theft deterrent system?
 

I have read that the 94 comes with a theft deterrent system and I was wondering what exactly this is and if it is effective at all. Do most of you have an aftermarket alarm system in your fd's??

All 3rd gens come with an alarm. If the hood, hatch, or doors are opened, it flashes the lights, honks the horn, and most importantly -- disconnects the starter. Frankly, I don't see the point to trying to integrate an aftermarket alarm. If the thieves get past the stock alarm, I doubt an aftermarket one is going to slow them down much.

cool thanks for the info

On my keychain thing for the alarm system, it says Black widow. That doesn't sound like a stock theft deterrent system to me.. what's with that? I bought the car from a doctor and it's all stock...so idk.

And only the lock and unlock features work on it..

get yourself a PFC.

When you leave your car somewhere you think it might be stolen (ie the entire car), set your rev limited down below idle and take the commander with you... them theives will never get your car started I guarantee...lol

:D

K

haha thats a good idea

Hah, thats a great idea, never thought about that before.... rofl, thats great, kudos!

it works too...once I had to leave my car outside for a couple days, so I set the rev limiter down to 500rpm...when I went to start it, I cranked and cranked and cranked and was getting sooo pissed that it wouldn't start...then I wacked myself on the head, set the rev limiter back to 9k (:D) and she fired right up!

k

now wut if they put it on a flat bed...then ur fucked, IMO i think an aftermarket alarm is well worth it. Just buy the right one, dont pay half-ass for a shitty alarm(im gettin loud now lol). also my uncle said i should get one of these, the thing where it trances your car when stolen(i think its the called Low jack or somthing im not sure) but my whole point is that putting and aftermarket alarm is a good idea, anyone could jus rip out the ecu and put another one in and run the car once they have it in a different location,think about, how hard is it to steal a car? not hard at all. ;)
geoff

sorry, I must live in a nice part of the country, I don't hear about theives loading up cars on flatbeds and running off with them... haven't you ever seen gone in 60 seconds? they hotwire them all and drive'em away like they are stolen....dolt!!! They are stolen!!! :D

K

If they want the car, they'll take the car. Alarm systems only deter crackheads and thirteen year olds, and sometimes not even then.

Stock alarm only arms by locking the the doors with the hatch and hood sensors telling CPU #2 that they are closed. One problem I have is my hood sensor thinks it is closed when it gets cold and wet. So I shut down after heat cycled cool off (hood popped but not lifted) and go to lock, and the system arms itself. The way it should work is the system goes to wait to arm mode until the hood is closed. If thief closes hood, system arms, and if he tries to break in, the start kill is enacted. EXCEPT for the 10 second wait period built in where it goes into pre-arm (security light on, but not flashing). If he breaks in then, I'm not sure the alarm goes off. As it is now, it'll arm fully after ten second wait with the hood up/open. Then, about 45 minutes later, the hood switch pops and off goes the alarm. A little silly. Especially with me running out there like an idiot, unlocking the door to shut off the alarm. Mostly, it's the embarrasment of the WEAK ass horn going off!!!!!! Need an air horn.

Ooohh... I REALLY need one of those really trick alarms with 5 different sounds that it cycles through FOREVER at 2:30 in the morning! 'Cause that would be SOOOO effective!

Sorry...

No key chain offered with the stock system.

you could always get one of those talking alarms ;)


"step away from the vehicle"
"my pump shotgun is aimed at you, step away from the vehicle"

YEAH! My neighbor has one that shouts, "BURGLERY! BURGLERY! THIS AUTOMOBILE IS PROTECTED BY... (pause here) AN ANTITHEFT SECURITY SYSTEM. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!" three times in a row, followed by a 20 second siren. It'll do this for twenty minutes, get vibrated by a passing truck, and away we go again... love the city.

Spurvo:

My alarm functions exactly how you say IT SHOULD. I lock the car with the hood open. Go inside and wait for the car to cool off. Come outside, shut the hood, and the system arms itself. I know there was a TSB involving the alarm system on the 93s, perhaps that is your issue?

rx7raca:

You went on and on about how you should get an aftermarket alarm but didn't give a reason. The stock one already disconnects the starter, what more is an aftermarket alarm going to give you except perimeter detection? (and those are so effective... :rolleyes: ) BTW, lo-jack has many negatives, one of which is limited range. Also, how the hell is a car thief going to get my car up on a flat-bed carrier when it's parked in my driveway????

I think that nocab72's idea is the best, That make it so much easier, easier is better right? I wish that you could just wire that into a button. I have an extra PFS PMS, I guess you could do it with that but not a power FC.

Shit... no keychain! That lying doctor...sob. Well.. guess I'll be getting an aftermarket one too.. any suggestions on good brand names?

An alarm is "NOT" a theft deterent system!
 

It's only usefull function is to deter petty theft, such as your radio, wallet, jacket ...smash and grab stuff.

There is nothing wrong with stock alarm systems other than being overpriced compared to aftermarket but the same goes for stereos. Aftermarket alarms only add luxary features (dome light, delay alarm, flashing lights, auto start, etc.). Installs are done mostly by inexperienced people that do "NOT" know your cars electrical system well enough to be cutting it's wires! The brains are intalled under the sterring wheel 99% of the time, unless you pay extra. The theives know where to look (some of them are installers). The alarms are a false sense of security, since they can be easily bypassed. A simple kill switch is more effective.

It is by no means theft prevention, this is no such thing! There is however, theft recovery by several companies. Lojack takes two polices cars to triangualate your car within so many blocks. Teletrac uses GPS satelite to track your car within 100' (anything more acurate is restricted to military by law). They can also unlock your door by satelite if you locked in your keys. They do have their limits, but I won't post them.

Your car can easily be stolen by a tow truck and yes even in your driveway. No one will think twice if they see a tow truck taking your car with the alarm on. Most likely you won't recongnize or hear your alarm and other people are imune to them by now.

Police do "NOT" look for stolen cars! Your car can easily get parking tickets while stolen, as my Honda did. The officer has to enter your lic plate in to his computer and this is assuming that the person is actually pulled over for a reason and they didn't switch plates. If your car actually gets found it's because it was impounded for being abandoned and receiveing too many parking tickets.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by rynberg
Spurvo:


rx7raca:

You went on and on about how you should get an aftermarket alarm but didn't give a reason. The stock one already disconnects the starter, what more is an aftermarket alarm going to give you except perimeter detection? (and those are so effective... :rolleyes: ) BTW, lo-jack has many negatives, one of which is limited range. Also, how the hell is a car thief going to get my car up on a flat-bed carrier when it's parked in my driveway???? [/QUOTE

do you bring your out of your driveway? have you ever parked in the city thats kinda bad or have you ever park in a lot that didnt look to safe for an fd to be in. its very easy to steal a car.
dont get me wrong i think the stock alarm is pretty good, but an aftermarket is better IMO, they are much louder and i dont like how the alarm *only* goes off when something is broken into or opened. some1 could be hittin ur car with a bat in your driveway, no way your gonna know if you asleep unless you have a loudass aftermarket(or that remote thing you can put on your keys). i dont see one reason not to get a aftermarket alarm. tell some cuz all i see you sayin is how the stock one is good enough, well why not have something better?heh
jus trying to get my point across, dont think im tryin to make you look bad or anything;)
thanx
geoff

Read my post above you.

Aftermarket alarms are no better! Louder noise does not mean anything. The horn wires can be pulled within seconds and even you will assume a false alarm. You are fooling yourself just like everone else if you think it offers more protection. Neither offer any protection at all. The alarm itself can be disconnected the same as the horn. I had a $1,000.00 alarm system in my Honda and it was bypassed and stolen in less time then it took me to piss.

if a thief really wanted your car, nothing is really stopping him. I know a guy that worked for the NYPD and he told me, everything is pretty much useless if they really wanted to steal your car, see - lo jack was supposed to stop that but somehow its just now working like it should and the cars are being stripped totally or even just driven away.

just my 2 cents

I had my 93 stolen from my house when the house was being robbed. Don't leave your spare key's in the house.

Also GoRacer, I think your right. but I'd like to know more about Low-Jack, even though as of about 6 months ago it wasnt offered in washington.
And I hope no one where I live is stupid enough to think there going to get any help from the police.
If someone does get caught, they wont even serve anytime unless its like there 7th conviction. oops, I'm ranting. sorry
Eric

Get one of those alarms that pages you when someone breaks in or tells u what part of car is being touched/broken or whatever and then you can run and beat the shit out of em! :D

pager
 

i also have the alpine pager alarm when the alarm goes off so does your pager and then you can run outside and torture those basterds. with other alarms when your car is being tampered with and your far away from your car you wont be able to hear it .

How much is one of those fancy Pager Alarms?

Both Air-Rex and I live in the same county, and it is chock full of car thieves.

My mom is a cop in my town here, and when she's bored, she just goes around and runs random plates on cars, and she says she finds about a dozen cars that have been stolen each day.

Snohomish County, Washington, is the 2nd worst county in the country for Meth-heads, and as we all know, meth-heads need serious blingbling for there habits.

Plus, getting to kick the shit out of some guy trying to jack my car sounds like a fun prospect.

exactly, I'm gonna get the pager alarm too, my friend has it and it works great. This way I can find out what's going on when I'm inside a building somewhere too! I think that's the best one you can get IMO, but whatever you guys feel works is good.

Is there some sort of sensor that will tell you when something is happening to the car at all, like even if someone is keying it or something?

YUP! It tells u which part of the car is being messed with even. It has a little picture of a car on the pager even and it will show the part of the car that's being screwed with, even the truck area! I think it's best investment, seriously.

you guys are all wasting your money.
an alarm is not going to do SHIT!! practice stealing your own car. ;) its not hard. in an FC...you can get in the car in about 8 seconds...an FD is not much harder. sure there are the small things you can do to deter it from actualy being driven away.
here is an example, a few years ago me and 2 other guys were stopping in a night club to do something. we were not even in there for 10 min. when we came out...2 FD's were stolen. :( flat beds... he had an extensive alarm on the car. you know what was left next to where the cars were? THE SPEAKER for the alarm. LMAO!!!
sorry, its just funny.

with those remote things there only good up to 2 miles and they cant be reached in some buildings, as i read on and think more there is no really good alarm that can stop anybody, like rxrotary said be4...that sux wut happened to his car, i would be goin crazy. but this is the world we live in which sux...

have you guys heard about the alarms over in like poland and all over there...they have alarms where like a flame thrower comes out and shoots the guy up, electric shock door handles,and i think i heard of one where blades swing out and cut off there legs, to bad these things arnt legal in us.
geoff

I agree with you guys that if someone really wants your car, they're going to get it..but MOST thieves are going to leave it alone when they see the extensive protection you have. Also, MOST thieves are going to be driving around in a fucking flatbed either.

IMO, I think this site has the best DIY immobiliser system I've ever read about.
http://www.autospeed.com/A_0059/P_1/article.html
When I get my 2nd FD I will be using that set-up.

Here is a real inexpensive way to not have yo9u car driven away:

Install and HIDE a switch connected to the fuel pump relay. Hide it good. It's typical that if the theif cannot get the car started in a minute or less they will give-up. I had my FD stolen from a body shop parking lot. I had the PMS at the time and did have it set for 2.5k RPM, enough for the body shop guys to pull it in and work on it. The theives either rollbacked it away knew the PMS. I guess I should have removes the keypad! And yes, the cops could give two shits about your car. The first question they ask, which I think statisfies their own feelings, is "do you have coverage for theft?" INSTALL A HIDDEN SWITCH ON YOUR FUEL PUMP RELAY!!

You can also set that switch to a $1.50 Bosch relay that breaks the starter solenoid actuation electrical path (i.e. kill switch). Fuel pump would work too.

All I was saying about the hood switch is it doesn't behave the same every time. When the world is warm and dry, locking the door with the hood up goes to pre-arm, and closing the hood arms the system, and all is well with the world. Cold and wet, the system arms fully when locking the door and hood up. Then, about an hour later, the alarm goes off. Just happened again this evening. SUCH a weak little horn...

Remote activated kill switch. Silent, and they'll never get it to start. Until they pull it off the flat bed at the chop shop. Not your average meth-head, there...

They left the speaker? I'm still laughing... :)

This proves my point but it's still amazing that no one is listening? People like a "false" sense of security and will pay big money if you blow smoke up their :bootyshak

Air-Rex: Lojak is a one time fee and Telectrack has a monthly charge on top of the unit price. Lojak takes two or three police cars to triangulate a location. Teletrak work via GPS satelite just like Northstar and similar products. It will "NOT" prevent a theft but the theives have no way of knowing that it is installed and the car can be recovered. They both have a high recovery rate. Without them, there is a "ZERO" recovery rate. Police will only tell you to call your insurance and leave them alone!

Alarm pager: Ok, your pager goes off (assuming it actually works in the building your in) and you go outside and see only your alarm horn? ...then what? How many seconds do you think it takes to steal a car? Is no one paying attention here?

whoa whoa whoa. lets not ignore the fact that the batmobile's alarm system had a layer of metal fold out and cover your car. Did anyone think about that one? Sheesh

Im more afraid of people stealing the thing in my car, then the car. Like the Apex pfc, thats $1200+ 300 for the datalogit.
-andrew-

i see....:rolleyes: maybe i should start selling alarms. :cool:

the even funnier part is that the people installing these alarms have a lot of info on the cars/owners by them leaving the cars with them...we all know how many people on this board do their own work. ;) and the guys installing the alarm ar enot always the *most honest* people. trust me.

rofl.. ever wounder where all that metal was kept... i know... :moon: right in there. :D

hell with alarms. if my shit is gonna get stolen.. then oh well... the stock system is good enough.. and the PFC idea is the best ive herd in a while. not everyone runs around with a Stock rx-7 ECU :D

Thanks GoRacer, And I was thinking about recovery,
In your opinion which is better, it sounds like the Telectrack, but this is the first I've heard of it. TIA.
Eric

How about wheel boots? Hee Hee. In order to place your car in flat bed, all they have to do is place it in neutral and roll it on right? I think i've heard somewhere about alarm systems that go off when the car is elevated... something like that. Anyway, the PFC and pager alarm in conjunction sound like a pretty decent idea.

-HeX

I think aftermarket alarm systems are a waste of money. All they really do is tell you that your car was stolen.
2 of my friends had nice alarms w/ those pages. One night one of them saw their pager ringing. He looks out the window just to see his car zoom off down the street. Same thing happened to the other friend a year later.
Those thing going off by accident is a PITA as well.
Right now I have the stock system. I only plan on getting a lil remot for lock and unluck. The new Mazda's have a pretty nice and small remote. Wonder if those will work..
I want to get the Snap-off steering whee. You can just take off your steering wheel when you park you are at night. Another steering wheel will not work w/ it either.
No steering wheel = no driving.
Only way they can take it is to tow it which will cause too much noise.
http://www.snap-off.com/images/schematic_small.gif

My car was stolen by the place that installed the alarm. They made a copy of the key. The kid got into an accident making a left turn out of my street. The other car hit him and he was unconsious.

thanks for backing up what i said. :) sorry to hear about your car though. :(

Bastard got OWNED by karma.

Right now I'm doing the push button start from the s2000 and I had the idea to run a small toggle switch in-line with the relay. I'm not doing that great of a job explaining, but in essence you won't be able to even turn over the car while the switch is off. Just make sure its well hidden under the dash.

you can find a detailed write-up on the button start thing at www.iluvmyrx7.com

Matt

Racing steering wheels can be removed. Theives have used vice grips in place of steering wheels. Steering wheels can be cut of to get around the club or freon to shatter the lock. Keys and alarm remotes can be duplicated.

Someone just proved my point on the pager alerting you as you car leaves. So you call the police and they just tell you to leave them alone and call your insurance company.

Air-Rex: Teletrak is more accurate, since it can be pinpointed by computer and satelite but it has limitations (just think of cell phones). The drawback is a $14/mo fee. On the plus side, lend your car to your g/f and you can track where she is going "lol".
Lojack does not have a monthly fee but takes at least two police cars with Lojack equipment. It is "only" activated if the car is reported stolen. It's in alot of states. Teletrak is very limited, if not only CA but i'm sure there are similar companies that offer this service in other states.

Even with their limitations, there is over 90% chance of recovery within 24hrs but without it there is a .0001% chance of recovery. OK I made up the numbers, but you can tell my point. Both units will initially cost about $500.

And just to add to the holiday spirit, no they don't have to put it in neutral to get it onto a flat bed. Ever seen wheel dollies? For that matter, they can put it on the wheel dollies, wheel it to where there will be no noise worries, and off they go onto flat bed or tied to the back of a pick up. If they want it, they will take it. Ultimately, you are just trying to reduce the crackhead factor, which usually results in broken door glass. If there's nothing in it, they just keep moving. If they smash the window and open the door, the alarm goes off and the starter kill engages, and end of joyride. Anyway....

Thanks for the info GoRacer.
Eric