Securing Shite

[Des]

The recent theft of the Metro in Stevenage should be viewed as a warning that none of us are safe, the best cars were made between '78 to '92 yet they're ridiculously the piss easiest to steal, and the Jap stuff, you may as well leave the keys in the ignition. We all need to prepare for the worst, hidden cut out switch is easy, shorting the points to earth, but if you have an electric fuel pump a cut out switch there is really good as the car will start and then cut out after a few yards, thieving bastard will likely abandon as is now at greatest risk of a poker to the head, for cars with normal fuel pumps a fuel cut off solenoid as used in LPG conversions is about £20 and will work similarly, for fuel injected cars I've cut the low current trigger to the pump relay and run it through the fag lighter that I've pulled the wires from, so push the lighter in to go, pull out for immobilise.

 

I fitted one of these a little over a year ago.

 

 

 

It's a tracker with GPS, fag pack sized with a couple of aerials, about £35 to £40 and a sim card with a tenner on it, good to go for years, has behaved faultlessly for over a year, works abroad, just ring it, cheeky fucker answers and hangs up on you, then makes up for it by sending a text with a link to google maps with a very accurate location. All sorts of features which lead to a big loom but I just ignored all but live and earth, no idea what current draw is like, I doubt much, don't care as I has big fuck off solar panel, the average insurance excess would buy 5 of them so worthwhile.

Got those little knobby pop up lock buttons on your doors? Lose them, and a remote central locking kit can be had for about £20, not only does it make you look pretty fly, but you can disconnect the lock barrels, or at least the drivers, jam the bugger up with something and you'll waste lots of theiving bastards time, if they find themselves still faffing around by the time they should be wheelspinning off down the road they'll likely give up.

 

 

 

 

 

[derskine]

Where can I get said gps trackah?

Good advice all round, a disklok is also a good thing to have.

[Spiny Norman]

When I'd just started driving in 1982, one of the nuggets of advice my Dad gave me when I got my first car was. "Always park next to a Ford, they're so easy to steal they'll have that and leave yours alone". I thought he was joking but one day when I was on day release at college I happened to pull into the bit of waste ground in the east end of Glasgow that passed for a car park in those days right behind my mate who had a knack of buying old shitters just before they died. his particular day he was in a Mk3 Cortina he'd picked up for a tenner or thereabouts so with the old man's words ringing in my ears I pulled in next to him and off we went.

His car was gone by lunchtime.....

 

 

 

Nowadays I just run cars no bugger would want to steal.

[Micrashed]

Padlock & Chain.

[Spiny Norman]

^^^ Isn't that to stop the lamp post getting stolen?

[dollywobbler]

I usually use a steering lock if parking in a town I'm not used to. Yes, some are easy to remove but the plan is to make the opportunist think twice - that category of thief is far more likely to home in on autoshite than those looking for highly desirable vehicles to pinch. Knowing how to swiftly disable your vehicle is also a good tip. Naturally I'm not going to tell you my thoughts on the matter!

 

Not sure about removing lock buttons though. I refuse to take measures that could make my life more stressful! What do you do if a central locking unit fails and you now can't unlock your own door?

[Skizzer]

What do you do if a central locking unit fails and you now can't unlock your own door?

You wish you hadn't bought a shabby old Rover, in my experience of this happening on two shabby old Rovers.

[Junkman]

Trackers work both ways.

(Old army wisdom)

[Alusilber]

These trackers with SIM cards... last time I had a PAYG SIM, you had to make one call every 3 months or so, or they would cancel your number and give it to someone else - that would be a PITA if it was in a tracker surely?

[Des]

Use the number to advertise a Mk1 Mexico on Gumtree for £20 and let others ring it for you.

Bought mine from Amazon Derskine.

[barefoot]

or Giff Gaff

[saucedoctor]

You wish you hadn't bought a shabby old Rover, in my experience of this happening on two shabby old Rovers.

LOLZ! The CL shat itself on my HH-R, and I had to put the window down and reach out and unlock the door with the key!

 

That tracker looks GR8 Des.

[daveb47]

Just use a cheap old mobile phone hidden up with a charger & use an app such as

http://www.mspy.co.uk/?gclid=CL-mw_v_gr8CFSEcwwodOTYAoQ

[coalnotdole]

When parked in rough area's I've been known to take the rotor arm or the king lead with me!

[Junkman]

Whoever nicks the RoD I feel sorry for.

[RobT]

I've got out of the habit recently, but a disklok is my choice for securing shite.  The trouble with hidden measures such as removing the rotor arm is the bastards have already bent the door back or smashed the window, only to then find out it won't start.

[laser wheels]

I've got out of the habit recently, but a disklok is my choice for securing shite.  The trouble with hidden measures such as removing the rotor arm is the bastards have already bent the door back or smashed the window, only to then find out it won't start.

 

 

My worry, too. Personally I use a basic disc lock for now but will soon upgrade to one of the big yellow ones that cover the whole wheel. Most toerags I think are lazy and won't bother having a pop at anything that will take a modicum of effort so it's mainly about the visual deterrent.

 

I think possibly the best solution would be a snap-off steering boss. Other than a hiab not much they can do about no steering wheel.

[Bren]

I am finding hard to reconcile fitting trackers to the chod that we have. I mean, we dont drive around in M5's or RS4's do we?

 

It's like giving the 20 year old,14 stone munter and mother of ten who lives next door a pair of nike air to go with her primark track suit.

[Spiny Norman]

I have one of these big steering wheel locking bar things that provides a visible deterrent but I'm pretty sure a determined tealeaf could wrench it off somehow, and it doesn't fit at all well on anything new-ish with a fat airbagged wheel.
If someone wants to steal the Dae-who they deserve my pity, not my scorn.

[Micrashed]

Surely the choice of shiteists everywhere?

 

Along with:

 

 

[Micrashed]

[anonymous user]

I think my German Shepherd was quite a good theft deterrent, apart from her tendency to eat the interior of the car if I left her too long.

[EssDeeWon]

I can top all of your car security tips, and its cost me zilch. My Granada has a flat battery and a faulty fuel cut off switch, I welcome anyone to try and have it away, I would actually line them up a  beer for getting the POS started.

[brickwall]

I nip the fuel pump relay out from under the seat.

[catsinthewelder]

Wouldn't pulling relays out on a regular basis make them a bit loose? 

[Jim Bell]

I thought having terrible cars was a good enough deterrent for the modern man about town thief.

 

I always rock one of these as a ball shrinker though:

 

 

 

 

Not easy to cut or snap like krooklocks and steering wheels are.

Well worth the money IMO. Never had a car taken or even broken into yet.

 

And you can get second hand ones on ebay for a tenner. XTRA SHITE PUNTS!

[dave21478]

Thats the best there is, without doubt ^^^

 

 

Any other type that clamp to the rim and feed through the spokes of the wheel are worse than useless...you are providing the thief with a handy lever to snap your steering lock with, before he bursts it off in seconds.

[AlabamaShrimp]

Surely the choice of shiteists everywhere?

 

Along with:

These don't fit my fiestas so I got the giant disklock above. It's a bugger to have to find a place for it when the cars full but it does its job

[rml2345]

It's a shame about air baggery being old enough tech to appear on shite nowadays as you could nip the steering wheel off and lock it in the boot if you were worried about it being stolen. Yet to have any thief related mishaps due to driving things that aren't worth stealing but those disc locks look a bloody good deterrent.

Telly the 740 was a faithful judge of character and almost certainly would have refused to start for some opportunistic shitehawk. It hated my last girlfriend who turned out to be a loonball of cosmic proportions.

[Angrydicky]

I've got two diskloks, a small one for the Maestro, and a large one which fits both my A35 and Somerset. However, I think the diskloks aren't that great on the older cars without internal steering locks - sure, they're still a great visual deterrant, but a potential thief could always reach behind the disklok and steer the car that way. Absolutely excellent pieces of kit for 70's-90's tat though. I doubt anyone would want to steal a beige Maestro, but after hearing all the horror stories of 80's cars getting pinched I decided to get myself a disklok for it. Cost about £40 delivered off Ebay, which was the cheapest I could find that did postage.

 

Does anyone have an original Stoplok they don't need? Would be good for me to have another lock I can keep in the Somerset.