alia176
SILVER Star
The 12volt guy has some slick kill switch circuits that tie in with your radio antenna up/down wire.
What to do for a easy anti theft device?
- Thread starter McDowra
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The 12volt guy has some slick kill switch circuits that tie in with your radio antenna up/down wire.
smritte
SILVER Star
This was actually the anti-theft device of choice when most of our trucks were born, so almost OEM, lol... I still have one in my garage....can find the keys, though.
When I was in the shop one of my jobs was repairing vehicles that were stolen and recovered. Through the 90's the thief's targeted vehicles with clubs. Most people with them didn't have an alarm to go with it. A hack saw blade with duct tape covering it will cut the steering wheel in seconds, allowing you to easily remove it. More often than not, the thief left the club sitting on the driveway where the vehicle was. Most of the vehicles I repaired over the years either had a club or had nothing.
Common areas for theft deterrent switch's were easily found as well as turning on headlights to start, pushing in cigarette lighter, Glove box and under dash switch's. The best systems I saw had a very loud siren mounted under the seat. Most people ignore alarms but when your trying to steal something, a high DB sound maker inside the vehicle changes everything.
- Thread starter
- #23
I would but I'm gonna let you put a turbo on my 1FZ-FE after we rebuild it.
If I was a thief reading this forum: starter cutout and fuel cutout sound like the most reasonable places I would go--along with every other car forum on anti-theft. Not giving away secrets, think of the signals that require our engine to start. Hint: Can you start our LC if its in drive? What about neutral? Study our wire diagrams and find a signal that is required for the the ECU and start signal. You are trying to buy time from the thief; make it difficult and complicated. Another hint: If the thief was able to start it, make it difficult to place in gear. .
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Leave a note on the windshield:
" I'm on the hill above you. 300 Win Mag, NightForce Scope, I'm good to 1,000 yds., pick another vehicle".
" I'm on the hill above you. 300 Win Mag, NightForce Scope, I'm good to 1,000 yds., pick another vehicle".
I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about this. Landcruisers are one of the most stolen vehicles here in Australia, and my HZJ80 is all mechanical. There are literally only two electronic things you can do to prevent this car starting: interrupt power to the starter, or turn off the fuel cutoff solenoid in the back of the injector pump. I've wired a kill switch to the fuel cutoff solenoid, while keeping the glow plug relay and starter working, that way a potential thief won't see any indication there's anything wrong until he tries to crank the engine, at which point it'll make a lot of noise but not fire, drawing attention. The thing is though, because anyone who actually knows these cars will realize that's all I could have done electrically, the kill switch will only stop an uneducated, opportunistic thief. For that reason, I don't have any qualms about posting some info about it here. Let's play a game: spot my kill switch:
It's hiding in plain sight, and if you know these vehicles, I've already told you everything you need to know to figure out where it is. Who can pick up on it?
Now, because as I said, a kill switch is only going to stop opportunistic, uneducated thieves, and with the price of these things going up and up, I need a backup. That's why I have an old android phone with a "find my phone" tracking app and a prepaid sim embedded in the chassis, on a permanent soak charge from the aux battery, and days of charge even if that goes dead. If someone's dumb enough to steal my rig, I'll pull up the tracking history and know exactly when they took it, where they went, and where they are now, at which point I'll walk down to the local police station and see if anyone is interested in getting credit for taking a drive and busting whatever chop shop they've taken the thing to. Costs me about $15 every six months in credit to maintain. Pretty cheap insurance IMO.
It's hiding in plain sight, and if you know these vehicles, I've already told you everything you need to know to figure out where it is. Who can pick up on it?
Now, because as I said, a kill switch is only going to stop opportunistic, uneducated thieves, and with the price of these things going up and up, I need a backup. That's why I have an old android phone with a "find my phone" tracking app and a prepaid sim embedded in the chassis, on a permanent soak charge from the aux battery, and days of charge even if that goes dead. If someone's dumb enough to steal my rig, I'll pull up the tracking history and know exactly when they took it, where they went, and where they are now, at which point I'll walk down to the local police station and see if anyone is interested in getting credit for taking a drive and busting whatever chop shop they've taken the thing to. Costs me about $15 every six months in credit to maintain. Pretty cheap insurance IMO.
TheLCProject
SILVER Star
Your diff lock switch.I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about this. Landcruisers are one of the most stolen vehicles here in Australia, and my HZJ80 is all mechanical. There are literally only two electronic things you can do to prevent this car starting: interrupt power to the starter, or turn off the fuel cutoff solenoid in the back of the injector pump. I've wired a kill switch to the fuel cutoff solenoid, while keeping the glow plug relay and starter working, that way a potential thief won't see any indication there's anything wrong until he tries to crank the engine, at which point it'll make a lot of noise but not fire, drawing attention. The thing is though, because anyone who actually knows these cars will realize that's all I could have done electrically, the kill switch will only stop an uneducated, opportunistic thief. For that reason, I don't have any qualms about posting some info about it here. Let's play a game: spot my kill switch:
View attachment 2664571
It's hiding in plain sight, and if you know these vehicles, I've already told you everything you need to know to figure out where it is. Who can pick up on it?
Now, because as I said, a kill switch is only going to stop opportunistic, uneducated thieves, and with the price of these things going up and up, I need a backup. That's why I have an old android phone with a "find my phone" tracking app and a prepaid sim embedded in the chassis, on a permanent soak charge from the aux battery, and days of charge even if that goes dead. If someone's dumb enough to steal my rig, I'll pull up the tracking history and know exactly when they took it, where they went, and where they are now, at which point I'll walk down to the local police station and see if anyone is interested in getting credit for taking a drive and busting whatever chop shop they've taken the thing to. Costs me about $15 every six months in credit to maintain. Pretty cheap insurance IMO.
Which one?
TheLCProject
SILVER Star
The FR-RR.
Here in the US the standard transmission would suffice most of the time.
Nope. Although admittedly it currently does nothing, because my broke ass is still saving up for a pair of Harrop ELockers.
alia176
SILVER Star
cause you know, I'm just laying her with my bipod hoping like hell you're gonna show up.....
alia176
SILVER Star
My daughter will be driving her own 1997 4runner next year so I got a GPS enabled tracker with built in battery. 4runners are stolen quite a bit where we live so I'm hoping this will help, on top of a slick kill switch that'll be added. That and I wanna know which house to show up unannounced with my shotgun
All any measure will do is buy time and increase hassle factor. Nothing is guaranteed.
That said, a reasonable approach is to combine techniques. E.g. both 1) a hidden kill switch and 2) a physical lock on either the steering wheel or shift lever. For the latter, it could be the infamous Club, or just a cable lock tying the steering wheel to the driver side grab handle. The objective here isn't to truly "defeat" the thief, but to make them say "screw this" and move on to their next target because it's just too much of a hassle.
None of this helps if the thief has a flatbed tow truck.
That said, a reasonable approach is to combine techniques. E.g. both 1) a hidden kill switch and 2) a physical lock on either the steering wheel or shift lever. For the latter, it could be the infamous Club, or just a cable lock tying the steering wheel to the driver side grab handle. The objective here isn't to truly "defeat" the thief, but to make them say "screw this" and move on to their next target because it's just too much of a hassle.
None of this helps if the thief has a flatbed tow truck.
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Install a parking boot. Put the key in your pocket.
Fuel pump relay interrupt kill switch hidden in plain sight with an OEM switch labeled FRIG for me. An unexpected benefit is that now I can crank the engine without it starting for a good ten seconds prior to flipping my kill switch. The cold start rattles I used to dread are now gone - I have not heard them once since I started cranking the engine to build oil pressure prior to starting.
Could be wrong, but doesn't killing power to the EFI cause a reset issue?
Been a while, but last time I looked they were all subscription-based, and the companies would not tell YOU where the vehicle was, only the cops--who might or might not get around to looking for it. Obviously they have liability concerns, but still. Woman I know had her car stolen. Weeks later, she gets a notice in the mail saying she has to pay a fine because the car was illegally parked. This AFTER it was reported stolen, mind you. Never saw that car again.
That's where the cheap android phone trick I mentioned comes in. Phones have really good GPS support, and you link it to your android account with location services turned on, and you can go to your google maps timeline and see the entire history of where the car has been. The Google "Find My Device" app gives you instant realtime location. All you need is an old Android phone you don't need, which a lot of us probably have by now (I used one I smashed the screen of), and a prepaid sim you can top up the credit for online from time to time. Cheap and works a treat. Far better than a paid service or GPS tag.
The phone is a really handy device to have linked in too. If I wanted to get really fancy, I could use the android phone to bluetooth to some hidden device in the car and to all kinds of evil stuff. Maybe turn on a hidden mic and camera, and start recording it all and uploading it to the cloud, so there's video and audio for the police when they want to prosecute. Or connect to the radio, crank the volume, and play a clip that says "To the bastard who's stolen my car, I'm an explosives expert, and have embedded enough C4 in the driver's seat to blow your balls off. Don't move. If you get up, it will detonate. Return the vehicle to where you found it, and I may choose to disarm the device."
