Two questions
How can a professional thief get round a set of locking wheel nuts ? I thought that you would have to drill out the wheel nuts making a lot of noise and wasting a lot of time.
Did Mr Jag have a set of locking wheel nuts ?
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Two questions How can a professional thief get round a set of locking wheel nuts ? I thought that you would have to drill out the wheel nuts making a lot of noise and wasting a lot of time.
Without going into too much detail, if the wheel has got one of those plates that covers all the wheel bolts and is held in place with one \"locking\" bolt, allyou need to undo it is a pair of long nose pliers. If it\'s a single locking wheel bolt, then previously mentioned in this thread www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=i&t=67...9 is a tool to undo them: www.difflock.com/buyersguide/tools/locking_wheelnu...l
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Wouldn't the adaptor for the locking wheel nuts usually be kept in the car? (In case of flat tyre) Therefore any half-intelligent crim would just pop a window before going on to nick the wheels...
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A couple of things came out of a conversation about car theft in a pub in Birmingham the other day ...
1) Breaking into a car and finding 2 quid is regarded as a result.
2) It is assumed that all newish cars have a laptop in the boot if they are parked in a city during the day.
3) You may know the stereo is useless without the code, but it still gets sold down the local pub.
4) All stereo front panels and other removable electronic bits are *always* under the seat or in the glove box, so their removal doesn't prevent a break-in. And just because *you* take the stereo front panel with you, most people don't.
5) There are frequently people outside car parks who will follow you to see where you go, and if you go into a restaurant or cinema, for example, they then know how long they have to mess with your car.
6) Just because you think the jacket is worthless, they'll still break in to nick it.
7) Alarms are worthless, even if you can hear it, since to get a laptop out of the boot of a locked car is only 20 seconds, even for an inexperienced kid.
8) Any SUV or estate with the cover pulled over the "boot" section has something worth nicking in it.
9) Even the kids know every dummy alarm that you can buy and are not fooled.
And apparantly they don't bother with a car where the glove box, centre console and "boot" cover are open, unless they can see something they specifically want.
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Oh dear how depressing all the above is. Especially:
"Breaking into a car and finding 2 quid is regarded as a result."
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Oh dear how depressing all the above is. Especially: "Breaking into a car and finding 2 quid is regarded as a result."
I agree and will not leave half a pack of fags and a lighter in the car!
Since I got my estate (which I never leave the roller thing in place) I seem to be having less trouble than with the saloon. I am amazed by the numbers of people that cover the boot area.
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I too find this a little bit depressing. I have an estate and always keep the roller shut to hide the CD Autochanger I've got bolted to the back of the rear seat.
I think I'll move it, but can anyone suggest an alternative position. It will not fit under the front seats (I've tried).
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>>keep the roller shut to hide the CD Autochanger
Sadly, rather proving point 8.
If you can't get it under the front seats, then I don't know what you can do.
What's the car ?
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Actually, thinking about it, it depends on how your roller cover is mounted.
If it is mounted at the seat end of the space, you could leave it unconnected, but hanging down partially unrolled. It should hang over the autochanger, covering it, but look as if it is covering nothing and make the "boot" space appear empty.
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What sort of car is it? When my brother went to get his multichanger installed into his mondeo estate they wanted to screw it to the back of the rear seats. Bit stupid really as if you buy an estate odds are you are going to want to put the rear seats down to carry large loads!!! His Mondeo had a cubby hole in both sides of the boot, I think one holds his jack (could be wrong) but the other one was empty. The fitter was pursuaded to fit it in the cubby hole using a plastic bracket (unfortunatly I don't know where he got it from, but I doubt if it was specifically designed for this task) and it works well, when the cubby hole cover is on you cannot see the changer and it is relativly easy to get at the caddy to change cds. Job done.
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My wife's car got broken into a couple of years ago. They punched a hole through the door skin next to the lock. However nothing was taken, but we still had to get the door sorted out.
When we got the car repaired we said that nothing had been taken -
they said 'they'll be after your Sony Cd/Radio'
we said 'we always take it out'
they said 'they'll break in anyway just to have alook for it under your seat etc,. we are always getting these in (and named some other models with popular removable front radios).'
they then relayed this tale...
Fella brings his car in for repair after they've broken in and nicked his radio.
2/3 weeks later he's back they'd done it again - this time he'd already removed his radio.
2/3 weeks later he's back again - he had already removed his radio - and.. left a note in it's place -RADIO REMOVED FROM CAR- cheeky scroats had replied -JUST CHECKING.
Thankfully the wife's car has since remained in-tact
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I bought a new car recently and bought a set of locking wheel nuts the same day. Although I've never bothered with a steering wheel lock I believe the same principle holds: if thieves really want the wheels they'll get them anyway but the locknuts will at least stop the opportunist.
About four years ago there was a spate of Vectra alloy thefts (no lock nuts). I knew someone whose car, only a few weeks old, needed about £1000 of repairs. The damage to the sills from hastily propping it up was more than the cost of the two wheels.
I've always kept the wheel key in the car. Without it, a puncture would be much more hassle. I'm not sure of the best place to hide it though.
My recently sold Fiesta had a factory CD player. I had a much better Pioneer head unit but that sat on a shelf as I was much more worried about the theft risk. Somewhere like eBay, the Ford 6000 CD players go for £100+. The equivalent Pioneer is only worth about £40 there now. Anyone thinking of breaking in wouldn't know whether the face-off unit was worth £40 or £400.
James
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Some toe rags once whizzed one of the alloys off my car and were disturbed when the alarm went off - they actually left the jack behind. I put the spare on in the morning and went off to the garage to get a replacement. Fortunately, despite the middle of the night wake up call, I was awake that morning as I sensed something odd and pulled over after a few yards to find several bolts already missing or loosened barely holding the other wheels on.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again(yawn) what is the point of alloys for the ordinary bloke in the street?
They are expensive (very), they are nickable, they are easily damaged and they serve no useful purpose. So why?
I have them on my car as standard and I am really not interested, but you can't buy the car without alloys, why? (voice rises to crescendo)
Regards to all
Don drbe
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I've always kept the wheel key in the car. Without it, a puncture would be much more hassle. I'm not sure of the best place to hide it though.
Am I missing something here? What about keeping it on the keyring with the rest of the car keys?
clariman
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Clariman, because most wheel locks are actually a keyed socket that fits the wheel bolt instead of the normal wheel brace socket, not a yale type key. I have seen some with a keyhole so for that type fine but otherwise a socket on the keyring might make it a tad bulky. :-)
Cockle
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ALL of the above rings very true in France, only 10x worse:
Points
1) One cigarette in a packet or even an empty packet is worth a smashed window
2) absolutely any item whatsoever, (including atlas, A-Z, town guide, thermos flask, biro pen, shammie cloth) is worth screwdrivering a door for, even if you don't get it).
3)it's fun just to get in the car, smoke a cigarette, dump the ash all over the upholstery and then realise that it's too much bother to steal because of a crook log, immobilizer etc.
4) All foreign plated cars have cam-corders, passports, bags of money, luggage, jewels etc etc. Even if the car is without boot cover, glove compartment it's still got stuff under the seats so I'm going to break in anyway.
5)anything that makes the car look flash like spoiler, add ons (god forbid alloy wheels) is coming straight off, and no when will even blink an eye for a car alarm.
6)the one time i came back to my car and saw four 15-18 yr olds with screwdrivers in the locks, they looked at me and my girlfriend, then looked at each other and considering it was daytime, calmly walked away with their tools, off down the beach front, and picked up their mopeds. I had the option of starting a fight with 4 Arabs from Marseille, not a good idea!!!! No police in sight, and no one is going to come to your assistance, you can count on that!!!
7) RHD vehicles are very attractive because they can raise good money in N.African countries that still drive on the left. Yes, even you 2CV is worth having to an Albanian smuggler!!!
Hope this makes the UK sound like the pastoral dream for cars it is!
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oh and i forgot, any kind of cassett music (don't even bother with CDs) is going to be worth a break in. A friend of mine had his door srewdrivered, the cassetts played through on his radio deck and the one's they liked stolen, the classical ones left. His car was an old Clio and the casset deck worked without the ignition on!!!
ho hum, i'll be sleeping in my car tonight then!!
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