I was just wondering how good does the immobilizer really works. I work near the industrial area of Gardena, CA., and its been said by my co-workers and security guard at work that there have been sighting of suspicious people who have been walking around our private parking lot. In the past year there has been a total of two cars that I know of that has been stolen from that parking lot, and two that have been broken into. I guess it safe to say that the security at my building does not really do his or her job. So I was just wondering on the reliability of the immobilizer, is it dependable? Also, what do you guys think is the best way to prevent theft in the sense of what technology I can use on my car. I

 

From the posts about all the stolen s2k's I've seen there isn't really anything that can prevent a pro thief from taking your car.

 

thats true. but what would be the best way to make it harder for them?

 

I think that James Bond had one of the better car thief devices. You may recall the scene where a thief was attempting to steal his car, i think it was a white lotus of something like that, and the car was rigged with explosives. Both the car and the car jacker were naturally blown to a million pieces. Unfortunaltely, this type of theft device would require a full replacement of your S2k and probably require you to serve a a 5-10 yrs in prison. Even though this method may defeat the car jacking, I do not think it would be worth the prison time.

 

Protecting your car from theft has four stages:
1. Trying to convince them not to bother with your car (stickers, lights, etcetera)
2. Trying to scare them away once they bother your car. (noisy alarms)
3. Trying to prevent them from taking the car. (disablers, immobilizers)
4. Trying to track the car (and the thieves) after they get away with it. (trackers)

If I had to put my trust in just one of the above, it would be the trackers. I prefer not to rely on just one aspect, however. But as much as people depend on #2, alarms, almost exclusively, that's the one thing I really think should be left out.

They don't do anything except piss off your neighbors who won't call the cops anyway because they want your loud-ass car taken away where it'll never wake them up again.

The current model LoJack has some nice new features. Instead of just tracking your car once it's reported stolen and activated, it has a keychain transponder that lets the system know if you're actually in the car or not. If not, then the car calls LoJack and LoJack calls you to let you know your car is moving. You then call the police a whole lot sooner than with the old LoJack system.

In some cases, by the time you could, with the old system, get back to your car and notice it missing, with the new system, the police would have already found your car.

Another suggestion, enable the factory security system light in the dash, but don't put any stickers on your car which might tell the thief what security system you have. If he's convinced you do have a security system of some kind but has no idea which one, he either has to be prepared for all possibilities or can just decide to steal the next car.

Don't buy some cheesy, ricey blinkylight you get at a parts store from the 'bling' aisle and double-stick tape to your dash. Thieves know that quality alarm systems don't have tacky indicator lights with half-assed installs.

Even better, change the color of the factory light so experienced thieves know that it's not a stock install, but that's *all* they know.

 

I concur with Krenath. I have a lojack system in my Ford 250 4x4 diesil and the police stopped the theif driving my truck within 20 minutes after Lojack informed them. The newer device regarding the ownership of the car based on the type of key used is amazing. Is the newer system cost the same or a little higher than what the normal lojack purchase and installaton runs?

 

The newer system appears to cost the same as what I had originally installed on my '01 Integra. They didn't offer me any choice of systems, so it seems that the new LoJack system is now the 'normal' one for all new installations. It isn't based on the key itself, but on a keyfob you attach to your keychain along with your key and your normal keychain transmitter. It's small enough that it's not a huge inconvenience and I have mine double-sided-taped against the back of my normal transmitter just so it makes a smaller, streamlined lump when jammed into my pocket.

Both were installed at the dealer and financed with the car.

The Installer won't let you watch the install, and won't tell you where the LoJack gets installed. He'll also caution you not to tell anyone that you have a LoJack because you don't want to warn the thief that he needs to be on the lookout for such a thing.

One difference is that the installer who put the LoJack system into my Integra apparently got lazy and hid it in way to easy a spot, so when I was working on my interior, I found it and then relocated it in a spot that wasn't obvious even with the interior gutted.

After I got the S, I searched my car for the new LoJack and haven't located it yet, despite how much of my interior, trunk area, under the hood, and under the dash I've had apart and poked around in. In my opinion, even if a thief knows I have LoJack, he'd have to have been around when it was installed to know where it is in time to remove it before the police arrive.

("Silver Bullet"? )

 

Krenath, that is some good info to know about the newer design. Lojack isntaller would not let me watch him install the device in my truck either. But it worked very well but I discovered the truck missing from one of my businesses within a few minutes. I like the new design concept much better.

Yeah, you must have a little chemistry in your background. Since my s2k is a deep metallic silver, I thought the license plate conferring something to that effect would be kool. Unable to secure the letter "u" so i went with using the letter l twice. I think it provides a little more style personally. Even though my car is has an extensive sc set up, most people do not acknowledge the meaning of it. Maybe science classes are taught differently these days. So I have not had too many cars want to race because of it except of course virtually every m3 bmw, but that is a given anyway.

Thanks for the tips on the new lowjack. I plan on looking into it next week.

 

Remember the car already has an immobilizer, so unless the thief has the key or knows how to disable the car isn't driving anywhere. S2000s are rare so not many thieves know how to drive them off - most S's are vandalized not stolen. If you activate your fuel cut out, the car is really not going anywhere without being towed or pushed.

 

[QUOTE=AGBLLET,Dec 29 2006, 12:54 PM]Thanks for the tips on the new lowjack.