wifesaysimadumbass

alright a friend had his total beater 2wd toy stolen out of his driveway across the alley from me last week so needless to say i would like to add a kill switch or some theft deterrent to my 85 4runner. I HATE CAR ALARMS, repeat HATE CAR ALARMS..... i use my club all the time but i would hate to lose my rig because it would be nearly impossible to replace. I would like to hear what type of kill switches some of you guys have done or seen. locations, what curcuits to interupt, any ideas about the use of the club. thanks in advance

Scofco

I'm going to have to remind you to use the search button

It's been covered a few times, with some very useful threads.

The club sucks.

Good Times

battery disconnect.

here's one of the first link from yahoo.
http://www.autosportcatalog.com/inde...cid=41&sc=3766

RobT2k

Hey Mikey- That sucks your 'hood is getting ripped off. I found a few good ideas in this thread on PBB- Clicky thing - I like a lot of the ideas over there, especially the simple/effective ones. Once I get something older that is easily ripped off I'm going to be using those tricks to keep it in my possession.

the_supernerd

I had this idea once where you could install a bunch of cheap switches linked together with a big mess of wires that is difficult to figure out. Use the kind without the on/off labels. Then install them in a specific pattern of upside down and right side up in a pattern that only you remember. Link those wires to a hidden solenoid that is inline before your starter solenoid so your truck could not be hotwired without knowing that pattern. Also attach some of those switches to the ignition and a fuel cut solenoid.

Tacoma Dude

I have the parts for this write up sitting in my garage:
http://www.bajataco.com/zr2steve/hoodlock1.html

Scofco:
Clubs do their job very well - makes potential thieves look for other vehicles. Why screw around with one when there's another vehicle parked around the corner without it?
The overwhelmingly large majority of car thieves rely on a quick in and out. None of this finesse crap with hot wiring when more blunt methods work just as well (I'm not going to say what). A Club prevents that quick in and out.

Now, I will say that there are ways to defeat the Club. Then again, how many times has it already been said? If they really want it, they're going to get it.


Mike:
Last year around this time we ran into a large percentage of 4WD vehicles reported stolen and recorded crossing the border shortly thereafter. Who knows, maybe the trend is coming back? I'll be sure to lock up my runner tight now.

Bob_98SR5

that green knob one looks like the most painless solution. maybe ill get it too

bob

nolongeraneqaddict

If your the car thief why not just carry a bigger fuse with you, open door, pop hood, put in bigger fuse, start car?

its 4am and im tired, im sure theyve thought of some way to keep that from being possible, but it has to be somewhat easy at least, because if some idiot (and theres plenty) forgets to put his knob back in then boom his car wont start. They had to have made some easyish fix to it? Because everything has to be idiot proof these days...

Anyways thats a extremely tired, its 4am, and im not going to get to sleep till 2am tonight persons views.

Tacoma Dude

Same train of thought as the Club.
If they break into a car they're now committed and under a very small time frame. If the car doesn't start they're not going to spend the time to troubleshoot the issue.

The problem is whether or not someone is casing your vehicle or the lot that you happen to park in and notice you changing something under the hood. Could be good, could be bad. On one hand you're giving a clue as to what you might have done to disable the engine... on the other hand you're also broadcasting that your vehicle isn't going to be a simple smash and grab.

Either way, worth having if you use it. And I stress IF you use it. So sad how many vehicles are recovered with security devices laying on the floor unused.

MvCrash

Greetings,
Get one of those tire boots. It shows the thief at first glance that even if the rig is started, its not going anywhere. The parking ticket folks use them all the time, they seem to be able to keep even the owner from taking their car.

venturanova1

well i bought my 4runner used from a dealership and the first time i tried to turn it on it would get power normally but the engine would jsut not even turn over, even the salesmen did not know what to do or what was going on. I came back a couple of days later and they had figured out it had been wired so that the car was grounded to its lights or headlight switch. So the car wont turn on unless you turn the headlight switch on. Which i think is a pretty effective kill switch because usually no one turns on the headlights before the car. Hope that helps...

havic

Ventura, I think that is an effective method. It's not obvious to anyone else because people don't see you popping the hood and messing around in the engine. How about when you take the car in for servicing? You would have to tell the mechanic and there goes your secret. I think that would be good if you also rigged an on and off switch so you could turn it off whenever you want. I would probably do the headlight method myself. Second would be the green knob thing. Just my $0.02+tax.

venturanova1

you are right only ppl i have told have been mechanics and its usually becuase i see them trying to figure out why it wont start. Only thing i do not like about this method is that if you forget to turn off the lights during the day for any reason your battery might drain which happend to me today! If you try this method jsut flick the switch back to off as soon as you turn it on and then you wont have to deal with it. Luckily someone told me before the battery was completly drained and it regained its charge.

fmlgno

I moved to a hood natorious for stolen cars.

I installed an solenoid kill switch with two fuses. One acted as an on/off switch. If the fuse was in and you turned the key the second fuse would pop and the truck wouldn't turn over. If the the first fuse was left out, the truck would start just fine. Both fuses were hidden.

This way I could put the fuse in at home but could leave it out when i thought it was safe. You need to keep some extra fuses handy in case you forgot and left it in, then tried to start it. (i did that a few times).

drkgypsy

Run down the hot and ground leads that to go to your electric fuel pump, and directly splice your switch into that part of the harness. Mount the switch anywhere in your cab that you feel comfortable mounting, and that is easy to reach. That what I did in my jap caddilac. and both my street cars. The 1 time some lop& lame tried to steal truck, they popped the ignition, started the truck, and only got as far as next door before it died. The poser actually woke up my neighbor yelling and cussing out my truck.Needless to say, the thief was arrested, recieved 2 yrs in L.A. County Jail, and I became a firm believer in kill switch that saved my truck. And thank the gods for light sleepin' neighbors!!!!

NE4runner

A good place to mount the kill switch would be under the seat. just conceal the wiring and make sure there insulated well.