Anti theft ideas?

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zags

zags

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Apr 11, 2006
Threads
39
Messages
754
Location
Phoenix, AZ
My son is moving out and taking my '92 4runner to college with him. He is moving in to an apartment complex near campus. I am a little concerned as Toyota trucks are big targets for car thieves here in AZ, and this one will stand out with all of the mods to it. It does not have an alarm in it as I have had dependability issues with them in the past. A couple of things that come to mind are to have him shift the t-case in to neutral when he parks it and installing a club. Any other ideas?
 
Discretely placed battery disconnect would do well. Possibly one that can be locked up somewhere.

Fuel relay cut off switch.

Anything that is unusual that requires turning on prior to starting. Course the catch is he has to remember to turn it off when he locks it up.
 
Honesty....If a thief wants anything bad enough they will eventually get it. All you can do is detour them with a few little things. First off dont leave ANYTHING in the vehicle your not willing to part with. Also picking a spot close and within view from a window helps. Go with a club and a keyed fuel pump cut-off switch. There isn't a whole lot more you can do, unfortunately. The only reason i like the fuel pump cut-off over the battery cut-off, is cause if the dirt bag shoves a screwdriver into the ign. and nothing happens they with continue to break and destroy more (electrical) s*** before giving up. With the fuel option they at least get false hope and after 10min of cranking it over they just assume its a POS and it might not be worth stealing anyhow. Plus if you hear a vehicle constantly turning over in the middle of the night you have time to get your gun(s)...:D
 
X2 on the fuel pump cutoff switch. If your '92 is like my '91, the blue wire running under the passenger seat is the fuel pump power. Easy to interrupt this line. The biggest hassle is taking the seat out to access it.
Btw, as a longtime apartment complex resident, an alarm that you can't hear from wherever you sleep, or that is left unattended while it sounds off will make you no friends.
 
Something easy to do that might help (if the thief is a dumas) is just unplug the clutch switch and use the clutch cancel every time. Then relocate the switch somewhere. Did that on my mons truck.
 
Old siren

This is an old trick to scare off any idiots,find an old alarm siren and hard wire it to your ign.on when your car powers up but make sure to install a micro switch to turn it off prior to turning key on and hide the siren away from drivers side and mount it somewhere on the pass. side you don't want the idiot to get to it.:D
 
Toast said:
Honesty....If Go with a club and a keyed fuel pump cut-off switch. There isn't a whole lot more you can do, unfortunately. The only reason i like the fuel pump cut-off over the battery cut-off, is cause if the dirt bag shoves a screwdriver into the ign. and nothing happens they with continue to break and destroy more (electrical) **** before giving up. With the fuel option they at least get false hope and after 10min of cranking it over they just assume its a POS and it might not be worth stealing anyhow. Plus if you hear a vehicle constantly turning over in the middle of the night you have time to get your gun(s)...:D
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Pluton said:
X2 on the fuel pump cutoff switch. If your '92 is like my '91, the blue wire running under the passenger seat is the fuel pump power. Easy to interrupt this line. The biggest hassle is taking the seat out to access it.
Btw, as a longtime apartment complex resident, an alarm that you can't hear from wherever you sleep, or that is left unattended while it sounds off will make you no friends.
Click to expand...


I agree with the fuel pump cutoff switch, the only down side is that the tweaker will probably burn up your starter and kill your battery trying to steal it....better than a destroyed dash and wiring harness i suppose...
 
One simple effective method I used on an older car of mine: Wire a relay with the starter circuit from the ignition switch. I had where turning the parking lights on would energize the relay, and complete the circuit to my starter.

You can do it with other circuits such as ignition coil, fuel pump, etc. But keep in mind if you want to do it with a circuit that is required after startup to keep the vehicle running, you will need to keep the circuit that energizes the relay on as well.

So with mine, I was able to pull the headlight knob out, start the car, and either leave the parking lights on or turn them off.
 
2ndGenToyotaFan said:
I'd bet that half the wires going to the compute would make the truck not start... And be way beyond diagnosing while trying to steal something... Fuel pump is good though. Starters are super easy to jump...
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Good point. We just did a 3.4L swap, so I know the wiring inside out. We decided on a 5 pin relay with a hidden switch that kills power to the efi relay and activates the horn when the key is in the run position.
Thanks for all of the advice!
 
zags said:
Good point. We just did a 3.4L swap, so I know the wiring inside out. We decided on a 5 pin relay with a hidden switch that kills power to the efi relay and activates the horn when the key is in the run position.
Thanks for all of the advice!
Click to expand...
:lol:I like that idea...
 
I had a friend who had his truck stolen several times. He ended up using a old foot style high beam switch for his fuel pump. He also has 2 relays for his starter, one required the door to be open, as most theives close te door to not be seen, then 2nd relay required the parking lights to be on. In the end, some theives couldn't get his truck started and took an axe to his dash and ended up writing off his truck. Watch what you wish for!
 
I remember reading on ExpoPortal about a guy with an LC in Venezuela I think and he mentioned a lot of trucks have welded tabs on the pedals and shifter that let you padlock them in place. If you got creative I bet you could padlock the transmission in reverse and the tcase in 4low with a tab welded to each, that would make any getaway pretty tough :hhmm:
 
lots of ideas over in the 40 section

A manual transmission will deter most thieves

Lots of ways you can kill the truck electronically, but that still won't stop someone from breaking a window and soaking the interior with gasoline just for fun.

You can always just chain the wheels to the axles and an axle to a lamp post

Common for the catalytic converters to get chopped out on Toyota Trucks. I'm smog exempt now so...

I like the idea of locking the transfer case in low and transmission into reverse with the wheel turned hard and locked into position. Add some automatic train horns sounding SOS and that'll get someone's attention.

GPS trackers can be had for cheap these days if you're worried about recovery.
 
Just dump a CO2 fire extinguisher through a horn placed in the cab. If you are feeling really nasty, use halon and direct it at the driver's face.

I've always thought that it should crank, but not start.
 
i've also been thinking about making black out panels made from sunvisor material for all the windows. Moreso to keep heat out, but it might deter a thief or peak their curiosity.

In my camry that i park out of sight i leave some general junk on the seats and make it look like a pos. So far no one has messed with it. The model is still in the top 10 stolen in the US.
 
Out of sight, out of mind means allot for the thief of items, but not the car it's self.

I have towels the same color as my seats and floor mats for each vehicle. Throw the towel over the stuff and it vanishes to the quick glance.
 
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