After seeing a mk2 stolen in the stolen car section, i thought it was about time we had a security hints and tips thread. So if you will, post up your hints and tips on mk2 security and discuss the pros and cons of each modification. I will start with a few tips ive picked up over the years. Get and Alarm / immobaliser a cat 1 if you can afford it, not only is it a deterant for thieves but it should stop the kids going for a joy ride in your motor when you leave it unlocked by accident one night. Not only is it great security, but you can also have your central locking work from your key fob and like me have your boot pop open from your fob aswell, which is really handy and makes your life 100 times easier in the rain etc. If you cant afford an alarm, get yourself off to maplin, and get a red flashing LED, they cost pennies but they will deter thieves because they think you have an alarm / imobaliser, and unless they really want the car or whats inside its not worth the hassle. Shave your door locks (plenty of tutorials for the mk1 / 2 on here if you search, its really easy), this has some pro's as it saves someone breaking the lock on the car however if your battery goes or your central locking motor stops working, you might be in for some trouble (happened to me and i had to smash my glass to get into the car.) Shave your door handles completely, my friend has done this on his Audi and pops the door open with his keyfob, however again if the battery goes your in trouble and its not to everyone's taste. Remove the door pins, you know the little things you pull up and down to lock / unlock the car, basically it means if someone smashes the window to get into the car they still can't open the doors at all, so they would have to climb in and out through the window meaning slower escape etc, which i would have thought would put most thieves off, also stops thieves bending the top of the door back and unlocking the car that way, if you have central locking you can still lock / unlock all the car doors with the key fob while driving and most alarms these days are equipped with a feature that automatically unlocks you car doors when the engine is stopped in case of emergency etc etc you dont have to fumble around to unlock your doors. (this actually helped me last year, some lads broke into my car and stole my stereo, however it took them that long to get it out after climbing in and out of my car that i caught them in the act, obviously not a fool proof solution, i bet it cost them a lot of time climbing over the broken glass etc!) If you feel you car is at risk while at home, if you have two cars, block you golf or whatever in with the newer car, a newer car is much harder to steal and usually its a less desirable car than your golf, if they cant roll it out of the drive, then they cant steal it. install a security light one thats triggered by motion, if anyone comes near the car it should light up and keep the thieves away, also i think some can be fitted with a buzzer to wake you if it is activated, and some systems will come with a camera that brings the picture up on your tv when activated so you can see whats going on outside. finally make sure you leave your car in gear handbrake cables can be cut to allow a car to be rolled away, without even getting access to the car so if you leave it in gear its much more difficult to do, also try to leave your steering lock on that way if the car can be rolled (is out of gear etc), the chances are they wont get far, lots of thieves like to roll the car down the road away from the house so they can break into it much more easily and unnoticed thats all i have for now does anyone have any tips on what you can do to stop access of the bonnet from the outside of the car, as its far to easy to get the bonnet open from outside and disconnect the battery ? also anyone have any tips on wiring in an immobaliser swich something that can be hidden under the dash etc?
if you have a switch the theif will find it by "casing the job" first i rang the council and got hold of a garage to store mine in. 30 pcm out of sight out of mind
Remove the grille and weld a plate over the triangular section infront of the catch. Also fit proper armour door plates and Volkswagen anti slim jim plates, also fitting a stainless steel torx or allen key handle screw can help as then they cant unscrew the handle then snap it off. I have done this, but filled the hole with a tricolour led, so you can see if the doors are locked, my jetta had red/green leds wired up to the original vacume cdl switch in the door, my golf has red/blue leds wired up to the 5 wire solinoid in the door.
Got a garage from the council?!?! Do most council's do this? I could do with one at uni in my estate which is a bid dodge!
Hopefully nobody would be interested in my mk2, however it has NO security devises except locking wheel nuts and a Metro stoplock. Think I might install a LED and a crappy Handbrake gear lock as a deterent. Any other cheap ideas?
Go get a disklok, you know the ones, all steel and they cover all of the steering wheel. you can get em in silver or yellow. I've used em since they came out, must be 8 years ago. U can get em cheap off their web site (or you could when the gf ordered hers, got a free bag with it too!). Welding the plate over the triangle bit in the grill stops any access to the bonnet, unless they can get in the car and pull the release handle. Worth doing though, but only down side is if the cable snaps!! Then you've got a major job to open the bonnet. Edited by: vrooooom
Sounds stupid and a pain, how about if you park near a kerb, turn the wheel towards the kerb, so the tire is just about touching it (as long as you're near enough the kerb), and then apply the steering coloum lock. That way, no rolling unless its up the kerb or that break the steering column. Another, locks crock, but how about a wheel clamp, or one of those drop dowm anti-ram posts you can now get installed on your drive way? DIY kit ain't too expensive either. Snap off kit-no wheel no steer!
My alarm doesn't have the ability to lock and unlock the doors without arming or disarming itself as well so would it be possible top wire in a button on the dash somewhere which would activate the central locking etc? That way I can get rid of the door pins and still have the ability to lock and unlock the car from the inside. Just I know my girlfriend doesn't feel to safe sometimes if I stop in a parking area on the dual carriageway for a waz without locking the doors! Would give her and me some piece of mind, especially when she passes her test and starts driving my golf!
yes you can do this, i think you have to supply an earth or something like that to the door lock mechanism and it will lock, unfortunately you might have to have two buttons, one for lock/one for unlock or something erm im sure some technical person on here will know are you sure your alarm wont lock you car doors, on mine you press the arm alarm button, and as long as the engine is running the doors lock, also if the engine is switched off if you press the arm button twice, it arms the alarm and locks the doors, but the internal sensors and shake sensors are switched off, so you can leave someone locked in the car without setting the alarm off or without having the engine on also this allows you to leave the windows or sunroof open and still have the alarm armed (especially with mine having no door pins it is still pretty secure.)
all councils supply garages for rent just some councils the waiting list is ages. for those in the epping area they have about 6 up for rent at the mo !! i was lucky to get one across the road from me
i put a massive post up when i first joined the forum sometime back near when the forum first started. made for some shocking reading, scared quite a few with the lengths crooks will go to to get your car when there's some pretty hi tech secuity on board. put the post up because there'd just been a couple of members cars nicked and the were baffled as to how these distinctive and very secure cars went walkies. i posed the question "has the car just been in somewhere to have work done?" here we go 1, you take your car in to be worked on, they copy keys and so on, help themseves to your car at there leisure.(i know a firm that has allegedly done this, i won't name as i'm rather attatched to my kneecaps) 2,you take your car in for work, some one comes in during the day pays your bill and drives off with your car (this actually happened at a ford dealership i worked at many years ago) 3 there's the obvious car jacking. 4 fishing rod through letter box to hook the keys off the peg or table by front door, (i had a customer suffer this , luckily the car had tracker fitted and it was recovered intact with it's keys) there was loads more i can think of 'em all right now, having trouble coming to terms with fact that my motors just been broken into while it's in the paint shop , but i'll do separate post about that.
and those of you with a garage...be on the look out for people following/watching you park up at night i aways do a few false turns if theres some dirt bags behind me also be wary of people asking where you live/work ,what kinda stereo you got etc etc Edited by: pigbladder
Steve: Cheers for the advice regarding the buttons. I'll have to check my alarm first to see if it does lock the doors etc as the manual I got with it is written in italian not english... Most helpful!
Where are there more details on the anti slim-jim measure? Never knew there was one! Armour door plates are good, but don't look too good [:^(] Shaved is best TBH, but is a real pain if the door seal frosts up! S
The anti slim jim plates are a vag part and I have the Part nos somewhere as they are not shown on the pics in etka but are on there as a "rip plate", they fit in beween the catch and the door
what are these slim jim plates then mate any more information on them also as discussed in another thread if your going on holiday for a while or you feel your car is is extra vulnerable sounds over the top, but removing simple things like the ecu plug or the fuel pump relay will have most thievs stumped. even if they bypass an imobaliser its unlikely they will figure out whats wrong with the car and it definately wont start without these two items so unless they tow it away there is very very little chance of your car going missing. also its only one bolt to remove your ecu completely so even if they can figure it out, its unlikely it will move things like removing battery leads or distributor leads are fine but easily fixed. can someone make this a sticky please
Where is the fuel pump relay? Does some kind person have a pic of the engine bay with an arrow or something so I know what to remove
