originally posted by davidchau
Winter is here and its getting dark around 5pm here in Philadelphia, so car thieves come out earlier.
Here are some of the methods I use when installing a alarm on custom cars or my own car. I installed car alarms for 3 years during High School, have a Master MECP from Mobile Dynamics and I live in Center City Philadelphia and have seen many theft recovers, many of my customers already had alarms (installed at a local "alarm shop" and not by me) and their car was still stolen.
I thought of many ways of protecting a car under attack. Since growing up in the city, many of my friends where car thieves themselves and even they had me install their alarms. Having friends as car thieves back in high school taught me how car thieves really think and how to protect and slow them down. Any place can install your alarm, its easy to connect wires and make them chirp and blink, but I don't think its really going to protect your car under a full blown attack. In the years I did install alarms only 4 cars out of about 120 alarms I installed where stolen. Many of the cars install where still broken into, But the thieves gave up and ran away. The 4 cars that where stolen was stolen by a tow truck, person left keys in the car, forgot to turn on alarm, and one car jacking.
I am not saying your car will not be stolen but with these tips if done right will give a very good thief a VERY hard time.
1 tip: Disconnect the hood lever and hide it. When you need to open your hood just pull on the cable with your hands. Prevents a Battery attack. Wrap the cable with black tape to make it just look like another 10 gauge wire under your dash.
2 tip: Disconnect the driver side lock linkage. Your going to have
keyless entry anyways and if your battery dies or alarms acts up, just use the key on the passenger side. Prevents Slim-Jim's on driver door, and the common screwdriver under the door handle attack. Also Cuts %50 off break-ins because you only have 2 doors. Most break-ins happen on driver side door.
3 tip: When installing a Alarm NEVER use the valet switch, just wrap the valet switch around the brain.. if they found the brain they don't need the valet switch anyways. I install my alarms in Active re-arm mode, not a in passive which I hate because its such a pain in the ass when your working on your car or pumping gas.
Active re-arming means the alarm doesn't turn on itself but WILL turn back on if you dis-arm your car but DON'T open a door in 30 secs. Its for the times you accidentally hit your alarm button in your house.
4: tip: For the MR2 when installing a alarm I think the best place to put the "Brain" in a MR2 mkII turbo is above the Front air vents behind the radio, then wrap the wires in loom and run them down and thru the dash... when a car thief looks under the steering wheel to rip wires out he won't see anything but the big air vent under your kness
5: For the MR2 the hard part was placement of the siren, I run the wire on the back side of the fender after removing the weather guard in the fenderwell and then placed the siren behind the front bumper (where "The Beast" has the brake ducts) Sounds like a pain in the ass to due, but Most car thives just cut the siren wire and that shuts it up. Most shops just puts the siren in plain view under the hood or engine lid. "Where is your siren??" They just open the door, pull the hood and rip the siren out, 10 secs tops.
6: Dis-connect the truck lock linkage, I have power truck release so I just use that. Prevents truck break-ins. I have 94+ lights so I shaved both my revs lights and lock for a smoove look and saved over $120 on the lock and rev lights. I just use $20 side marker lights under my veilside bumper for rev lights.
7: A lot of times thives use this method of break-ins called Pop-in the glass out, done on the driver side mostly. Its when they stick a screw driver on top of your glass and just pry your glass out far enough to stick their hand or slim-jim in your car and hit the power lock button or lock lever over. The Glass on your car is very strong and will not break, its very easy to do on a T-Top and MR2's because we don't have a frame on top of the glass on the door. To Prevent this disconnect the lock lever on the driver side handle and wire a Relay with the starter output to shut off the power door lock switch when the alarm is armed. Test the wire that is the neg pulse given out at the switch, this is a pain in the ass to due, but this break in method is VERY common. Anyone who has locked themselves out and used a hanger to open the door knows how much the glass can flex out of the door, and most people are scared of pulling on the glass as much because its their car... car thives don't care if the glass breaks.
8: Don't EVER use those stupid Blue LED Scanners... I think the red ones are fine, but for some reason the color blue atracts thives.
Winter is here and its getting dark around 5pm here in Philadelphia, so car thieves come out earlier.
Here are some of the methods I use when installing a alarm on custom cars or my own car. I installed car alarms for 3 years during High School, have a Master MECP from Mobile Dynamics and I live in Center City Philadelphia and have seen many theft recovers, many of my customers already had alarms (installed at a local "alarm shop" and not by me) and their car was still stolen.
I thought of many ways of protecting a car under attack. Since growing up in the city, many of my friends where car thieves themselves and even they had me install their alarms. Having friends as car thieves back in high school taught me how car thieves really think and how to protect and slow them down. Any place can install your alarm, its easy to connect wires and make them chirp and blink, but I don't think its really going to protect your car under a full blown attack. In the years I did install alarms only 4 cars out of about 120 alarms I installed where stolen. Many of the cars install where still broken into, But the thieves gave up and ran away. The 4 cars that where stolen was stolen by a tow truck, person left keys in the car, forgot to turn on alarm, and one car jacking.
I am not saying your car will not be stolen but with these tips if done right will give a very good thief a VERY hard time.
1 tip: Disconnect the hood lever and hide it. When you need to open your hood just pull on the cable with your hands. Prevents a Battery attack. Wrap the cable with black tape to make it just look like another 10 gauge wire under your dash.
2 tip: Disconnect the driver side lock linkage. Your going to have
keyless entry anyways and if your battery dies or alarms acts up, just use the key on the passenger side. Prevents Slim-Jim's on driver door, and the common screwdriver under the door handle attack. Also Cuts %50 off break-ins because you only have 2 doors. Most break-ins happen on driver side door.
3 tip: When installing a Alarm NEVER use the valet switch, just wrap the valet switch around the brain.. if they found the brain they don't need the valet switch anyways. I install my alarms in Active re-arm mode, not a in passive which I hate because its such a pain in the ass when your working on your car or pumping gas.
Active re-arming means the alarm doesn't turn on itself but WILL turn back on if you dis-arm your car but DON'T open a door in 30 secs. Its for the times you accidentally hit your alarm button in your house.
4: tip: For the MR2 when installing a alarm I think the best place to put the "Brain" in a MR2 mkII turbo is above the Front air vents behind the radio, then wrap the wires in loom and run them down and thru the dash... when a car thief looks under the steering wheel to rip wires out he won't see anything but the big air vent under your kness
5: For the MR2 the hard part was placement of the siren, I run the wire on the back side of the fender after removing the weather guard in the fenderwell and then placed the siren behind the front bumper (where "The Beast" has the brake ducts) Sounds like a pain in the ass to due, but Most car thives just cut the siren wire and that shuts it up. Most shops just puts the siren in plain view under the hood or engine lid. "Where is your siren??" They just open the door, pull the hood and rip the siren out, 10 secs tops.
6: Dis-connect the truck lock linkage, I have power truck release so I just use that. Prevents truck break-ins. I have 94+ lights so I shaved both my revs lights and lock for a smoove look and saved over $120 on the lock and rev lights. I just use $20 side marker lights under my veilside bumper for rev lights.
7: A lot of times thives use this method of break-ins called Pop-in the glass out, done on the driver side mostly. Its when they stick a screw driver on top of your glass and just pry your glass out far enough to stick their hand or slim-jim in your car and hit the power lock button or lock lever over. The Glass on your car is very strong and will not break, its very easy to do on a T-Top and MR2's because we don't have a frame on top of the glass on the door. To Prevent this disconnect the lock lever on the driver side handle and wire a Relay with the starter output to shut off the power door lock switch when the alarm is armed. Test the wire that is the neg pulse given out at the switch, this is a pain in the ass to due, but this break in method is VERY common. Anyone who has locked themselves out and used a hanger to open the door knows how much the glass can flex out of the door, and most people are scared of pulling on the glass as much because its their car... car thives don't care if the glass breaks.
8: Don't EVER use those stupid Blue LED Scanners... I think the red ones are fine, but for some reason the color blue atracts thives.