any ideas for preventing car theft?

wire your horn to your brake lights with a hidden switch.

put half the fuel injectors on another hidden switch in the 12V feed line - so it'll start, but run like crap and throw a check engine light.

wire another hidden switch up so the emergency flasher blinker is powered when the ignition is on if the switch isn't flipped - if you really feel like being evil combine this with the horn as well so it sounds and looks like you have an alarm if they start the vehicle.

edit: if it's a 4x4 leave the transfer case in neutral and pop the linkage off the transfer case end. If it's got twin sticks you can produce even more interesting combinations.
 
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alright so far, grabbed some motion lights, fake cameras, signs that say "you are being recorded and threw them up after work.


plan on adding more motion lights, and real cameras on DVR soon. And more signs.

as for the inside of the jeep and the DD honda, grabbed a couple car alarms for them. plan on using a bunch of your ideas for kill switches/pressure switches reed switches, i like the idea of wiring a horn to the brakes and maybe a pressure switch with a horn , i like that pretty darn good idea.


usually when i leave the jeep for a while i pull the battery, put tcase in neutral, and disconnect all the sensors and usually pull the line from the coil to the dizzy as well.
 
What I'd really like to do would be to wire up HV discharge to the door handles - but I just know some lackwit would sue me for damages, and "but for your actions" doesn't apply in California anymore ("If you hadn't been trying to steal that truck, you wouldn't have gotten shocked to within an inch of your life...)

I'm thinking about 500kV at 10-15mA should do the job - stand your hair up, make you load your shorts, then go decide to do something else. Anything else. Anywhere else.

(or let me come pick up your unconscious arse and haul you off to jail - makes no odds to me.)
 
Laws don't deter crime period. People didn't go on each others property and steal from them 100 years ago because the homeowner could and would shoot them just for being there. South Africa had a huge problem with car jackings until the citizens were allowed and encouraged to be proactive. Electric door handles, flamethrowers, and my favorite a large blade mounted on springs under the door. At least if they crawl away you'll score a new pair of shoes. If people practiced their right to keep and bear arms, criminals would think twice about touching things that don't belong to them.
 
I say 10% vigilante justice will make the petty exhibitionists think twice.

I agree with 5-90, you can only prevent car theft. If they want it, they will get it. My friends Mustang was stolen from his driveway and it was parked between his garage and another car. They stole and stripped it, completely. The cops found it later that morning, it all happened in a few hours. I say do the obvious, do one or two things to prevent auto theft, don't leave anything valuable in your car and maybe get full coverage insurance? I like the idea of cameras though or perhaps some how rigging the vehicle with a sensor to alarm you first. Thats kind of a cool idea.
 
Many moons ago, (yeah, I'm old!) my brother and I had issues with someone trying to part out our motorcyles, without our consent. We wired them to 110vac outlet from the house and layed out a set of beaver traps. Late one night we heard an awful screech and when we went to investigate (with a pair of Rugar .44 mags) all we found was a shoe left in one of the sprung traps. Never had another issue with parts being stolen after that tho. Too bad here in Cal the criminals would just sue ya for causing emotional and physical distress and make more money off of you than if they stole the car! :flamemad:
 
you could wire a battery switch behind your kick panel "ash tray" right in front of your shifter. you might have to cut some plastic and counter sink it.. but its easy access for you and probably not very obvious to the criminals.

As far as some one stealing your car.. im not sure how most people steal cars in the night, but i doubt it usually involves a tow truck. So, just killing power should work.

On second thought: To make things obvious and interesting. you could put a switch on your ignition coil. so you will hear some one trying to start your jeep with no luck. this will give you time to grab your mosin.
 
ive read a lot of modern car thiefs use flat beds.
 
I've seen video of this truck that has a small boom on that that they lift cars that are parked illegally and drop it on a flat bed. Think they were in England.
 
TORX said:
Have you considered tack welding the doors shut at night?
Click to expand...

Agreed. This seems like your most logical answer.
 
A good alarm with . A backup siren . have it installed by a professional
. someone who knows how to hide wiring and set sensitivity. If it falses your neighbors will hate you. Anything you can do to draw attention when it triggers will keep thieves away. If it takes more than 30 seconds to defeat Thieves will find an easier target. I once installed air horns to the alarm with a flasher inline. it was very effective. Not only could it be heard from a distance ,it also functioned as a pain generator for would be thieves attempting to disarm.
 
Agreed. and you should go with the one that does random honking.
 
Head Scratcher

Bummer man.

Well I suggest some sort of obvious visual deterrent if possible so they won't break a window to get in and test the secret cutoff, you already have damage at that point.

When I lived near dirtbags, I had two awesome home fixes on my barely street legal drag car.

1) a Direct Electronics shock sensor wired to the horn with a 5 second timer relay. Every bump honks the horn 5 seconds.

2) ignition was wired threw the wiper switch (because the wipers and motor were gone to save weight) so you had to go to fast wipe to have a hot spark in addition to ignition switch.

While they are trying to figure out why it cranks forever and honks the horn you can come out and get a piece of them.
 
Park at the police station and take the bus home.
 
I wired a switch inline to the control wire to the starter. I had it next to the power controls on my seat. My passengers never noticed it, and it was an easy install. Wont prevent a theft, but most theives are idiots. They will break the ignition column and try to start it, but nothing will happen because no signal.
 
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