Anti-Theft Security...

[kcwa]

Had a couple guys cold knock at the house wanting to know if I wanted to sell my '90 Corolla SR5. The car is very clean and straight with 70k miles...and guess I am just a little suspicious. I told them the car was not for sale and they drove off. Just made me think for about anti-theft security, I have thought about it before this but now it is at the front of my mind. This is not the first time I have been approached to sell my car.

Just looking for suggestions on what to do: the club, battery cutoff, fuel cutoff, alarm...or what?

[SCT]

An alarm would do just as long as you can hear it. VIPER has alarms with a beeper, which means if the alarm goes off and you're about up to 500ft away it beeps so you'll know.

A club, for starters. They can't drive it, I'll go with that instead, unless they only need to drive it straight forward or backward.

[kcwa]

Originally Posted by SCT

An alarm would do just as long as you can hear it. VIPER has alarms with a beeper, which means if the alarm goes off and you're about up to 500ft away it beeps so you'll know.

A club, for starters. They can't drive it, I'll go with that instead, unless they only need to drive it straight forward or backward.

Thanks SCT. Thought about the alarm like you mentioned but depending on the sensitivity of the alarm they can go off when the wind blows...and the beeper thing is that I am usually further away than that.

The club is an idea, can just turn the steering wheel so they can go in circles instead of back and forth. Even the club can be defeated. Guess if someone wants the car that bad they will take it no matter what I do.

Just trying to get creative to think of someway new to secure the car.

[Ghostyman]

Steering wheel locks are easy to defeat if you don't care about the steering wheel. I'd also go with a battery cut-off switch (because they're easy to install) but a nicely hidden fuel shut-off would probably be the most effective of the mechanical solutions.

If they want the car badly, someone will winch it onto a flatbed and drive off. Luckily, nobody wants a '90 Corolla that bad.

[aHarmony]

Originally Posted by Ghostyman

Steering wheel locks are easy to defeat if you don't care about the steering wheel. I'd also go with a battery cut-off switch (because they're easy to install) but a nicely hidden fuel shut-off would probably be the most effective of the mechanical solutions.

If they want the car badly, someone will winch it onto a flatbed and drive off. Luckily, nobody wants a '90 Corolla that bad.

Indeed, noone really wants to flatbed a 'rolla away (maybe if it was a really nice one...but even then it's hardly realistic.)

As for general 'joy ride' theft protection, I would go with a club for starters. You can also get a Viper alarm which will make you feel ultra special with their signature 'chirp chirp!' arming sound and best of all the notification if the car is disturbed via the remote.

I would suggest an immobilizer. Car alarms don't stop things from being stolen...in fact, they're practically useless in my opinion. I'd say a good portion of people wouldn't do anything if the alarm was going off. If I was stealing a car and the alarm was going off, and I had even the slightest amount of intellect, I would make like I had accidentally set it off. Your probably better off just putting an LED blinker on the dash as a deterrent.

Immobilizers are pretty good. They're only defeatable if they get under the hood and know exactly what they are doing (they would effectively have to bypass the immobilizers special relays by putting stock ones in the relay box...chances are they probably wouldn't want a Corolla that badly to do that.) or they invest IR devices that spam codes (much like brute force hacking...generating every conceivable code possible) - many immobilizers are however designed not to broadcast any IR data so they cannot 'sniff' codes out...meaning they're going to have to blast it with some 2 gazillion (I'm barely exaggerating on the possible combinations, by the way) codes before it lets them drive the car. I think an immobilizer and a club would be the best combination of deterrent and actual prevention.

You can purchase do it yourself kits to install them. They vary from company to company but are reasonably cheap and quite reliable.

Or, you could move to somewhere where the insurance agencies force you to get them! Mine was free! (and installed!)

[REN69]

Probably fanbois thinking it's RWD.

I'd say battery cutoff and alarm.