Immobiliser

[Oldthumper]

I was browsing through my newly arrived Club Lotus Magazine, and spotted an advert for the Sure Touch Classic Car Immobiliser. As our cars are becoming so valuable,I was obviously intrigued,and had to look it up.
It comprises basically a"black box,and a couple of couple of touch points" you switch on the ignition, and unless you touch both of the touch points,nothing happens.
Am I missing something,or am I alone in thinking that this would only deter the most amateur of thieves?
One of my fears when using any vehicle of this era is how easy they are to start and run without a key,and I cannot see this system changing that situation.
I am not wishing to start a fight with anyone,but would just be very interested in hearing other people's views,and hopefully being convinced that I should indeed buy one myself!

Ray S4 fhc, now happily retired ( Me, not the car!)

[mbell]

I agree with you. Pretty much anyone can start the car by adding power supply to coil and jumping the starter or bump start. Even easier if you have the push button solenoid!

The tack I have taken is a remote controlled battery kill switch on the battery hidden under the boot floor. This means people have to at least find that and work around it to get the car. I also have the fuel pump and elec ignition on a fused relay so can disable power to them by removing a fuse. Of course none of this will stop them taking the car but does make it a little less straightforward and more time consuming.

[richardcox_lotus]

I have one of these to wrap around the pedals...

http://www.driverstechnology.co.uk/bullock.htm

[Oldthumper]

Now that one does make sense to me, Richard. Well made,simple,reliable.

Ray s4 fhc

[DrinkMan]

Here in USA, we have a good theft prevention system on our old cars - a third pedal!

http://jalopnik.com/three-would-be-carjackers-thwarted-by-manual-transmissi-1502685486

[elanfan1]

I think the beauty of the Sure Touch is no one should know you have one fitted - as long as you don't make the 2 touch points obvious and your starting routine looks natural. There are various levels of things you can disable with the system. I'm sure it automatically resets too so if a thief car jacked you for instance the next time they tried to start it they wouldn't be able to.

There's not much you will be able to do if a professional thief wants your car whatever you protect it with, ultimately they'll lift it onto a transporter, a gps tracked alarm might help with that but a professional would find and disable it.

A reasonable level of protection and deterrence is all you can do. As a former insurance company security surveyor tasked sometimes with protecting ?100,000's of highly attractive stock I ought to start a thread on how to protect your garage. If there's some interest I might.

[Oldthumper]

Good points,thanks Steve.
And I for one would be interested in getting a discussion going about garage security.

Ray S4fhc

[UAB807F]

A reasonable level of protection and deterrence is all you can do. As a former insurance company security surveyor tasked sometimes with protecting ?100,000's of highly attractive stock I ought to start a thread on how to protect your garage. If there's some interest I might.

Yes, I'd be interested to hear your experience & views on what's available these days as well.

Brian

[KevJ+2]

Can't beat old technology

images-269x187.jpg (38.37 KiB) Viewed 1568 times

[Galwaylotus]

I installed a Black Box electronic ignition controller. When I'm not in the car I take the controller into the house. As the distributor weights are wired immobile, the car won't run (enough to drive it anyway). Works for me.

[elanfan1]

As I was asked by a couple of folk above I've just posted a new thread:

free-parking-f45/garage-security-t37680.html

[jono]

I fitted a remote solenoid battery switch - it sits on the battery post under the boot floor and is operated with a key fob 'plipper'

More in response to being paranoid about the thing catching fire but it makes for a nice security measure as well.

Whenever I leave the car, the battery is switched off. Great peace of mind.

[originalsprint]

Interesting, good, solid replies here re. keeping our cars safe. Obviously it's good to put two or three forms of car security on the car when it's unattended - especially if the car is stored in a location away from home. I fitted a Sure Touch more as an anti car jacking unit. As our cars become more valuable I felt this was becoming more of a threat than stealing from a garage or wherever as the cars are quite "exposed" when out and about...thieves don't now break into a home to steal a mobile phone they do it in the street! I may be over cautious here but if this should happen, the thief would have to figure it all out in order to make off with it. Also, at times when one stops for petrol and goes into pay, the car is perfectly safe. Apparently they are selling a lot of units to very modern cars that the thieves can hack into with a laptop. Seems it's saved quite a few high end ones and, at the other end of the scale, Ford Transits!...oh dear the times we live in..

[billwill]

A recent trick which is being used in London apparently, applies to expensive cars that have an electronic card instead of a key. The car unlocks when the card is near and locks when you walk away from the car.

Normally if the car is outside your house and the key-card is inside that is too far to unlock the car but thieves are using an electronic amplifier to pick up the card signal from inside the house & feed it to the car, which then unlocks (and starts ? ). So they drive it away.

So if you have one of these on your 'other' car, keep the key-card in a tin case when at home.

[alan.barker]

I was browsing through my newly arrived Club Lotus Magazine, and spotted an advert for the Sure Touch Classic Car Immobiliser. As our cars are becoming so valuable,I was obviously intrigued,and had to look it up.
It comprises basically a"black box,and a couple of couple of touch points" you switch on the ignition, and unless you touch both of the touch points,nothing happens.
Am I missing something,or am I alone in thinking that this would only deter the most amateur of thieves?
One of my fears when using any vehicle of this era is how easy they are to start and run without a key,and I cannot see this system changing that situation.
I am not wishing to start a fight with anyone,but would just be very interested in hearing other people's views,and hopefully being convinced that I should indeed buy one myself!

Ray S4 fhc, now happily retired ( Me, not the car!)

I thought a S4 had steering lock which is part of Ignition Switch
Alan