With the alarming and heightening rate at which cars are being stolen; I feel it is time to turn to some more advanced and electronic method of properly securing my car.
A simple "kill-switch" inline to the coil just doesnt cut it for me.
As well as using an alarm and/or immobiliser, I will be using a club lock as a visual deterrent too.
What brands/makes do people recommend/use in their cars for immobilsers or alarms. What points do these protect (doors, boot)

Is it easy to install yourself? Come on, everything on a mini is easy, well electrics anyway.
Or should i pay someone to do it. I hear the RAA fit an immob. for $200 bux. all up

RAC installed my alarm (probably same brand RAA would use - can't remember off-hand what it is though). was about $350 on special. covers bonnet, doors, boot, +ultra-sonics or whatever you call them and glass break sensor and backup battery and 2 stage (i think) immobilise. not a bad deal.

GeoffP

I've got a Cyclops touch key immobilisor fitted to my Mini. Cost $50 new from Strathfield. My brother fitted it coz he used to make his living that way. It isn't too hard, make sure the wiring is all black and the loom is wrapped up (in electrical tape or similar). Your insurance company will require it, it's Australian Standards.

The cyclops is pretty good. I hear vision immobilisors have difficulties with RF interference (or was it cobra, i'm forgetting now). It isn't a problem with their alarms though I believe.

Anto.

The VN Calais and Statesman had Cobra Alarms fitted at the holden factory. I had two Calais, and one was always having false alarms and the other would just unlock the entire car or suddenly immobilise the engine on the highway:shock:

I believe the second one was caused by RF interference as it was on a single frequency(most alarms now have rolling frequencies to confuse scanners). It was always doing it at work in Townsville, never had a problem in Brisbane.

But the first one, I had with a Cobra rep for an entire day, and he couldnt figger out why it was going so stupid.

These comments are not designed to disrepute Cobra Alarms at all, just my observations on the two cars I owned which were also admittedly over 10 years old.

Edit....... we used to have a thread on the Ausmini mk.1 which after all the replies came down to the fact, you should sit in your car with a shotgun if you really wanna keep it safe.

If they're professional , they'll get it. But the harder you make it for em, the less little annoying shitbags are going to bother you.

Taking the rotor button out is still one of the most simple and effective ways of stopping your car being TAKEN. Doesnt stop em from breaking into it

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"He's always been a dickhead, He always is a dickhead, He will always be a dickhead. So stop complaining when he acts like one."

I HAD an alarm but it went mad one day on the M2, so I ditched it. Cheap crap it was, wouldn't work half the time.

Yeah rotor button trick is good, so is fuel pump cutoff, ign kill switch, clublock, Krooklock on pedals, gear lever lock, etc. Basically slow the buggers up- they might piss off and find an easier mark.
If they really want to take it anyhow they will stick it on a tilt tray, U won't hear a thing....

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

On a rod-change, you can just pop the stick out !
Wrap the end in a baggie, stick it in the boot !!

J

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in my opinion pro's wont steal a mini to rebirth it and sell it on, as there's not enough of a market and the profit margins are too small.

so in most cases we're protecting against feral small time theifs (usually opportunists) i reckon an alarm/immobiliser and using common sense (ie. dont leave anything valuable visible in the car....especially the keys!! ) should be all you need

you can get immobilisers from as little as $60 and alarms from $130

a mate of mine works at jaycar and reckons their immobiliser is pretty good (all black wires, remote, etc) for about $130 i think...i ve never seen it or anything but he usually knows his stuff

Yeah but its all a piece of mind thing; and some insurance companies like you having them. I checked out the strathfield site; 59 bux for that cyclops immobiliser. I might go get one; $100 off.

I can't remember where I brought it (One of these electronic stores) but it is called a screamer. It has a 120dB pezio electric siren and is triped by the interior light.
It has a 10 second delay on entering the car to switch it off with the hidden switch.

The trick with them is to mount the siren
IN the car........These high pitch alarms are actually painful to hear in a confined space.

I have to palk my car in a very high theft area, and this alam has stoped my car being riped off at least a dozen times. it used to happen so often that I showed the security guard that patroled the car park where the hidden switch was so he could just reset it and lock the car up again

Minimad

Ps. you only forget to switch them off once.(OH the PAIN....Make it STOPPppp..)......never again

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You can take the boy out of the racer.........but not the racer out of the boy!

minimad can you please tell us the name and where we can get that.
does the interior light have to stay on for the 10 seconds before the alarm sounds?
(ie. robber leaves car door open for 10 seconds)
or does it trip it as soon as the light turns on

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Inconspicuously Conspicuous
Appreciation without Depreciation
forever chasing clearer skies...

People from Ausmini Mk 1 will remember my input into this topic. If you didnt read those topics, lets just say I have much experience....

Forget piezzo screamers. They might be good in new cars cos you can hide em in the mass of wires, but in minis you cant hide em very well. All you have to do is find it, and pull the wires out to stop the noise. Waste of money. Trust me.

Whats more, a good thief can recognise an alarm by the flashing pattern of the light on the dash (LED), and the sound the alarm makes when it arms/disarms. If they recognise the alarm, chances are they know how to bypass it. I know I can.....

Basically, a mini is easy to break into. Even if they dont take the whole car, they will take things inside it (eg: gear knob, clothes, cd's, engine parts....). To get in sometimes means to break things, either a lock or a window, so if you dont want any damage to the car, i suggest an alarm with microwave sensors - something that will detect movement around the car which then sets off the pre-alarm warning. Thieves dont like noise starting before they get in...

p.s: Who needs a towtruck??? A mini can be stolen using another mini and a towrope.... i've seen it done...

I didnt mean to scare people with this, but it IS reality....

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[NATHAN] -- Sold everything mini related and am back in big beautiful BMWs

It is really about basic deterents and not provoking a theft. I reckon with any mini a break in or theft are purely crimes of opportunity (someone sees something they like on the front seat, or some kids wanna see how it drives).

So I reckon just get a setup with the visible flashing light, a loud alarm so that it will be a nuisance for the thief and motivate them to be as fast as they can or just give up and an imobiliser so the car wont start straight away. And dont leave anything valuable in view.

Really a pro or just someone who knows what they're doing can bypass those "high tech" chinese security systems both black wire and code hopping in seconds - few minutes. But how many proffesional car thiefs target minis?

My brothers VL Commodore has been broken into numerous times for the stereo. Last time they stole $1000+ of stereo gear, without setting off the shock sensor until the last second (very professional thieves). It now has a microwave sensor, however it is usually turned off as my car would set it off just by me starting it. As it was parked outside it would go off all the time.

Unfortunately the car had been cased, and had he bought new stereo gear it too would have been stolen as well. He moved out and now parks his car in a high security car park, and luckily hasn't been broken into since.

Anto.

I bought a remote immobiliser kit (with central locking interface) on eBay that was intended for a Suzuki. I think it is actually a Vision unit that has Suzuki plugs and logo added. It is fitted to the van currently and is well buried into the loom behind the dash, along with a lot of other accessories circuits. I've never had the van stolen or broken into, but it has been vandalised once. Some b@rstards jumped on the roof and dneted it. Hence I now have a white roof.

I'm intending to fit an alarm to the van soon, and use the immobiliser on the Moke. No point an alarm on a moke - no doors to protect and all that flappy canvas just sets off the sensors anyway!

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

what the hell is with people jumping on the roof of minis!?!?!?! i still have dents in my roof from some little sh!theads jumping all over it one night