Steering Wheel Lock

sticksman

Hi all,

My girlfriend just got a new car but has to park it on the street in Dublin 8 and is wary enough of anything happening it. Can anybody recommend a decent bar lock for a steering wheel? Are they a decent deterrent to possible theft and a worthwhile investment or do they just attract attention? Is there such a product that locks onto the steering wheel and the clutch also.

Many thanks.

Renegade Mechanic

Tbh, op, I wouldnt. When a scumbag sees such a massive, visible, blatant effort to thwart them, they may well just break some windows out of sheer spite. Just so they could do something, anything at all that would negatively affect you. What sort of car is it?

sticksman

Renegade Mechanic wrote: »

Tbh, op, I wouldnt. When a scumbag sees such a massive, visible, blatant effort to thwart them, they may well just break some windows out of sheer spite. Just so they could do something, anything at all that would negatively affect you. What sort of car is it?

Audi A3. It's not a new one or anything but it's her first "premium" car so I suppose she's a bit nervous of leaving it on the street at the moment.

Renegade Mechanic

sticksman wrote: »

Audi A3. It's not a new one or anything but it's her first "premium" car so I suppose she's a bit nervous of leaving it on the street at the moment.

Not a bad car . Perhaps Im a tad too cagey with this, in any case Im sure decent advice will arrive. Myself, If its a diesel, mabye remove the tdi badge on the back as petrols are less desirable. After that, the usual "no items left around" etc etc.

sawdoubters

get alarm that disables engine

biko

A determined thief will steal the car anyway if he knows what he's doing, the aim to to make him think it's not worth and instead look for another easier target.

A decent alarm with stickers in the windows is a good start.
Steering wheel locks is an ok-ish idea but after a while people tend to not use it as much.
You can get insurance approved locks, check with your insurer what they suggest.

dgt

One of these just screams "break into me, I have something worth stealing" or "vandalize me for the craic"


Don't do it OP

Atlantic Dawn

sticksman wrote: »

Audi A3. It's not a new one or anything but it's her first "premium" car so I suppose she's a bit nervous of leaving it on the street at the moment.

That car can't be stolen without the key, she should instead just leave the keys out of view from her house windows.

RandomAccess

Vandalism is the more likely to be a problem with on street parking.
Generally newer cars like that would only be stolen by breaking in and taking the keys, forget about theft, think more about vandalism risk.

Park in a well lit area if she can. A cul-de-sac is probably the safest place to park as most vandalism is drive-by.

Donnelly117

Renegade Mechanic wrote: »

Not a bad car . Perhaps Im a tad too cagey with this, in any case Im sure decent advice will arrive. Myself, If its a diesel, mabye remove the tdi badge on the back as petrols are less desirable. After that, the usual "no items left around" etc etc.

Why?

antodeco

I have a nice big chain that's sealed with Kevlar around the steering wheel and into a mounting bracket behind the drivers seat. Both sealed with a half inch padlock. Have a gear/handbrake lock, an immobiliser and a disconnected battery. If someone wants it, they'll take it but I only want to remove the opportunists!

Moomat

For a modern car like that an alarm would be sufficient. An even cheaper option would be a flashing led to suggest there's an alarm. I'm sure I seen dummy ones before for a few euro.

Renegade Mechanic

Donnelly117 wrote: »

Why?

An increasing number of cars that are actually stolen, are stolen for dismantling and sale/ shipping rather than a joy ride with the guards or getaway vehicle or what have you. In the first case, there are far more diesel Audis in Ireland and Europe than petrol so easier sale of powertrain parts. For the other two cases, the petrol is no slouch but the diesel trumps it on power and absolutely annihilates it on range during hard driving.

P.K.M.

A big, square link chain (harder to cut) and a big solid lock!

biko

biko wrote: »

A decent alarm with stickers in the windows is a good start.

This is what I was gonna suggest. Not even an alarm, but even just the stickers themselves.

A small rectangular sticker with 'this car is alarmed' or such, on the back side windows should do the trick.

My car had this (I got them removed when I tinted the windows recently) and I thought it was a good idea (although my car actually does have an alarm, which is also quite handy).

sticksman

Thanks for the replies everybody.

If she went down the route of installing an alarm, what price range would be recommended. I see one type of alarm has a tracking device and sim card in it; a mobile phone can track the car and also cut out the ignition in the event of a break in; possibly such an alarm would be being overly fussy and more that necessary. It wasn't priced on the website but I'd imagine it would be pretty expensive.

Wibbs

biko wrote: »

A decent alarm with stickers in the windows is a good start.

A decent alarm correctly fitted is a very good start. Make sure it disables something other than the starter when armed. I'd not put stickers on however as you're just advertising the type of alarm and likely placement of same to the more clued in scum.

sticksman wrote: »

If she went down the route of installing an alarm, what price range would be recommended. I see one type of alarm has a tracking device and sim card in it; a mobile phone can track the car and also cut out the ignition in the event of a break in; possibly such an alarm would be being overly fussy and more that necessary. It wasn't priced on the website but I'd imagine it would be pretty expensive.

The tracker alarms using sims aren't great. I fiddled about with a couple and they were hard to set up right and lost signal a lot. A gimmick IMHO. A proper tracker is a different beast and pretty good as a way to recover your car if nicked. Personally I prefer the scum not getting the car in the first place.

A basic alarm system from the DEI group(viper/hornet/clifford) are usually a good bet. It's the fitting that's the trick. 9 times outa 10 installers fit the alarm brain under the dash, all too often with a fuse/relay leading all the way to the ignition/starter immobiliser. Makes it easy to bypass/disable(if the scum have nicked your keys). Much better to bury the alarm brain under the carpet, center console, get creative and make it somewhere that requires tools and panel removal to get to just not in the usual place. Ditto for the alarm siren, which again 9 times outa 10 is under the bonnet bolted to the bulkhead. Pop the bonnet and either clip the wires(if it's not a battery backup siren) or a hammer and no more noise and all the time in the world for the scum to work. Better bet is to bury it deep in the engine bay(pointing down so no water collects), or in a wing or behind a bumper and get one with a built in battery backup, so even if they pull the battery leads it'll keep on screaming.

Cost? I'd reckon around 300?