Car broken into today

mrblack

My wife's car was broken into today in Ashbourne while she was parked in Lidl for an hour and a half in broad daylight. The thieves managed to open the drivers door by somehow cutting the electric cables running from the car to the door which control the electric windows, central locking and electric mirrors. They did this without doing any damage whatsoever to the paintwork or panels which baffles me. Its a Peugeot 5008 bought new on 1st October. Hopefully it won't cost a packet to fix the wiring (plug and play fix I hope). Just wondering if anyone has heard of this trick before and if it can be prevented from reoccurring. I am wondering if this vulnerability is specific to this model or make.

MrBlack

squod

mrblack wrote: »

in Lidl for an hour and a half

I'd be more concerned about my wife being ''in Lidl'' for an hour and a half.

sogood

I have heard of a hacksaw blade being used to cut the wires running from the door pillar into the door itself. The blade is inserted into the gap between door and pillar and hey presto! A piece of woven wire mesh, like you sometimes find on reinforced hydraulic hoses might help, especially if it's a little large and so rotates when an attempt to saw through it is made. This may not be too easy to retro fit, but worth a look see?

Sorry for your trouble, it a serious bummer!!

Yakult

squod wrote: »

I'd be more concerned about my wife being ''in Lidl'' for an hour and a half.

Ah thatta way ^^^^^^^^

sogood wrote: »

I have heard of a hacksaw blade being used to cut the wires running from the door pillar into the door itself. The blade is inserted into the gap between door and pillar and hey presto! A piece of woven wire mesh, like you sometimes find on reinforced hydraulic hoses might help, especially if it's a little large and so rotates when an attempt to saw through it is made. This may not be too easy to retro fit, but worth a look see?

Sorry for your trouble, it a serious bummer!!

Thats what I was thinking, straight away I thought of that gap.

delly

This happened to my mother and brother as they had parked side by side about 6 months ago in a place not far from ashbourne. iirc the mother's car to sort was so high she went through the insurance, it could have been over a thousand or so. I presume they had to replace the door's wiring loom which resulted in the high cost.

ltdslipdiff

Common way of breaking in to French cars I'm afraid !! Especially Renaults with the plastic front wings. A long blade is inserted between the door and wing and they cut the wires, basically the metal of the blade causes a short which pops open the central locking. This doesn't always work and lots of people have come back to their cars to find the central locking not working but no sign of break-in. Its usually a way to get in to a car rather than a way of stealing it as the immobiliser is almost impossible to by-pass, especially in broad daylight. I think you'll need to sit down with the price of a replacement loom, its absolutely crazy money !!!! Feckin scum by the way, wouldn't you love to find them at it......

sogood

Would it not be possible to solder in new sections of cable between the cut sections? Pulled back into the bulkhead or door panel out of harms way/ A much cheaper (possible)DIY job than forking out for a whole new loom and would also allow the insertion of wire mesh as previously mentioned.

danjo

sogood wrote: »

Would it not be possible to solder in new sections of cable between the cut sections? Pulled back into the bulkhead or door panel out of harms way/ A much cheaper (possible) DIY job than forking out for a whole new loom and would also allow the insertion of wire mesh as previously mentioned.

IMHO you are right. I would estimate about an hours work with a snips and a soldering iron together with replacement fuse(s). Put rubber sleeves over the solder joints.
I would think the cable loom would have sufficient rigidity that the hacksaw would have made a clean enough cut so it should be easy enough to repair.

Atomic Pineapple

What was taken from the car? I presume something valuable was left in view?

rebel.ranter

It hapeened to a couple of 2004 Land Cruisers in work a few years ago, they didn't manage to get in. Only a few weeks ago a friend of mine told me that someone did the exact same thing to his 2000 Range Rover, they didn't manage to get into that either. So it is pretty common.It would be a pain to repair that properly, soldering with a bit of heat shrink would be alright I suppose.

mrblack

draffodx wrote: »

What was taken from the car? I presume something valuable was left in view?

I am told that nothing was in view but handbag and makeup case were taken from boot & that was all that was stolen-Maybe it was transvestite thief or some guy looking for a cheap Xmas pressie for the gf.

ltdslipdiff-thx for the info about the short causing the central locking to pop-that explains the mystery. I had wrongly assumed that the manufacturers would have ensured such a basic ploy would not work.

Will know the damage tomorrow

Mrblack

2qk4u

The same method was used to open the rear doors on Ford Transits years ago.

Green Hornet

We were talking about this exact topic today in work. Apparently its easily done on the Toyota Avensis too.

thenashlegend

Sorry for your trouble's! The scum on this earth!:mad:

I'm sure its easily done in any car, I know it could be on an A4 anyway!
As for the fix, my car has 6 or 7 wires running through the door and one of them snapped a few weeks ago so I brought it to an auto electrician (although I'm sure anyone with a solder gun and some colour co-ordination could manage it!) and it was a simple solder and heatshrink over it!;) So I'm guessing the same could be done with yours!
Best of luck!

mrblack

ltdslipdiff wrote: »

I think you'll need to sit down with the price of a replacement loom, its absolutely crazy money !!!! Feckin scum by the way, wouldn't you love to find them at it......

including fitting all in EURO 266 including part cost of only 46-but 2+ hours labour to open up door panel and dashboard and replace the existing connections with the replacement loom. Not as bad as I had feared from prior posts but bad enough all the same.

If it happened to my 2004 reg car I would solder the wires but as its a new car we are fixing it back to spec-Just hope it won't happen again.

Thanks for the posts

mrblack

EPM

Exact same thing happened to a guy I work withs 407 in the Kingsley Hotel car park in Cork after a Christmas work do. He thought that the lock was gone in his drivers door so crawled in through passenger side door. Only when the car refused to start did he put two and two together

eskimoparty

This happened to me on Tuesday while i popped into superquin for a roll. 5 mins max. A 04 corolla, tried to get in by the drivers door but failed and then tried the passenger door.
No way to open passenger door with a key, only on central locking. Looking like having to take apart the door panel and dash to get into it and return central locking. All other doors and boot remaining locked as a result.

€450 and a day in the garage next week to get it fixed.

Wish the just broke the bloody window. Fúckers.



rant over.

allstargaa

I am obviously one of the lucky ones in some respects!

My electric windows, central locking and electric mirrors haven't been working for about 2 weeks. I EVENTUALLY brought the car to the auto electrician today. It's a 03 and a work horse so I'm not too fussy about it (explains the unrepaired dent on the side panel!).

The Electrician called me about 15 minutes after I left his workshop to tell me he found the problem. SOmeone had tried to break into my car!

I have not idea where or when. And given that the car isn't exactly a babe magnet, there was obviously something in it that they wanted. But, I 'm not missing anything! They must have legged it before they got to take anything.

Don't know what the repair is going to cost though!

cyrusdvirus

Happened my mondeo 3 weeks ago, seems fairly common to be honest

allstargaa

allstargaa wrote: »

I am obviously one of the lucky ones in some respects!

My electric windows, central locking and electric mirrors haven't been working for about 2 weeks. I EVENTUALLY brought the car to the auto electrician today. It's a 03 and a work horse so I'm not too fussy about it (explains the unrepaired dent on the side panel!).

The Electrician called me about 15 minutes after I left his workshop to tell me he found the problem. SOmeone had tried to break into my car!

I have not idea where or when. And given that the car isn't exactly a babe magnet, there was obviously something in it that they wanted. But, I 'm not missing anything! They must have legged it before they got to take anything.

Don't know what the repair is going to cost though!

90 euro plus vat for the repair. Luckily not much other than reconnecting the cables to be done.

mfceiling

Was an easy way to get into transit vans also Op...many lads lost tools that way.
On the subject of ashbourne listen to this...my Plasterer rang me on Thursday morning to tell me his van had been broken in to..not the van but the bonnet..they had torn out most of the pipes and apparently were trying to get the head off.
The Garda saw them at it - 3 in the morning - the lads got on the roof of the house..used the oil tank as a hop up..but Garda chased them and got them.
Knocked the door at 3.30a.m and the plasterer opens the door to see the Garda with the 2 knackers in handcuffs looking to know if he owned the van...ah ashbourne!!

Capt'n Midnight

danjo wrote: »

IMHO you are right. I would estimate about an hours work with a snips and a soldering iron together with replacement fuse(s). Put rubber sleeves over the solder joints.
I would think the cable loom would have sufficient rigidity that the hacksaw would have made a clean enough cut so it should be easy enough to repair.

bit late , but if they taped some hacksaw blades or something hard to cut through beside the wires it might thwart them

if only there was some way to wire that hacksaw blade to the ignition coil

franksm

Is there anything that can be tie-wrapped onto wiring looms, like a small sheet of teflon, or something ? Something fibrous that would defeat a blade

Vicxas

My friend got his 05 Focus broken into by a bunch of skobies in navan a while back, they cut the wires running along the bottom of the passanger door frame that control the central locking and windows.