Steering Lock - Deterrent or challenge?

t5pwr

When I put the steering lock on my car I am always wondering a few things:

Is putting the steering lock on my car saying that my security is bad on my car so somone will try and break into it?

Is putting the steering lock on my car a deterrent for anyone that is thinking of stealing it?

Is putting the steering lock on my car deterring petty criminals but it doesn't really matter what you have for pro's?

Is putting the steering lock on my car an eye catcher for somone that might not normally target the car but try and knick it just to prove a point?

I know that some steering locks can be taken off in seconds by some people that know what they are doing and others take longer...

Anyone have anything to add to the above or any comments????

blastman

I'm gonna go with option C.....

declanoneill

Depends on the steering lock. My dad had one on a 15 year old Lancer and some scumbags managed to get the lock off (and bending the steering wheel totally out) in about 10 minutes using a bar as leverage. It's a deterent, but (IMO) an alarm, or even a flashing LED in the dash board would be a better one.

alias no.9

Car security is all about making your car look marginally less attractive to steal than the next car. If two similar cars are parked on the same street, one with a steering lock and one without, they'll go for the one without every time. If your car has no alarm and/or immobiliser and all the rest of the cars on the street do, the steering lock is probably easier to circumvent by ammatures and they'll go for yours. Professionals will take what ever you have if that's what they want.

The moral of the story, park a few cars down from a honda civic, they're magnets for skangers and should distract any attention from your car.

Seth Brundle

as alias said they add to the deterrent value. however, no amount of chains, immobilisers, security cameras, etc. will stop someone who is determined to take your car.
It has gotten to the stage that thieves break into houses to get the keys so that they don't cause any damage to the car!

Turner

Only any use on older cars...

I saw a 05 mondeo with one on yesterday.... every car thief knows you cannot steal a 05 mondeo without the keys

If you own a 1990 civic it will make your car look less easy than the civic parked down the road with none...

But please people if you have a modern car with immobiliser do not stick one of these hideous things on your steering wheel. Im still waiting to see a Merc SL500 with a big yellow circular thing around its steering wheel:eek:

Capt'n Midnight

Scumbags can break the steering locks easily , probably with the same hollow tube they broke the window with. Big padlock and chain a much better idea,

If the car key has RF in it like most modern cars then they can't hotwire it.

Turner

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Big padlock and chain a much better idea,

Padlock and chain...

Most steering wheels are made of hollow plastic or metal... with a your talkin probably 20seconds to saw through.

Automan

You wont get this off in a hurry:

the_syco

Mate of mine just brings in the steering wheel.

Eoin

Automan wrote:

You wont get this off in a hurry:

There was a test of a full range of steering locks on the telly with ex-car thieves, and the best steering lock on the market only took them 4 minutes longer to crack then the next best one. All were taken off in under 20 minutes.

Big Balls

I have a disklok and I use it sometimes.. Can be more hassle then worth sometimes though too.

Of course everyone knows you need the keys to nick modern cars but IMO a steering lock will add more time to them not being able to take the car (perhaps enough time for a Garda car to pull up)...

Automan

eoin_s wrote:

There was a test of a full range of steering locks on the telly with ex-car thieves, and the best steering lock on the market only took them 4 minutes longer to crack then the next best one. All were taken off in under 20 minutes.

20 mins is a long time when there trying to rob your car, guarantee that the ex-car thieves were probably professionals.
You wont see your average car thieve getting this off.

MAX POWER


REVS

Eoin

Automan wrote:

20 mins is a long time when there trying to rob your car, guarantee that the ex-car thieves were probably professionals.
You wont see your average car thieve getting this off.

I would say you are totally right on that one. They basically said on the program that the difference between the products is how long they take to get off. As you said 20 mins is a long time, and this would be for a seasoned pro.

pedro ferio-vti

coincidentally I have one of these steering locks for use on my daily beater I leave in a public car park. It doesn't work since the locking mechanism is a bit screwy so I simply put it on as a visual deterrent since you can simply slide the lever around and take it off but the blindingly obvious isn't always the first thing thieves try.

However, I came out to my car yesterday after a fine days work, looking forward to the weekend. Sat into the car, tried to pull the lever back off the steering lock, and the bloody thing had locked itself this time!!!:O I have been using it for months in it's current state and it's never locked itself. >:(

So I sat there thinking what to do, started to swear for a few minutes since i'm about 40minutes from the téach in rush hour traffic and since I took the key for the bloody thing off my bunch of work keys. So I just started messing around with it since I really didn't want to pay some taxi man to take me home for the key.

Eventually after 5 minutes I was able to turn the steering wheel to the right with the door open and cleared the lever over the dash. The I simply reversed the steering lock over onto itself so it sat across the steering wheel. This was a bit of a last ditch type of effort just so I could get home on a Friday evening. So i'm not a pr0 l337 thi3f and I was able to get around it in 5 minutes since it was my car and I didn't want to damage it. I could get around another if I was a thief in under a minute if I didn't care about the car and the dash design was the same.

Was laughing thinking to myself, if I came to a checkpoint or a Gard stopped me with this thing going across the steering wheel lol

BME

Big Balls wrote:

perhaps enough time for a Garda car to pull up

:eek:
u gotta be jokin, surely??

would wanna be one helluva slow/unlucky car thief to be caught by a bi-annual garda patrol :rolleyes:

Big Balls

BME wrote:

:eek:
u gotta be jokin, surely??

would wanna be one helluva slow/unlucky car thief to be caught by a bi-annual garda patrol :rolleyes:

layke

Aye that lock would do it alright, most theives would just look in the window and just walk off.

What about those keypads that you need to enter a code or it immobalizes your engine, Clifford do them with their alarms? Please tell it's worth the 1k to get one??

Oh and if it's an amature joy rider kiddie, he'll prolly just snap your steering lock and the plough the car into a lampost when the wheel seizes up on him later.

Automan

pedro ferio-vti wrote:

Eventually after 5 minutes I was able to turn the steering wheel to the right with the door open and cleared the lever over the dash. The I simply reversed the steering lock over onto itself so it sat across the steering wheel. This was a bit of a last ditch type of effort just so I could get home on a Friday evening. So i'm not a pr0 l337 thi3f and I was able to get around it in 5 minutes since it was my car and I didn't want to damage it. I could get around another if I was a thief in under a minute if I didn't care about the car and the dash design was the same.

The reason why these locks can rotate around the steering wheel is so that car thief’s can not use the disklok to break the cars own steering lock. Since you had the keys you where able to turn the steering wheel.
A thief would not be able to do the same. They would find it imposable to break the cars steering lock.

Del2005

Big Balls

Of course everyone knows you need the keys to nick modern cars but IMO a steering lock will add more time to them not being able to take the car (perhaps enough time for a Garda car to pull up)...

If everyone knows you need the keys to rob a modern car, do you not think they will take the keys for the steering lock aswell?

Jumpy

I have a disklok. The only bad thing I can say about it is that it would take your head off in a car crash. Its seriously heavy.

pedro ferio-vti

You're hardly going to have it on while driving now are you lol

Supercell

Is there something similar for the ABC ? , cutting though them to remove a lock is obviously counter productive ?

Eoin

pedro ferio-vti wrote:

You're hardly going to have it on while driving now are you lol

Could be a really really straight drive to work

Big Balls

I had a Clifford G5 installed during the week... the disklok has been re-housed in my bedroom !!

Jumpy

Big Balls wrote:

I had a Clifford G5 installed during the week... the disklok has been re-housed in my bedroom !!

You have piqued my curiosity...whats a G5?

Seth Brundle

Jumpy wrote:

You have piqued my curiosity...whats a G5?

http://hereforgear.com/product_info.php?products_id=1064

Big Balls

Yeh, that link covers it.

They're basically the Daddy of car alarms.