Additional security

[Stickyfinger]

Hi....just wondering about adding additional "Drive-Off" security....a plan to add a little delay and confuse the chavs who look it up the standard theft technique on their phones when they find the car they want to joyride.

I am a fan of the unexpected and am thinking of putting a "Removable powder switch" into the impact/fuel cut-off supply to act as a delaying tactic.
I have a box which will be fine for hiding it....can you think of any problems with the plan ?

(apart form loosing the key that is and that you all know now )

[rory_perrett]

In the good old (gone in 20 seconds) hot hatch days (about 25 years ago) I did something similar with an additional fuse in the fuel pump wire. Wife used to just pop the fuse out and drop it in her handbag. The car would start and run briefly then die. It still got nicked though from a station car park although it was recovered the next day and the miscreants apprehended.

Apparently they had got it started and managed to move it out of the space before it died, they had then flattened the battery trying to get it started. Pushed it down the ramp from the upper level to the lower in an attempt to bump start it. Then nicked another car to tow it away with. Sometime in the following 24 hours they worked out it was the fuel pump not working that was the problem and put in another wire from the ignition switch to the fuel pump bypassing what I had done. They'd also repainted the bottom half of the car, changed the plates and tax disk and had driven it about 5 miles before it was spotted (by me cruising the area it had gone missing in) and the police called.

I guess if they really want something there is very little you can do about it.

[vborovic]

I remember the mid 90-ties, Zagreb, capital of Croatia, it was just the time when newer generation BMW 5-series, Mercs E class & Audis A6 were taking over the streets (new entrepreneurs, if you know what I mean). One BMW 5's owner managed to put 5 or 6 different (and at that time high tech) alarms/protections/blocks ... the car was supposedly the most secure at that time (the protection cost was maybe 1/3 of the car's price) ... what happened was that a team of pros got a soundproof truck, loaded the car into it within few seconds (how, I don't know), and drove with it in the unknown direction .. the car was never found ...

[bobins]

Many years ago I got hold of a lockable valve for the fuel line in my old LandRover. I never got around to fitting it - might do one day as I've still got the LandRover in deep storage. IIRC, It was basically a milled lump of aluminium (or some other metal !!) with an in and out line and a key operated valve in the middle. It may have been made by Tudor... but I may have imagined that bit

[mad_at_french_cars]

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/local ... ns-3801086" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That'd stop 'em..

[Peter.N.]

The best idea I have heard is to wire up a loud alarm/siren inside the car, a car horn would do. You should be able to arm it via the remote fob or if not fit a hidden switch somewhere outside. Wire the horn to the courtesy light switches or the ignition via a relay. I don't think they would stay in the car long with that going off and they wouldn't be able to sue you for anything - except deafness perhaps.

Peter

[elma]

I think fuel cut off switches are probably the best immobiliser. I don't see the need for a key one though, a switch does the job nicely.

Gps trackers are good and cheap, the better ones will cut off the engine with a text message too.
Heres a couple of examples. ONE TWO
Neither are perfect, the ideal one has an onboard battery in case it gets disconnected and the ability to cut the engine.
I didn't look very hard though.

[vborovic]

I've been thinking about the GPS tracker thing ... again, it can't be bypassed, by putting the car in something isolated (truck with aluminum insides) ... extreme, I know, but more weird stuff happens ... or, what Peter said, but instead of the siren, I'd be slightly more effective ... a hidden flash-bang grenade ... or two ...

[isisalar]

This has reminded me of an amusing incident back in the 80's. BMW had a state of the art dealer fitted immobilizer system whereby a sensor was concealed somewhere in the vehicle and a magnetic key was passed over the sensor to turn it on or off. This worked remarkably well as there were an unlimited amount of places the sensor could be placed and the location was only known to the car's owner.
Autocar or Motor magazine had a car on a long term test and the tester who had it, it would seem, was unaware this had been fitted or even existed and complained bitterly that the car would randomly cut out and refuse to start only to start working again randomly, often after being recovered by trailer. As I recall this tale of woe continued for some months and his reports grew more and more angry and derogatory about BMW's in general as time went on. Eventually he, probably to write his final piece, did what he should have done in the first place and read the handbook, which informed him that the immobilizor was fitted, that the sensor was in the glovebox, as was the magnetic key which had been rattling around there turning the immobilizor on and off all the time.
His final grovelling apology was wonderful reading.