Toyota Hilux Thefts - Warning To All

What about fitting a hydraulic blocker post so the vehicle cannot be taken off the drive?
You wouldn't even need it to be hydraulic? You can get removeable ones that fit into a socket in the ground. If you can add layers of embuggerance it should hopefully put the scrotes off
 
Back in the 80s, when cars could be opened with coat-hangers and ignition locks rotated with stout T-bar screwdrivers, I used to wire an earth lead to the far side of the condenser. The switch that toggled that off/on was hidden under the dashboard. Because it was not a factory solution, no criminal would know where to look for the switch. In the engine bay I hid the wiring behind the coil.
Back in the day I had sort of similar on my Sunbeam Tiger Mk1.

For those that don't know the Ford V8 took up so much room in the engine bay that the fuel pump was located under the car midway between fuel tank and the engine (and with a hatch in the rear footwell to access it). What the previous owner had done was take advantage of the circuit to then wire in a simple switch that was hidden inside the central armrest. Put it to off and the car would start and run using the fuel still left between fuel pump and engine. It'd then stop. Most likely on a good day it'd go fifty yards. The car would still try to start but with no fuel it wouldn't.

Thus giving a thief the impression that the car had most likely run out of petrol.
 
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Back in the day I had sort of similar on my Sunbeam Tiger Mk1.

For those that don't know the Ford V8 took up so much room in the engine bay that the fuel pump was located under the car midway between fuel tank and the engine (and with a hatch in the rear footwell to access it). What the previous owner had done was take advantage of the circuit to then wire in a simple switch that was hidden inside the central armrest. Put it to off and the car would start and run using the fuel still left between fuel pump and engine. It'd then stop. Most likely on a good day it'd go fifty yards. The car would still try to start but with no fuel it wouldn't.

Thus giving a thief the impression that the car had most likely run out of petrol.
my hero, I was offered a tiger for £800 in the mid 70s, trouble was at 18 I was laughed at when got an insurance quote...
 
Back in the day I had sort of similar on my Sunbeam Tiger Mk1.

For those that don't know the Ford V8 took up so much room in the engine bay that the fuel pump was located under the car midway between fuel tank and the engine (and with a hatch in the rear footwell to access it). What the previous owner had done was take advantage of the circuit to then wire in a simple switch that was hidden inside the central armrest. Put it to off and the car would start and run using the fuel still left between fuel pump and engine. It'd then stop. Most likely on a good day it'd go fifty yards. The car would still try to start but with no fuel it wouldn't.

Thus giving a thief the impression that the car had most likely run out of petrol.
You could have improved it even more by getting the fuel gauge to not work to make it more convincing, though my recollection of vehicles of that era lots didn’t work anyway
 
And now with shame I am prompted to reveal the wicked criminal past of my late mother.

The four years later to be the War Widow. In 1940 she answered a knock on the door late at night. It was the local policeman. And in his hand he held the rotor arm of her small Austin car. That he had taken by lifting the bonnet and unclipping the distributor cap. For which, the offence of failing to disable her vehicle, she was summoned to Horncastle Magistrates Court and fined, I think, five guineas. And on thinking back she never, ever, in fact declared the conviction on her FAC which she had held since 1938 renewal right up until she gave it up in maybe 1978.

I hope on her behalf I can accept the posthumous forgiveness of the SD membership?
 
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I certainly recall removing the rotor arm. That was pocket-portable.

Sometimes the coil's HT lead too, but removing the distributor cap would have been non-trivial as you would have to re-insert all HTs in correct sequence. And trickier to stow a cap in a pocket.
I was thinking the exact same thing when i read your earlier post.
I had a 1979 Opel Manta. Was only 3 years old when i got it. The first nice car i ever had. I would remove the rotor arm if leaving it anywhere slightly dodgy.

My Freelander 1 had a unique anti theft device. Any would be thief would have had to know to hit the starter motor with a wheel brace before it would engage. Also,the headgasket would have failed before they got to the end of the road.
 
Back in the day I had sort of similar on my Sunbeam Tiger Mk1.

For those that don't know the Ford V8 took up so much room in the engine bay that the fuel pump was located under the car midway between fuel tank and the engine (and with a hatch in the rear footwell to access it). What the previous owner had done was take advantage of the circuit to then wire in a simple switch that was hidden inside the central armrest. Put it to off and the car would start and run using the fuel still left between fuel pump and engine. It'd then stop. Most likely on a good day it'd go fifty yards. The car would still try to start but with no fuel it wouldn't.

Thus giving a thief the impression that the car had most likely run out of petrol.
I was involved with these as an apprentice in the body experimental at Humber Road Coventry only working on trim changes but they were far more interesting than the boring Imp variants.
 
My employer, the estate owner,has a quite extensive car collection,2 Aston Martin 2 Mercedes,a 1953 MG , hybrid 7 series BMW. Also a Sierra on a G plate, it's a shed, legal but still a shed.
It's for leaving parked at the railway station if he's away for couple of days in London,he reckons nobody in their right mind would Nick it🤣
 
I think the final full assembly of engine to car body was done at Jensen?
Yes, but some were floating about in Rootes. Then after Chrysler took over we fitted some V8s "Chrysler made" I assume to a Humber Imperial and a Chrysler 180 in its pre production life but that one was stillborn. I made up some proto 180 rear light clusters in different coloured perspex, they took me a while to polish them up well to look like production items.
 
I think the final full assembly of engine to car body was done at Jensen?
After assy & painting by Pressed Steel in Oxford the body was delivered to Jensen then adjusted to fit the engine, with hammers I had heard. In California perhaps no issue with rust.
Jensen Interceptors BTW used steel 5 inch diameter gas pipe for the two chassis longitudinals. I was told that by Jensens body engineer Brian Dyson when we worked together on engineering the new stillborn interceptor at Motor Panels in Coventry they Jensen went bust and it became the Lagonda.
Later on around 1978I met the chairman of the Jensen CV8 owners club while I was working on Ford Transit at Trafford House Basildon and he confirmed that to me.
 
Thanks for all the comments and support, it is an unfortunate world that we live in where thieves seem to be largely free of being held accountable for property related crimes in the UK. I really liked my Toyota Hilux and will properly end up with another one. I spent some time reading and looking at security solutions that are used in the UK, New Zealand, Africa & Australia to try to prevent theft, as mentioned by others it is the basic mechanical devices like pedal lock boxes, steering wheel locks that create more work for a thief. Needing more time may make a difference to the thief and they may pass on trying to take your vehicle. These devices are a major inconvenience for the owner and driver as we have to fit and unfit every time we want to use our vehicles.

Immobilizers, additional trackers, hidden switches are all good ideas with different degrees of success, depending upon the skills of the thieves. I believe that most of these thieves are pretty skilled or have been trained and educated by the people that have this knowledge. Again all of these additional items can come at quite a cost to the owner.

It's time that we need to demand better of our police and crime system to fight all levels of crime and make people accountable for all types of crime in the UK. I personally split my time between the UK and the US, the approach to crime is certainly different in the US! I'm not sure we have enough prison space to make people accountable for crime or to be able to impose meaningful detention sentences. Even if they are caught it just seems a slap on the wrist is all the system can give out.

As others commented on pedal lock boxes, I was impressed to stumble across Tran Lock of Redditch, it looks like they make a great product that would make thieves pass your vehicle by. I will certainly be buying one if I buy another Toyota Hilux, I just hate the thought of having to live in such a way where I have to fit this device every time I leave my vehicle in public.
 
After assy & painting by Pressed Steel in Oxford the body was delivered to Jensen then adjusted to fit the engine, with hammers I had heard. In California perhaps no issue with rust.
Jensen Interceptors BTW used steel 5 inch diameter gas pipe for the two chassis longitudinals. I was told that by Jensens body engineer Brian Dyson when we worked together on engineering the new stillborn interceptor at Motor Panels in Coventry they Jensen went bust and it became the Lagonda.
Later on around 1978I met the chairman of the Jensen CV8 owners club while I was working on Ford Transit at Trafford House Basildon and he confirmed that to me.
I used to service an interceptor.
It was quite a low revving V8 and the carberettas were very crude.
Changing the plugs was a nightmare!
 
My 2017 Hilux was stolen from outside my house last year fortunately police came across it the next day parked up out of sight few miles away, they leave them for a day or two to see if someone collects ie tracker anyway long n short of it, fitted a Ghost Mk 2 immobiliser once I had it back and was told by the Police that I was very lucky as these are usually out the country within days .
 
Sorry to read of your loss - seems it’s not just Land Rovers that are suffering!

I’m not technically minded enough to know how feasible this might be, but surely someone can come up with dummy OBD port located where the real OBD used to be that ‘dumps’ a very very high DC voltage into the cons laptop frying it when they try to code a new key to the vehicle! Failing that, remove & hide the ODB port & fit a dummy one in its place?

I used to breath a sigh of relief every morning that I drew the curtains back to see my Defender was still sat outside - before I finally sold it I fitted a pedal box lock, steering wheel lock & had a hidden kill switch fitted. Problem was, none of these would prevent it simply being winched up onto a flat bed & spirited away - exactly what happened to a neighbour who was left with his removable steering wheel & no Defender to put it on!
 
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