Paranoid about Security

zilog_jones

While I was in college earlier today, my mother noticed two girls in the driveway looking into the side of my car - now this is a typcial crappy '60s 3 bedroom semi street with small driveways with walls and gates around them, so it's not like they were just passing by or anything. On confrontation they were assuming the car was allegedly for sale, but could not explain why they thought this. Of course this all seemed very dodgy to us - I know there's a chance it was just simply curiosity, but I'm not taking any risks. This, and several recent reports of cars being broken into in college has made me think a lot more about securing my car better.

There were no items left visible inside the car, except one of those chamois demister things in the driver door and towel on the driver seat (it was damp from me cleaning it the day before).

I've since got a chain and padlock for the gate, though it's probably not gonna do much good.

Are those steering wheel locks or similar locks any good? Any recommendations/links to reviews?

How much would I need to spend to get a half-decent alarm?

I live across from a Credit Union which is well-lit and surrounded by cameras, but I don't think any are facing my side of the road. Would this be much of a deterrant to thieves?

Also, I'm not sure whether the car has an immobiliser or not. It's a '98 Fiesta LX 5dr (yes, the crappy 1.3 pushrod ) - apparently all UK spec Fiestas had them at the time, but I dunno about the Irish ones (the spec's seem to be different in other ways). There's no central locking or anything fancy about the keys except for this red piece of plastic at the top of them (they are the originals, no batteries/buttons). There's a red flashing light on the dash (integrated into the clock thing) when the key's out, but I don't know if it means anything. I don't have the manual

*Ideally* I'd love to use the garage, but we'd need to hire a skip to get all the shyte out of there :mad: Also, I've only been driving for about 6 weeks, so I can barely get into the driveway, never mind into the garage without destroying it.

Thanks for any help/advice.

h2s

If you could keep it in the driveway and get a drivepost installed. I had trouble years ago, and I found after putting a drive post no bother after that.

I got a mate at the time to make me one, this thing is huge but it works. If someone is really determined to get your car they will, something like this at least puts off the casual thief and I installed one of those security flood lights.

Another things is to leave nothing visible inside at all on the seats or floor. In work this week I heard one amazing story. It happened in Wicklow the other day where some muppet left €10,000 in an bag on the front passenger seat while he went into a shop, car unlocked, and guess what????

The Guards were going around questions locals and a work mate of mine happened to be nearby when they were asking the questions and overhead the story.

zilog_jones

h2s wrote:

If you could keep it in the driveway and get a drivepost installed. I had trouble years ago, and I found after putting a drive post no bother after that.

I got a mate at the time to make me one, this thing is huge but it works. If someone is really determined to get your car they will, something like this at least puts off the casual thief and I installed one of those security flood lights.

Driveposts sounds expensive :eek: . I'm graduating next year, so I may not be living at home much longer - and it won't be any use to my mother as she doesn't drive. All this has reminded us how the porch light decided to stop working a few years ago (probably my fault as I put it up) - we'll get that fixed at least.

Hotwheels

€10K in a paper bag, were they mad or whot !

I agree, the Metal post is a great job, another cheapo one is to get a Kill switch fitted in a hidded area of the car, I'll keep the amature scumbag guessing...

h2s

Yea the commercial posts are expensive. I got mine made for €60 and put it in myself.

Another thing, years ago I had a Micra and I bought an alarm kit in argos, I installed it myself. It save the car on one occasion. I had the car only two months when two plonkers tried to take it in the early hours. The alarm woke me up and they got a fright and legged it.

The only thing was the alarm hadn't got a flashing red light, so they did a small bit of damage before the thing went off, but it saved the car at the time.

mondeoman

zilog_jones wrote:

While I was in college earlier today, my mother noticed two girls in the driveway looking into the side of my car - now this is a typcial crappy '60s 3 bedroom semi street with small driveways with walls and gates around them, so it's not like they were just passing by or anything. On confrontation they were assuming the car was allegedly for sale, but could not explain why they thought this. Of course this all seemed very dodgy to us - I know there's a chance it was just simply curiosity, but I'm not taking any risks. This, and several recent reports of cars being broken into in college has made me think a lot more about securing my car better.

There were no items left visible inside the car, except one of those chamois demister things in the driver door and towel on the driver seat (it was damp from me cleaning it the day before).

I've since got a chain and padlock for the gate, though it's probably not gonna do much good.

Are those steering wheel locks or similar locks any good? Any recommendations/links to reviews?

How much would I need to spend to get a half-decent alarm?

I live across from a Credit Union which is well-lit and surrounded by cameras, but I don't think any are facing my side of the road. Would this be much of a deterrant to thieves?

Also, I'm not sure whether the car has an immobiliser or not. It's a '98 Fiesta LX 5dr (yes, the crappy 1.3 pushrod ) - apparently all UK spec Fiestas had them at the time, but I dunno about the Irish ones (the spec's seem to be different in other ways). There's no central locking or anything fancy about the keys except for this red piece of plastic at the top of them (they are the originals, no batteries/buttons). There's a red flashing light on the dash (integrated into the clock thing) when the key's out, but I don't know if it means anything. I don't have the manual

*Ideally* I'd love to use the garage, but we'd need to hire a skip to get all the shyte out of there :mad: Also, I've only been driving for about 6 weeks, so I can barely get into the driveway, never mind into the garage without destroying it.

Thanks for any help/advice.

if as you said the key HAS this red bit then YES your fiesta HAS got an immobiliser;)

zilog_jones

Yeah it does have a red bit - that's nice to hear
It came with a third key with a much smaller plastic bit on it and no red thing - haven't tried starting the car with it - does that work too or would it only work with the doors and fuel cap?

mondeoman

zilog_jones wrote:

Yeah it does have a red bit - that's nice to hear
It came with a third key with a much smaller plastic bit on it and no red thing - haven't tried starting the car with it - does that work too or would it only work with the doors and fuel cap?

hi m8,
that key is just to get you into the car,it will not start the car without the red 'CHIP' in it.
just a warning if you loose any keys ford will charge you a small fortune for new ones.
if you have 2 coded keys you can code more from them but if you only have 1 then its Ford only im afraid.
i can show you how to code a 3rd key if you ever want to;) .

ninty9er

It seems scumbags round here don't need anything to be on show in the car. I'm presuming you live near Christ the King from the description. My uncle lives near there and a few scumbags ripped the top of the drivers door with a crowbar.

It was an old vectra nothing special and nothing on show, but luckily they didn't know there was a drum-kit in the boot.

I also live in the general area, closer to town and 2 foreign nationals came into the driveway to look into my car. My mother knocked on the window and they continued to look and "fix their hair" in the wing mirrors.

I have a decent alarm and immob thank God, because Mayorstone might as well be 3 hours as 3 minutes away with the response you get

fletch

mondeoman wrote:

hi m8,
that key is just to get you into the car,it will not start the car without the red 'CHIP' in it.
just a warning if you loose any keys ford will charge you a small fortune for new ones.
if you have 2 coded keys you can code more from them but if you only have 1 then its Ford only im afraid.
i can show you how to code a 3rd key if you ever want to;) .

I got 2 new keys, think it was €50 for the keys to be cut and another €80 to code them

Larry David

I have a driveway ram-bar, a steering wheel lock, an alarm on the car, a sensor floodlight, as well as 4 CCTV cameras on my property (2 on the front, which would cover the car). I don't even live in a bad area, but it's piece of mind!

Now the only thing I worry about is getting keyed!

Wibbs

The trick is a layered system of security. Leave nothing on show, get a good alarm, properly fitted with flashing light (but remove the stickers advertising the type of alarm, keep the scum guessing), immobiliser, steering lock(or snap off wheel the ultimate).

A bonnet lock is a good un that really slows them down. You could even reroute the bonnet release mechanism and hide the lever if you were of a mind to. Deadlocks on the door if your car can take them. Security film on the glass and get your reg number etched into all the glass and lights. Anti hijack is another good addition and it can be fitted separately. Driveway post, cut off switch(hidden!! you would be surprised:rolleyes: ).

Security lights, and a simple thing like turning your wheel all the way to the right or left, putting on the handbrake and leaving the car in gear. It stops the scum just pushing the car out of the driveway. You could go the whole hog and put a wheel clamp on the car as well.

If a car had all of the above it would be nigh on impossible to steal the thing. I don't go along with the whole "if they want it they can steal it" mode of thinking. It's too passive, not helpful or particularly true. My car is mine and mine alone. It costs us all enough to run a car, so why let some scumbag who can't work out that the peak on his cap goes to the front and he bought trousers two sizes too big for his oven chips addled body drive off in your car with effectively your money. Sod that, make the scums life as hard as possible is my motto. I won't give the lowlifes the pleasure. The longer it'll take them to even attempt to nick your car the more likely they'll go to another one.

mloc123

I have a Clifford and a snap off wheel on mine at the moment, expensive but it gives good peace of mind knowing that it will deter local scumbags at least.

mondeoman

fletch wrote:

I got 2 new keys, think it was €50 for the keys to be cut and another €80 to code them

if you already had 2 coded keys you where robbed m8,if you have 2 coded keys all you have to do is get another one cut & then you can code it yourself,i have done it loads of times on different Fords.you can even program the remote your self.;)

qazz

http://www.niedzwiedz-lock.pl/enblokada.php

zilog_jones

mondeoman wrote:

...just a warning if you loose any keys ford will charge you a small fortune for new ones.
if you have 2 coded keys you can code more from them but if you only have 1 then its Ford only im afraid.
i can show you how to code a 3rd key if you ever want to;) .

Yeah I have what I assume are all the original keys - 2 coded ones and one small one. I assume they're the simpler static code type of immobilisers - are these easy enough to crack?

and a simple thing like turning your wheel all the way to the right or left, putting on the handbrake and leaving the car in gear. It stops the scum just pushing the car out of the driveway.

Is it OK to leave it parked in gear? Sounds like a plan, but I can picture myself forgetting I did all that and ending up stalling and going into the gates and/or wall (it's quite narrow)...

How much would I expect to pay for a good alarm? And which steering locks are good?

I am a poor student and it's just a bogger 8-year-old Fiesta we're talking about here, so snap-off steering wheels and CCTV and other fancy things would be too much IMO and financially

mondeoman

zilog_jones wrote:

Yeah I have what I assume are all the original keys - 2 coded ones and one small one. I assume they're the simpler static code type of immobilisers - are these easy enough to crack?


its called a 'pats2' immobiliser its proberly make by Bosch(siemens) & without the proper key (with transponder chip inside) it wont start.
so your car is very safe if you dont misplace your keys;)

ninty9er

zilog_jones wrote:

Is it OK to leave it parked in gear? Sounds like a plan, but I can picture myself forgetting I did all that and ending up stalling and going into the gates and/or wall (it's quite narrow)...

Far from OK it's actually recommended that you park your car in gear. Preferrably 1st gear as the roll won't be so bad if you leave the handbrake off when you get in (or a child does)

It's on the theory test syllabus

Wishbone Ash

Wibbs wrote:

I don't go along with the whole "if they want it they can steal it" mode of thinking. It's too passive, not helpful or particularly true. My car is mine and mine alone. It costs us all enough to run a car, so why let some scumbag who can't work out that the peak on his cap goes to the front and he bought trousers two sizes too big for his oven chips addled body drive off in your car with effectively your money. Sod that, make the scums life as hard as possible is my motto. I won't give the lowlifes the pleasure. The longer it'll take them to even attempt to nick your car the more likely they'll go to another one.

Most of us have insurance for that very reason.

Larry David wrote:

I have a driveway ram-bar, a steering wheel lock, an alarm on the car, a sensor floodlight, as well as 4 CCTV cameras on my property (2 on the front, which would cover the car). I don't even live in a bad area, but it's piece of mind!

LOL

fletch

mondeoman wrote:

if you already had 2 coded keys you where robbed m8,if you have 2 coded keys all you have to do is get another one cut & then you can code it yourself,i have done it loads of times on different Fords.you can even program the remote your self.;)

One of the keys was completely worn down so I needed a new one and they said they come in threes or somethin...it all seemed confusing to me alright. Twas a Ford main dealer who did it for me.

skibum

The best piece of advice i got from a "reformed" car thief was that if he saw a heavy chain and big padlock wrapped through the steering wheel he would have a look at the next likely car. If they really want your car they could cut through the wheel etc, but most of them just want to get in and drive away as quickly as possible. Any thing that would slow them down will increase the chances that your car will be still there in the morning (gets up from pc to have a quick look out of my window )

tapest

HI Z/Jones
You obviously want a cheap yet effective solution as the car is "old".
While the immobilisor is effective and will safe guard the car, unless they steal your keys, visually the best deterrent is a heavy duty chain and lock, but "U" bolt it in the passenger foot well(to seat adjuster??). Bolted to the drivers side is open to suggestion that it could interfere with normal driving. A flashing or a non flashing LED from motor factors is about €2...an inline fuse and a switch and would be thiefs can "see" your "alarm" is on. Will never flatten battery. If you want more, install second immobiliser(PM for details), with a switch and wire, very effective.
Regards
t