In This Chapter
► Understanding security systems and sensors
► Considering head unit security features
► Insuring your system
► What to do before and after a theft
One of the downsides of having a great car audio system is that your vehicle can become a target for thieves. Some unscrupulous lowlifes don’t care how hard you worked for your system or how much you paid for it. If you let your guard down, they’ll break in and grab whatever they can. It’s happened to me more than once, and it’s a frustrating and sometimes expensive experience.
But you can take steps to prevent theft of your car audio components by installing an alarm system, employing other measures to secure your car audio components, and just by using plain common sense. Even if your car does get hit, you can protect yourself financially by purchasing insurance that covers a car audio system. Finally, you can save yourself some hassle by preparing for a theft and knowing what to do if or when it happens.
Securing your Ride with an Alarm
It sounds like a no-brainer, but if you made a substantial investment in a car audio system, you need a security system to protect it. Although any security system short of a pit bull ultimately won’t stop a thief — if someone wants to break into your car badly enough they’ll find a way to do it — your strategy to reduce your risk should be two-fold:
To make it more difficult for thieves to snatch your stuff
To make your car less attractive as a target
Thieves often take the path of least resistance, and your car may be targeted instead of another just because it’s easier to break into. What you want to do is make it difficult for the bad guys to get at the goodies inside your ride.
The best way to both make your car less attractive to thieves and thwart them if they do pick your ride, is to install a security system. A security system’s siren can alert you or anyone close to the car that something is up. The last thing a thief wants is to draw attention to himself.
Of course, car alarms have their limitations. With so many cars today equipped with security systems — and so many false alarms going off all the time — no one pays much attention to a car alarm siren these days unless it’s their own. And you won’t know if your siren is going off unless you can hear it.
The limitations of traditional car alarms are why some car alarm manufacturers have begun offering two-way keychain transmitter remotes. Along with the buttons found on traditional car alarm remotes, these transmitters also feature an LED display that can tell you about the status of a security system (see Figure 21-1). For example, the remote confirms operations such as arm and disarm, even when you’re out of range of the siren. More importantly, the remote notifies you if the alarm has been triggered, and some work as much as mile away from your vehicle.
VIPER
Never confront someone who is trying to break into your car. You never know whether they’re armed, and protecting your car or your car audio system isn’t worth getting harmed or killed. Instead of confronting a thief, alert the police or some other authority.
The parts of a security system
In addition to remote transmitters that remotely arm a system and an LED indicator that warns thieves of an alarm’s presence, the parts of a security system you don’t see are the central processing unit or brain, which is tied to outputs that control various functions and sensors that feed info to the brain about intrusion attempts.
Two types of outputs
An alarm’s outputs control relays, which are electrical switches that activate a car’s electronic components, and consist of two types:
- A starter-interrupt output that prevents a vehicle’s starter from operating when activated, and keeps the engine from cranking (also called a starter kill).
- Outputs that remotely activate convenience features such as door locks, the dome light or headlights, the hatch latch, power windows or a sun roof, and even remotely start a vehicle so that the interior can be warmed up on cold days or cooled down on hot days.
Sensor and sirens
A starter-interrupt keeps someone from starting your car and driving it away, but sensors are the first line of defense from an intrusion. They signal to the alarm’s brain that someone is trying to break in, and the brain in turn sounds the siren. Various sensors are designed to provide specific types of protection, and you can use one or several depending on the type of vehicle you want to protect and the level or protection you want or can afford.
Types of sensors include
Entry sensors: To protect a vehicle’s entry points — the doors, trunk, hood, or hatch — a security system ties into the pin switches already in place. Pin switches are the small cylindrical switches that are used to I turn on the dome light, for example, when a door is opened. Because a vehicle usually already has pin switches in the door jambs as well as the hood and trunk, it’s simply a matter of tying these switches into the security system. If the hood and trunk don’t have pin switches, they can easily be added. Another way a security system senses entry is through voltage-drop. When a security system is tied into the vehicle’s electrical system and a dome light, trunk light, or engine-compartment lights turn on, the system senses a voltage drop and sounds the siren.
Shock sensor. A shock sensor detects a blow to a vehicle, such as when someone tries to smash a window or uses force to break into a car. Many shock sensors are dual-stage, meaning that if a small disturbance is detected, such as when someone dings your car door in a parking lot, the sensor causes the system to emit a few chirps from the siren. In the case of a greater impact, the full siren cycle sounds. The sensitivity of a shock sensor can usually be set to determine the threshold for triggering the siren. A too-sensitive shock sensor setting is usually why you hear a system sounding a false alarm.
Glass-break sensor: These sensors listen for the specific sound that occurs when a car window shatters, which is the fastest way for a thief to break in. Some even activate before a thief breaks the window and are triggered by the sound of metal scraping on glass, such as when a thief uses a slim jim tool that slides between the glass and the door to unlock the door without a key.
Pressure sensor: When a door is opened, it causes a change in pressure inside the vehicle. A pressure sensor detects this and sends a signal to the brain to sound the siren.
Radar or motion sensor: Also called a perimeter sensor, this type of sensor sends out radio waves that can detect motion within a given space. These sensors are great for protecting convertibles or any open area of a vehicle, such as a pickup’s bed.
Tilt sensor. Car thieves can simply use a tow truck to haul a vehicle away, so a tilt sensor is used to detect when a car’s front or rear end is lifted. It’s also used to keep thieves from jacking up a vehicle to steal the wheels and tires.
Other features that modern car security systems offer include
Anti-carjacking: This feature is designed to prevent a carjacker from getting away with a vehicle. If a door is opened after the engine has been I started, the driver must hit a switch or button to deactivate the carjack § mode. If the switch isn’t activated, the car’s lights flash and the security system siren sounds after a period of time (usually about five minutes or so), drawing attention to the vehicle. If the thief stops the car, the starter-interrupt won’t allow it to start again.
Valet mode: This allows the car owners to turn off the alarm system if, for example, they are handing the vehicle over to a parking valet or mechanic.
Code hopping: After thieves discovered they could use frequency scanners to capture a car alarm’s arming/disarming code when sent from the alarm remote to the brain, alarm manufacturers started using code hopping or rolling code transmission so that a different code is sent from the remote every time the system is armed and disarmed.
Active and passive arming: Most systems give the owner the choice between active or passive arming. Active arming requires an action on the part of the owner, such as pressing a button on the alarm remote, whereas passive arming requires no action on the part of the driver and is great for someone who frequently forgets to set the alarm. With passive arming, the alarm automatically sets within a given time period after the engine is shut off and the driver exits the vehicle. To disarm the vehicle upon returning, the driver has to perform some sort of action in order to disarm the system, such as pushing a button or flipping a switch, within a given time frame.
Backup battery or backup battery siren: Some car thieves defeat an alarm simply by cutting power to the battery, and hence the security system. To prevent this, a backup battery kicks in when power is cut, or a backup battery siren sounds.
Most insurance companies offer a discount if a vehicle is equipped with a security system.
A security system is a must have for anyone who has invested a significant amount of money in a car or car audio system. A thief will most likely pass up a car with a security system and target one without one instead. But in addition to a security system, there are other things you can do to protect your system, ranging from security features built into a head unit, to installing components in a certain way, to just using common sense. I cover these other security options in the next few sections.
Head unit security
Back in the day, when car stereo theft started to became a big problem, car audio manufacturers came up with the pull-out radio. In the mid- to late-1980s, it wasn’t unusual to see someone carrying around a bulky car radio attached to a pullout handle. Although this was inconvenient, it worked.
Detachable faceplates
In the early 1990s, the first detachable-faceplate radios were introduced, and it was much easier to just pop the faceplate off a radio than carry around the whole thing. Without the faceplate, the radio would be useless to a thief.
The design quickly became the de facto standard in head unit security, and continues to be today.
ESN
One manufacturer that didn’t jump on the detachable-faceplate bandwagon was Eclipse. Around the same time that detachable faceplates were introduced, the company came up with its ESN security schemes. With ESN, a head unit could be coded by selecting a key CD. If power to the unit was ever cut — when it was stolen or when the battery was disconnected for service — it wouldn’t work again until the key CD was inserted. Because a thief wouldn’t know which CD is the key, the unit is effectively inoperable.
The owner also has to register the unit with Eclipse. So if someone steals an ESN head unit and sends it in to be unlocked, Eclipse can alert the original owner and notify police to track the person who sent it in. The ESN system has been relatively successful and thieves seem to know that Eclipse head units can’t be operated — and hence fenced or illegally sold — without access to the key CD. On more recent Eclipse models that have a slot for a Memory Stick, the code can also be stored on one of those flash memory devices. Also, Eclipse began offering detachable-faceplate head units, and some have ESN as well as a detachable faceplate.
Using a layered approach
An Eclipse head unit with a detachable faceplate and ESN is an example of what’s known as a layered approach to car audio security. The idea is to put up multiple roadblocks to make it harder for a thief to steal your stuff. For example, a security system may slow down thieves, but it won’t stop them from breaking into your car if they really want to. If they do breach the car’s interior, you want to make it more difficult for them to steal your stuff. You can do this by solidly mounting your components and using non-standard fasteners, such as hex-head screws that require an Allen wrench, to foil smash and grab thieves.
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