Anti-theft other than alarm?
 

I'm asking here so not every joe blow can see it. Now that I've got more money in the car than the car itself is worth, and every assclown with a "sporty car" is trying to race me I'm more security conscious (read: paranoid). I park my shit on the street. Interested to know what I could do besides a quick-release or an alarm. Something like a kill switch hidden somewhere super secret, etc.

When I had my Bipes on my first miata, i took the power wire you splice into for the ECU and put a real low-pro black switch on it..then "hid" the switch on the passengers side center console in the little rectangle that pops out with two nuts behind it... Really hidden/out of the way and still very easy to get to. Had one problem with it while it was there when a passenger hit it going down the interstate, scared the shit out of me until I realized what had actually happened.

Are you more worried about stealing complete or stripping? I'd guess The Club would still be a viable option. Kind of a pain storing it in a Miata, though, shy of putting it in the trunk as opposed to dropping it in the back seat. It does offer a visual deterrent that might keep a window from being broken or a top slashed, though.

I find that both The Club and a 5BC fire extinguisher fit neatly behind the passenger seat- the extinguisher lying flat on the floor, and The Club at a diagonal. One added bonus to this mounting location is that the handle-end of The Club, while not ideally balanced, does make an effective close-quarters weapon should the need arise. It projects further than a knife and can also be used to open windows rather quickly from the outside.

As to preventing someone from driving off in your car, let me suggest that the oil pressure sender in '95+ Miatae is a simple closure to ground when oil pressure is low, and open when pressure is high. Said closure might be tapped in an inconspicuous place (such as behind the instrument cluster) and used to drive a relay which, when de-energized, opens some vital circuit or another in the ECU harness. IOW: a thief hotwires your car, and it starts, and then immediately stalls. He re-starts it, an it runs for a moment, then stalls. A professional mechanic in a garage would be daunted by this, much less a car thief on a dark street.

trunk monkey....

Unplug the MS and take it with you.. :)


Sadly nothing will stop someone from scooping it up with a flatbed though.. No car is impossible to take, no matter what you do.

Edit: For a no-start anti-theft system I used to sell this gizmo called Powerlock. That device uses a non-removable hardened magnesium collar around the starter power lead which is basically a solid state digital relay. The system had 2 totally different "keys" one was touch based and the other transponder based. When you got into the car you'd simply touch your "key" to the reader which reads the 128 bit encrypted code, then sent an encrypted digital signal to the relay allowing it to start the car. The transponder based system just used a touchless keyfob.

I sold them for $400.00 installed and the company had a guarantee.. if a thief stole your car, they'd cover 100% of it. Not sure if that company is still around, I just didn't have very many customers. In the 10 some years they were in business at the time they NEVER had one reported theft of a vehicle equipped with the system. I thought it was fantastic, but left one small issue.. "hot wire" the ignition to Run, roll down hill, pop clutch.

You could make it look just like a Geo Metro....?

Idk if this is what you mean but there are something like microwave radar thingys on ebay for convertables, also if your cars a manual, thats pretty anti-theft in its self.

For part one of that statement.......WHAT? And explain part 2.

i assume anyone stealing a car can drive a manual transmission, especially if the car is targeted because it has known performance modifications. Joe, that idea is kind of what I'm aiming for but I have a 94. Maybe something hidden in plain site would be cool too, like wiring the cruise control button as a kill switch since I never use cruise control.

Go to a hydraulic supply store and pick up a shut-off valve,mount it inline on the fuel line under the hood.

When you park the car,you simply pop your hood and turn the valve to "off" positon.

Then that ONE night you're too tired from work to pop the hood and flip the valve is the ONE night someone tries to steal your car... that and this will be pretty obvious to anyone that is smart enough to stake out a car at least once before stealing it.

I like the cruise control switch idea. Total plain sight, yet not even remotely obvious. Maybe a combination of switches?

Wire a switch onto the main injector fuse line, flick the switch ->
Thief hotwires your car, and it starts, and then immediately stalls. He re-starts it, an it runs for a moment, then stalls again, and again, and again etc.

+1 trunk monkey

Well then I guess your shit out of luck then,cause if your too tired or lazy to flick a switch.

To the OP,I usually pull the fuel injection relay and disconnect the coil pack if I plan to park for a few hours.

maybe cruise control, defog, and cig. lighter. I'd feel like 007:bowrofl:
looks like fuel cut or ecu cut is the best way to go from what reading I've done, but I'm an electrical meganoob.

I hear good things about ravelco http://www.ravelco.com/

I recently helped install one of those clifford alarm systems in a friends car. It has a sensor to detect shaking of the car. It has a dial switch to determine the sensibility. On the lowest, we were able to just bump the car with our hand to trigger it. It sends all data to your little car pager. We "somewhat" tested the range and it worked from this parking lot outside this worked to the other side of the building with tons of equipment and cement walls in the way.

I highly recommend installing some kind of switch. I say make a switch to the fuel pump. If the car should have enough fuel to start and move a little, then the car will stall in the middle of the road and the police will eventually give you a call.

I read an article one time, some dudes got busted for trying to steal a car because the didnt know you had to depress the clutch to start it. And

http://imagehost.vendio.com/a/117312...crwoave_AD.jpg

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/alarm...spagenameZWDVW

I dunno if it works or anything Im not affiliated!

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume the microwave thing does NOT work very well if at all.

As for the guys that got busted for not pushing the clutch in, if they were that stupid they would have gotten caught soon enough if they didn't get caught over that anyways...I mean if they didn't know that they obviously didn't know how to drive clutch so what were they planning on doing once they got it started?

Never said they were smart.

The alarm system I had installed in my miata (Clifford RS3.5) has an ultrasonic module for convertible cars.. The point is to detect if someone sticks their hands in your car without them having to touch the car. I hear the quality brand units work pretty well, but never bought one.

Found this http://sonolithics.com/files/bosch.pdf I particularly like the horn idea on page 15. What would I need to get to wire that up, as in what kind of relay am I looking for and what gauge wire should I be using? The accessory I'd want to use for that would be the cruise control or defog switch. Maybe that coupled with a fake LED and a fuel kill switch. Am I right in assuming that since the fuel pump already has a relay I can just add a switch inline on one of the wires of the plug that goes into the relay under the dash? edit: If I wanted to alter the cruise control or rear defog switch would I then need to use a relay? What if I used a regular switch from radioshack but the wires were very long to hide it somewhere, would I then need a relay?

Walked passed a bimmer at school a while back and it chirped at me. Didn't touch it at all!
I was probably 3 feet or so away from it. Maybe an example of the sonar/proximity thing.
Mind you it was highly modified and most likely owned by a rich fuck or a drug dealer with unlimited monies.

I had a microwave sensor thingy with my clifford/viper alarm. The remote broke. Then the stupid thing wouldn't unlock my car. Then I had the rip it's guts out after it killed my ignition. Motherfucker. I had to tow my car home and figure out how to remove it. the microwave thing did work though. I could park with my top down and if you stuck your hand in the car the thign would chirp at you.

I reccomend this:

http://www.tirelock.com/ProductDetai...ode=UB%2D1+REG

Instead of having a straight wire to disable the push clutch in to start feature, i threw a switch on it. Thats my anti theft :giggle:

A few months ago, some mexican broke into my neighbors honda civic that was stick and the cops caught him driving around the neighborhood in first gear.

in F&F: TD style, I take my steering wheel with me.

I have an alarm installed by the PO. I disabled it (pain in the ass, and no real need), but kept the blinking LED part of it. That little blinking light is enough to scare off most theives.

Frankly, if someone wants it bad enough, they can get it, alarm or not.

Rattlesnakes.

I have many layers of security on my car. Passive switches are nice because you dont have to arm them, just gotta disarm them.

Combine this with kills on various systems of my car through the alarm system as well as tilt, motion and shock sensors, my pager alarm alerts me within a mile what is going on with my car.

Just read through the12volt.com and search google for Causeforalarm. They have really good info. Also, my brother was selling some reed killswitches for a while. Him and I collaborated and he worked of my idea and started selling them in the honda scene. These work really nicely.

I have been working on infared recievers to trigger relays for kills as well.

a nice supplement to whatever alarm (if you go alarm) is an interior siren. something high pitched and loud for anyone inside the car when the car goes off.

Make sure whatever switches and whatnot you use are vibration resistant. I had a viper alarm that would cut out at one specific corner at the track randomly.

I have been reading at 12volt.com I'm getting an education in electrical work at the same time.

Holy crap! I just read through the "Stealth Alarm Install" at the Causeforalarm site and all I can say is DAMN! That guy went into james bond install mode and did a fantastic job!!