What to do: Keep car from gettin stolen.

J-Scratch · Jul 19, 2004

What do you do to keep your car from getting stolen?
What devices etc. work best?

MustangPaul · Jul 19, 2004

Locked garage. Common sense. Still, if they want it, they'll get it.

gt/cs · Jul 19, 2004

Locks exist to keep honest people out

Hack · Jul 19, 2004

gt/cs said:
Locks exist to keep honest people out

That's a fun quote, but I don't worry about the honest people.

I'm interested in this too. I know some people put kill switches hidden under the dash.. something like that could at least slow someone down. The downside is it's another thing to go wrong with the car.

MustangPaul · Jul 19, 2004

I drive my car to work and park in the same spot everyday. People know the car and keep an eye out for it. I rarely leave it other places where I can't keep an eye on it.

It stays in a locked and alarmed garage, out of sight, at night.

I had a kill switch on the battery, but problem was, it was such a pain to use, I rarely did, so it wasn't much of a deterrant.

I stand by common sense. Plus, I keep an eye out for all muscle cars--sort of a professional courtesy.

Bottom line, insure it for what you can afford, enjoy it and don't dwell on it. It can happen, and might, but not driving your car for fear of theft is just as bad.

--P

xj220 · Jul 19, 2004

One thing I'd like to do is get a GPS bug in the chassis so that if my car is ever stolen I'll be able to find it.

1969mach1351 · Jul 19, 2004

I don't drive my car much but when it is in the garage I keep a lock through one of the hood pins, have a hidden electric fuel pump switch, and bring the coil wire inside. Some cars you can use one of the sparkplug wires for the coil but my plug wires are all female and the coil wire is female/male. I usually use the fuel pump switch when I park it somewhere and sometimes leave the lock in the hood if I'm expecting to leave it for more than a few hours somewhere. Since I moved to Sacramento I'm pretty anal about having the garage open since I dont live in the best part of town.

2nd Mustang · Jul 19, 2004

Barrel locks on the hood, alarm with ignition kill and clutch pedal lock (like the ones used on the brake pedal). If someone tries to steal it, they either have to tow it or power shift it! Mainly not leave it sitting too long in public where I can't see it as others have posted.

GIDYUP · Jul 19, 2004

I just try not to worry about it getting stolen. It's easier said then done but really if someone wants to steal your car they can. I've got a immobaliser, alarm (all black wiring so it's harder to work out) lock it up in the garage at night, locked up in garage at work. These would hopefully slow down the fools a little but there's no guarantee.

skywalker · Jul 19, 2004

Simplistic, but works well in my low crime area:
bumper sticker: "This car protected by a United States Marine, no weapon or alarm needed."

No I don't actually have that on my car, but a friend suggested it. Mind you I'm not a large guy 5'9" 190lbs so it probably wouldn't work well if someone saw me get out of the car.

MustangPaul · Jul 19, 2004

skywalker said:
Simplistic, but works well in my low crime area:
bumper sticker: "This car protected by a United States Marine, no weapon or alarm needed."

No I don't actually have that on my car, but a friend suggested it. Mind you I'm not a large guy 5'9" 190lbs so it probably wouldn't work well if someone saw me get out of the car.

Sky--Maybe if you faked a facial twitch or muttered to yourself when you got out! Still, I haven't met a marine yet who was more than 20 paces from a fire arm at most times in their life!

I have a friend who has a RANGER plate on the front of his truck and no one has ever messed with it.

--P

DukeGnarley · Jul 19, 2004

since my coupe has an electric fuel pump, i replaced the cigi lighter with another windshield wiper switch which operates the pump. the best place to hide things is right out in the open. sometimes i even miss it.

ashford · Jul 19, 2004

one i thought of but never tried.
isolate the starter solonoid and run a ground from it to your horn button, but that means your horn wont work, but i dont use it anyway so wouldnt matter. that also that means the solonoid could't be jumped just by a single hot wire youd need to supply a ground too.

ashford · Jul 19, 2004

one i thought of but never tried.
isolate the starter solonoid from ground and run a ground from it to your horn button, but that means your horn wont work, but i dont use it anyway so wouldnt matter. that also that means the solonoid could't be jumped just by a single hot wire youd need to supply a ground too.

65fastback2+2 · Jul 19, 2004

i just had dual kill switches mounted in two places on the 65. Didnt splice into the wires till underneath the dash so if you popped the hood, it looked good to go. Put one on the solenoid ground and one on the ignition coil/starting wire. My $20,000 pristine stang never got taken and I would park it anywhere I went.

pabear89 · Jul 20, 2004

Use good judgement.
I have 3 kill switches installed and good Ins.

If you have not seen the Movie Gone in 60 Seconds,
Then you should. The only thing they did not use was a tow truck.
And if a Theif wants it, It's Gone.

PB

Gellpak · Jul 20, 2004

I've been looking into this too... found some good resources:

http://www.nicb.org/public/newsroom/whereismycar/layeredapproach.cfm
also lojack has a pdf file thats worth reading about this (though they do subtly push their product in it) http://www.lojack.com/theftfacts/security-guide-form.cfm

Still not sure what I'll do with my '66 yet, but I've decided to do something before august.

zookeeper · Jul 20, 2004

One thing to remember is that your car is NEVER safe from thieves. A friend of mine bought a very nice '66 convertible several years ago. It all looked legit, that is until the FBI came knocking on the door! The guy he bought it from had stolen a printer from a DMV office in Oregon. Then he went about collecting Mustangs (very, very easy to sell quickly) from various places. The FBI agent who came to get my friends info said the thief had once stolen a Boss 429 from a car show! Think about it, when you go to a show, you most likely park your car, clean it a bit, then head out to check out the other cars. You most likely don't know the guy parked next to you, and he doesn't know you. So if someone watches even a little bit, waits for the owner to leave, then acts like it's his car, chances are he can get in the car (nobody locks their ride at an outdoor show) and since older cars (especially ones built before lockng columns) are easy to hot wire, drive it out of the show with nobody even paying attention. Whatever device you decide on, use it whenever you park it, no matter where, and trust no one.

Scudly · Jul 20, 2004

if someone wants to steal your car enough they will, basic rule of thumb

just put some things in to slow um down

Red66GT · Jul 20, 2004

All this car theft talk reminded me of when the cops pulled me over in my Stang (they were following me for a while looking for an excuse, finally seen that my license plate light wasn't working).

Long story short, they told me they had reports about a classic mustang that had been recently stolen. That's just scary, I'm with xj220's idea of getting a GPS bug in the chassis. It'd be fun stealing my Own car back after I find it.

What to do: Keep car from gettin stolen.

J-Scratch

Member

MustangPaul

gt/cs

New Member

Hack

MustangPaul

xj220

1969mach1351

Member

2nd Mustang

GIDYUP

New Member

skywalker

Member

MustangPaul

DukeGnarley

Member

ashford

Member

ashford

Member

65fastback2+2

New Member

pabear89

Active Member

Gellpak

Member

zookeeper

Scudly

New Member

Red66GT

New Member

Similar threads

What to do: Keep car from gettin stolen.

Member

New Member

Member

New Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

New Member

Active Member

Member

New Member

New Member

Similar threads

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency