Alarms ALONE offer very little security.

My ITR was broken into last fall and attempted stolen. The clifford alarm I had installed didn't even chirp. People who know anything about alarms will know Clifford alarms are some of the best in the industry. This thing was equipped with a hood pin, trunk pin, shock sensor, tilt sensor, and a battery back-up siren....

NOT EVEN A CHIRP. They raped the inside of my car trying to get it started...but weren't able to get the car running...why?

I also had a manual fuel pump kill switch.......It was a $3.00 part that kept my car in my driveway that day, not the $700 alarm.

SC~who is still going to alarm his Evo.

 

once i get all my **** put into my car im getting a chain for the hood, i have a good alarm, i disconnecetd the trunk latch so they cant open the trunk from inside to steal my system, im getting wheel locks. the only way your going to be able to steal anything is if you have my keys pretty soon

 

Man I'm getting worried now. What tips do you all have on protecting the Evo? I'm personally gonna be putting my Evo in the garage and perhaps get a car cover, as well as investing in a top-of-the-line car alarm, if it helps

 

Unfortunatly, wheel locks don't do much except slow the theives down by 20 seconds. My Integra had its wheels stolen twice in three months (with locks). Fortunatly, I moved and never had problems again.

 

Well, the topic seems to have evolved (heheh) from stealing just the headlights and wing to stealing the whole car. I hope we can all get more ideas on how to protect our cars better.
The first priority is to not have your whole car stolen. That's why I like the fuel pump kill switch. You can also pull the fuel pump fuse, but that's more of a pain than a convenient toggle switch. Make sure you hide it somewhere good.
If your car is stolen, don't expect wheel locks to protect your wheels at all; however, they should still be installed the day you get your car. Maybe even get more than one kind. You'll dissuade the amateurs from taking your wheels, but expect the smart thieves to have all the keys and just be slowed down a little by the locks.
I'll want to get a fully-featured alarm too that is 2-way, and has shock, tilt, all doors, hood, and trunk open sensors, and battery backup.
I'll have to wait until I see how they're attached, but I'll probably want a steel bracket to reinforce the security of the headlight assemblies.

 

I should cover my VIN # too, since I was watching a news report on car thieves using the VIN # and going to the dealership to get a set of keys to steal the car now.

 

Just thought I'd let you know....the way the $700 alarm system was likely defeated was a simple box that is available to retailers of alarms who install them (thus basically anyone with the right connection...like me who learned all this from a guy who does the installs). This box is like a master key in that it quickly runs through all the various codes of whatever brand alarm is installed and in seconds, transmits the same thing your button on your keychain does to turn off the alarm and unlock the doors.

I plan to put a kill switch in... but I'm trying to come up with electronic ideas for defeating the universal disarming switches (like a separate button that has to be pushed or the alarm goes off anyway, etc) I have radio-electronics geek friends who will know how to do this well. Gonna have to ask, then slow them down fifteen times to understand wtf they're talking about and get them to write out the shopping list of exactly what I need. We are probably going to put a lot of time and effort in these babys and not a small amount of money, so I hope everyone gets downright badass with security.

 

How the hell did you get your wheels stolen with your wheel locks in them?? I got wheel locks on my z-rated tires for my integra..and so far im good...plus i got a sensitive viper alarm which is passive(meaning it will automatically arm itself in 30 seconds and go off anytime anything is touched, open, or the engine is on and wont go off until the remote or my valet switch which is secretly hidden deactivates it . In all...id say my alarm system wont stop the thieves but i know for sure they'll attract a lot of attention before actually being able to steal my car.

 

I have a friend who had his Integra stolen...and months later when it was recovered from a chop shop, the wheels were still there....why? He installed 4 different wheel locks on each wheel! crazy...and a bit overkill, but it worked for him. huhu

MyCre8n=Evlshn, I certainly don't doubt that items like you describe exist out there for thieves. But with the Cliffords, there are like 16 million codes from which it chooses one randomly. I doubt the system could toggle through em all that quickly.

TwiNpnOy84, your Viper alarm is manufactured by DEI...the same company that makes Clifford systems. And as such the two brands share almost all of their electronic components with each other. So if a thief could get into my Clifford alarmed car without a chirp, they could certainly do the same to yours. If you really care about your cars security, you will install another passive layer.

SC~

 

Dude, all you have to do with a wheel lock is torque the damn thing untill it pops. Sometimes the whole thread will break and sometimes it will just strip the bolt right off. Chop shops don't care if there is a wheel lock on the car. They'll just break that damn thing off and replace the threaded stud.

 

Well....then again there's insurance......haha...i just get me some brand new tires then...

to Stvbreal... that's not true because my cousin has some lock nuts on his tires which people from Pep Boys can't even take off...(my cousin's wife lost the key) Some are hard as hell to take off

 

I'm sure there are a few chop shops out there that this will not stop them. They are experts at cutting up cars. Hell, they'll take a plasma torch to it. HAHAHA

 

stvbreal,

I'm not sure where you got that info from, but it's not entirely true. Sure there are some cheap-o brands of wheel locks that are made from 3rd world cheap, soft pot metals. It wouldn't take much to bend em or break em.

But good ones are not made that way (McGaurds come to mind). And good ones are made in such a way that if you don't have the proper key, it is very difficult to apply any torque on the nut to turn it at all, much less have the ability to put enough torque on em to break them entirely.

SC~

 

Shops use wheel lock breakers to take them off. I had to have mine broken off because they lost the key. Its this thing that looks like the wheel lock key but it has sharp teeth inside. They hammer it with a heavy mallet on your lug, rendering it unusable. Then they slowly take it off.

 

Hopefully not... I was hoping that would be the last thing the new Evolution would be, after all (no offense) but it's not a Honda... Those usually tend to be thieft magnets, since it's so easy to part out the car and fit parts on other Hondas and Acruas.