I will talk about it. Because of large trucks the vibration sensor was always off. This person knew vehicles and how to enter without making a mess or taking to much time. I won't go into how. They opened the door, popped the hood, and clipped the siren wires. They wanted the head unit. Only I had taken the covers off while the equipment was new and bolted the covers together. I had also installed the head unit by the sides inside the dash and not with the standard retainer **** mounts. They kept the ***** to let me know they wanted it. They did manage to get one amp out of three. They cut the seat cable and pried it off the floor under the seat. However they did not get the wiring harness so it didn't do them much good. I had removed the bench seat to do the amps install. The insurance company paid off within 3 days. Don't make life easy for a thief or they will make it difficult for you.

REMOVE YOUR STEREO'S FACEPLATE!! After parking and before leaving the car. Some car stereo owners don't even bother removing their aftermarket headunit's faceplate which is waiting for would-be thieves to possess. (Not applicable to those that own a headunit in which the face 'flips' into the dash).

The best car alarm to consider buying is Clifford, cuz one of their models carry an anti-carjack feature called, "BLACKJAX" in which the system sets a 'trap' by blaring the alarm and flashing the vehicle's lights which immobilizes your car after a thief drives off with it. I might buy that for my mom's car -- '89 Toyota Camry, cuz it's a 'hot' car for thieves.

remeber stealth is the key keep every thing as hiddine as possible

AudiGirl

GPS SYSTEMS HERE

audioroach

very good advice......

As for code grabers.....maybe in your part of the world you may be
"limited" to one frequency ( hey blame the queen....J/K)..This was a REAL
problem in Europe due to the limitation of what freq could be used. This really
is not a problem in the states unless you own a no name discount system
that is maybe 6 years old. Due to the various freq that are allowed this is all
but a memory.

AS for me Im a champion of "trojan horses"....Anything to slow them down,

95hb

good info i cant stress enough about a good alarm,i work at a steroe shop and i dont know how many ppl ive seen come in and say (my car got broke into, i need i new radio and an alarm) they would have saved themselfs a couple hundred getting it the first time. a few ideas i would like to add to yours tho. extra sensors are always worth it glass break,tilt sensors,a paging unit(a good one,this is not an area to skimp on)battery back up for alarm(in case they cut your batt wire under the hood). extra sirens are also a good idea on of my favs are the pain generators from D.E.I. theyre small enough to fit behind the air vents(1"x1"x2") very high freq. and very loud ,15 seconds and youve got a screaming headache(the theive ussually wont stay in the car long enough to grab anything). and hornet offers a hood lock and starter kill kit, it uses a vending machine type key. another good place to get security screws is http://www.selectproducts.com , you have to get the bit for these directly from them(you just cant go to wal-mart and get one)lojak is very good idea ,well worth the price.

JDMProjektSi

Good info! I think I am gonna go fix my alarm or buy a new one.

Quad-Damag

Cliffort blackjax = ownage

swatdog

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Quad-Damge &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Cliffort blackjax = ownage</TD></TR></TABLE>

I actually have blackjax, but i really don't understand it that well.

i know that it'll turn off your car if someone attempts to "jack" your car (opening doors).

but what is REALLY special about it?

Shed some light?


Modified by swatdog at 12:08 AM 11/29/2003

AudiGirl

http://www.socaldirecttrack.com
peace of mind

Jeffrey8523

Very Very goood advice. thanks man

-jeFF

Auex

I agree with just about everything with the post. Except the stupid *** pedal lock, aka brake lock. The only thing that this is meant to do is to keep the thief from shifting into gear, the problem is if you pop the ignition and put it into acc then you no longer have the shifter lock and the thief will just put it into nuetral and start it. They will use the E-brake for brakes and be on thier way. While this is mostly on domestic's it still has similar ways of getting around for any vehicle. I highly recommend not getting one of these, if you use it on your clutch then it may be worthwhile.

crxcess

can you put the pedal lock on the gas pedal? I would think that would be better than the brake or clutch.

Seedc2

iTrader: (1)

I guess either gas pedal or clutch is good.

timmy8151

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by crxcess &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">can you put the pedal lock on the gas pedal? I would think that would be better than the brake or clutch.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I've seen people put an Autolock on both the brake and the clutch.

Bubble Gum Jr.

Also if you park someone, make sure to park in front, not in the back. I got my **** stolen this weekend at my work. Bastards bashed in my rear passenger window and stole my deck. Dumbass didn't bother to pop the trunk otherwise he would noticed my amp which was probably worth two times my deck, plus I'm surprised he didn't get a hint by the Monster RCA cables hooked up to the deck. The bastard also jacked my Twista cd, which I had just bought the day before. Then some dumb bitch had the audacity to come into the store and say "oh hey I just saw someone breaking into someone's car," and then left without leaving a description. I was like wow that's good to know, I could have found that out myself three hours later which would have been equally as helpful. Seriously I would have been happier with no one coming in to tell us someone's car had been broken into, at least that way I would have had a better opinion of the human race. Plus I certainly would hope that if someone witnessed someone else breaking into another person's car they would at least call the cops themselves, or at least do something to scare away the thief.

Dave

foz

good info......

the most important thing I can tell people is to use common sense and not leave anything of value in the car...ever! even if it's just for an hour, don't be lazy bring that **** into your house, This includes cd's may sound silly but when you loose you cd's and the insurance company tells you to talk to your home owner's insurance, and then home owner's tells you they will only cover the one's you have reciept for......it sucks, I will only keep burnt cd's in my car overnight, or when I go places...and tint your windows, they actually make clear tint, this will help hold your window togethor when they try to smash it (like a windsheild), it only slows them down a little but while it's slowing them down it enable more reason for you alarm to go off (shock, motion....)

What I recommend is doing a security check every couple of weeks to make sure everything is working as it should....
A few stories to explain why I say this....(I'll try to keep them short)
a tree fell on my wife's old Jeep, after getting it back from the body shop I put 4 10's in a fiberglass box (tubbed out real nice) I woke up one night to my alarm going off turns out that the replacement hatch wasn't wired right and the trunk trigger wasn't working
another time at another place, the passenger window in my wife's jeep was smashed and they got about 200 cd's---all mine none of hers!
I was at a friend's house figured I wouldn't be there long so I left my tools in the truck (my old cherokee) when I came out to the truck two hours later my deck and all my tools were missing (almost $3000 loss)
same thing happened to my roommate, he ran into the bar to pick-up his girl, was in there for less than 1/2 hr, came out to find tools, dig camera , and his employee's payroll missing ($2,500)
I woke up another night (yet another place) to hear my alarm going off, ran out the door to see them running into the woods (shots fired no hits) my window was hanging togethor by the tint, by proximity sensor is what set the alarm off

I'm leaving off a few break-in stories, I've had my luck, but these give you an idea

Full Race A6

lol you shot at them?

nek0

Yeah and this might be time consuming but since most insurance don't cover any items that's not attached to the vehicle (unless you have home owners insurance) burn a copy of your CD's and carry those around. Better yet, get a deck that can read mp3's and just carry few mp3 CD's. That saved me when thieves broke in & stole 50+ CD's...that were all burnt suckers!

foz

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PIMPIN &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">lol you shot at them?</TD></TR></TABLE>
wouldn't you? it was the window to my del sol!!

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PIMPIN &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">lol you shot at them?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yeah that's what I do now I can fit 7 discs onto one mp3 disk!

snoochtodanooch

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 95hb &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">). and hornet offers a hood lock and starter kill kit, it uses a vending machine type key. </TD></TR></TABLE> Very bad news. Just trust me on this, any serious theif can get through a cylinder lock in under 30secs. I am not a theif and i could get through that lock in under a minute. I would much rather prefer a wafer style car door lock, much more difficult to pick, and no advantage of being able to use a slim jim or breaking the windows.

snoochtodanooch

i like the idea of being able to have the car go off with the dude driving off with my stolen ride, seems sweet.

.BULLET.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by timmy8151 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I've seen people put an Autolock on both the brake and the clutch.</TD></TR></TABLE>

either way, they'll take what they really want..my car got towed..but car was never started. battery was cut to disable alarm...https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=743519

Double_Dk

great info... thanks man.. .I am going to change alot of things while the car is in the garage for the winter.

snoochtodanooch

what about a boot? also, wouldn't a tilt sensor go off if the car was towed by a rollback or a regular tow truck.

Armed Ferret

having guards with m-16's at the gate to even come close to where i live comes in quite handy.