just figured id throw my .02 cents in. I used to be a certified locksmith for 3 years so i got pretty familiar with theft deterants and various other methods used to deter theives from breaking into a car. I now work for Circuit City full time and do locksmith work on the side so ive heard all the stories imaginable when it comes to cars, radios, and systems being stolen and just like others have said before me, If they want your stuff bad enough they are going to get it one way or another. I had a 98 ex and i knew how easy it was to break into it (besides throwing bricks, cinder blocks, or that annoying ex-girlfriend through the window) So what i did was a got just a basic set of door poppers and wired them into my door to work with my Viper 790 pager alarm (dont ever buy one) and then i pulled the linkage rod from the interior handle to the lock on on the outside out of the vehicle preventing anyone from opening the door from the outside or the inside of the vehicle. thus even if they did break my window they still could not open the door. Well sooner or later they finally broke into my car and knocked a hole in the door just under the lock/handle about the size of a golf ball in order to get to the linkage to unlock the door. well since the linkage was not there they busted my window and had to crawl into the vehicle through the window opening. they then busted my trunk release (i had it locked) to pop my trunk and made away with my system. So pretty much u can go to fgreat lengths to keep someone from stealing it but what ur really doing is just making them work harder to steal it. a few things u can do to deter someone is of course like i did do door poppers but if u disable the linkage u better pray ur battery never goes dead cause othersise the only way in is pop the trunk lay the backseats down and crawl to the front seat (had to do a few times) or u can bypass that which i found to be very cheap and inexpensive by running like a bicycle brake cable and tie that in with you door to where u pull the little silver ball and it opens your door manually which mine was hidden behind the fender lining of my drivers side front tire. Another cheap way to deter is by simple buying a LED light that DEI carries called a "electro illuminasant LED" which is a proll 1-2 inch square that lights up bright as hell and displays the name of the alarm which u dont have to have an alarm on your car to wire it in. the club and pedal locks also work pretty well and u can also buy a keypad kill switch (like what was used in the movie the trasnporter) to where u can program your own 4 digit code to where your vehicle will not start until the code has been entered. as far as if they steal your system or your worried about someone stealing your system which is why u havnt bought one i would recommend "Eclipse" brand head units, They give u a 1 year theft warranty on ur radio to where if anyone steals it u send them a copy of your receipt and a copy of the police report and they send u the same radio with no questions asked. (happened to a friend of mine and was real impressed with the ease of the whole process) they also offer ESN security on their headunits to where u can program a cd or memory stick to your headunit and if anyone steals it they have 3 tries to unlock the radio after 3 tries it locks up for good and the only way to unlock is to send back to Eclipse and they then return the radio not to the person that sent it in but to the person who originally purchased the radio. (had a customer come back to us and said Eclipse sent his old radio back to him after they sent him the replacement one because the guy that stole it sent it in to get it unlocked and eclipse sent him back to him and her called eclipse and got the info of the guy that sent it in and then turned the name and address over to the police who then went to pay him a visit. ok ive rambled on long enough hope some of these ideas helped cause ive had my s**t broke into before and i know it sucks so just figured id try and share some pointers. sorry for length
The clutch and brake are just mild steel. It's not that difficult to cut. Time consuming with a hacksaw... but it could be done and it's still far easier than cutting the hardened steel lock.
