dash grabbing

[danny_galaga]

has anyone heard of this new trend in car theft? rather than risking all that is entailed in stealing a whole car, savvy thieves are now targeting cars with expensive onboard electronics like GPS. armed with a battery powered jigsaw (im guessing when the newspaper says electronic saw thats what they mean!) they just hack out the whole dash! the example they illustrated in the paper was a mitsubishi pajero. approx 10 grand worth of electronics in one fell swoop! the car itself was worth about 60 grand (aussie dollars, maybe 45g in us?) . apparently the damage was too complicated to fix so the car was written off!

but somehow i think nan and i will still be safe from these guys...

[Bones]

My German engineered car with its metal everything laughs at the jokers with their toy jigsaws.

[shmokes]

For someone who had his hand shattered in a motorcycle accident, I hope your face never has to suffer the same fate in that car.  That looks like an especially painful dashboard to collide with.   

[danny_galaga]

dont worry, the steering wheel will protect the dash from bones face 

[HaRuMaN]

The steering wheel is on the wrong side... 

[Bones]

I love my car. It's the best.

[ChadTower]

My Civic had the airbags and SRS controller ripped out three ---smurfing--- times before it had 8000 miles.

[Stingray]

30+ year old car owners unite! They'll never get our cars with this fancy-schmancy trick... a coat hanger will do the job just fine.



-S

[ChadTower]

Not if they can't figure out how to get the right amount of gas into the carb.  Then they can't do it without a tow truck!

[Stingray]

That's a good point. It's amazing how many people have never seen a manual choke these days, and no you're not going to get my car to start without it. I guess that's an antitheft device I'd never thought of.

-S

[ChadTower]

I had a white (aftermarket) convertible Ford EXP in college... twice, someone tried to cut the roof and steal it.  Twice, they couldn't get it started because you had to give it exactly 2.5 pumps of the gas pedal to prime the carb.  Without that, it would NEVER start.  With that, it would start every turn of the key.

First time I caught them and they ran away... second time I was smarter, called the cops from my window, and the cops chased the kid down the street and cornered him.  Almost shot him when he reached into his jacket... and all that was in there was a beer.

There is no better antitheft device than an old carburetor.

[shardian]

I had a white (aftermarket) convertible Ford EXP in college... twice, someone tried to cut the roof and steal it.  Twice, they couldn't get it started because you had to give it exactly 2.5 pumps of the gas pedal to prime the carb.  Without that, it would NEVER start.  With that, it would start every turn of the key.

First time I caught them and they ran away... second time I was smarter, called the cops from my window, and the cops chased the kid down the street and cornered him.  Almost shot him when he reached into his jacket... and all that was in there was a beer.

There is no better antitheft device than an old carburetor.

Friends always did look at me funny when I slammed the gas pedal a few times before starting in my '87 Corolla. 

[ChadTower]

They must have been young... most older folks I knew would ask "how many pumps" before trying to start someone else's car.

[shardian]

I'm only 24.  Most of the people in my age group have never used a rotary phone, a TV without a remote, a TV with a DIAL, a TV without cable,a cgi monitor pc, a (gasp) Atari, much less a carburetor injection car.

[Stingray]

carburetor injection

-S

[ChadTower]

I laughed at that too but decided to leave it alone.   

[boykster]

Yep, had a '72 duster that required 3 pumps of the pedal to get going.  Come to think of it, the 454 in my boat requires 2 pumps of the throttle before it will start too..yes its "carburetor injected" 

[shardian]

you ---daisies---...

So what exactly do you call it? Throttle body injection? Or do you just leave the "injection" part off. Technically, the air/fuel mixture is still "injected" into the cylinders, just not under pressure.

[danny_galaga]

i think you are confusing a few different things here.

first you have carburettor, which relies on a drop of pressure created by the downstroke of the piston to create a vuccu... vaaccu (christ how DO you spell it?) a suction. the resulting flow of air past the venturi causes fuel to be drawn into the airstream where it is vaporised.

then there is single point fuel injection. this is where there is one injector (or more perhaps) that are positioned on the throttle body. the injector pretty much replaces the venturi in this case.

then there is multi point fuel injection. generally ther will be one injector per cylinder positioned near the inlet valve. so when the valve opens the injector is sending its charge virtually straight into the cylinder.

note that NONE of these methods are injecting directly into the cylinder. this naturally is called DIRECT INJECTION and is commonly used in diesel engines. the charge is injected directly into the cylinder just as the cylinder has compressed the iar as faar as it can go. this causes the deisel to ignite (no spark plug). direct injection is much more costly and technical because of the extreme pressure the system has to work at. which is one of the reasons a deisel engine is quite expensive. incidentally more than one hapless mechanic has met his demise while testing deisel injectors because he got hit by a high pressure spray of deisel, going straight into the blood stream...

[danny_galaga]

oh, and i think some of you guys missed the point about what i was saying. us folk with old cars are imune from this new type of theft not because they dont want the car, but because there are no fancy gadgets to rip out. this is the pajero for example. the car was exactly where the owner had left it overnight!

[ChadTower]

We didn't miss the point.  We made our own.

Often the thief isn't after gadgets.  When they tried to steal my EXP they left the very expensive stereo in there both times, didn't touch it at all.

[boykster]

We didn't miss the point.  We made our own.

Often the thief isn't after gadgets.  When they tried to steal my EXP they left the very expensive stereo in there both times, didn't touch it at all.

Stereo was probably worth more than the EXP 

[ChadTower]

Book value, it was worth more than twice what the car was worth... with the aftermarket conversion and body in perfect shape, though, it was worth about $3500.  I know because I had to have it appraised so that the insurance company would cover it for more than the $200 book value.

[danny_galaga]

We didn't miss the point.  We made our own.

Often the thief isn't after gadgets.  When they tried to steal my EXP they left the very expensive stereo in there both times, didn't touch it at all.

well, in this case the gadgets were ALL they were after. i dont think many thieves would just happen to be carrying around a battery operated jigsaw just in case they need to knock up a coffee table 

[Stingray]

We didn't miss the point.  We made our own.

Often the thief isn't after gadgets.  When they tried to steal my EXP they left the very expensive stereo in there both times, didn't touch it at all.

well, in this case the gadgets were ALL they were after. i dont think many thieves would just happen to be carrying around a battery operated jigsaw just in case they need to knock up a coffee table 

I don't know what you're talking about. I carry one with me everywhere.

-S