Factory theft resistance?

[Michael_vroomvroom]

Quite the contrary, I think shopping mall garages are the perfect place for that. At home you may store your key in an RF-imprevious pouch, but when you step out of the car to go shopping you'll have it in your pocket. As you walk towards the entrance into the mall and your car gets out of your sight, one guy goes near the car while another one follows you closely enough to pick up your key signal and to amplify it. If the mall happens to have a revolving door, where there are usually several people standing in line waiting for their turn to enter, a guy having the device in his pocket standing right behind you won't raise any suspicions whatsoever.

True, but this would obviously depend on people hanging around and waiting for a car they want to steal to arrive, then following the owner and staying close to him long enough for the other guy to open and start the car. At the same time, other people with their own keyfobs for their cars probably have to be far away. So basically you and the owner of the car you want to to steal have to be close and isolated enough from other people, so your signal relayer does not relay signals from other nearby people's keyfobs.

For expensive cars I guess it'd be worth it, but the cars I saw stolen in the malls were just average mid-range cars. To me it seems a bit unlikely people would invest time in stalking out cars like that.

But anyway, that was not the question I think. The question is, what other ways are there?

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[Vlad Soare]

True, but this would obviously depend on people hanging around and waiting for a car they want to steal to arrive

Of course. But this is a given. These people are well organized and know full well what they want. And the chances of finding the car of their choice are highest in a shopping mall garage. It's much easier to wait in a busy place full of cars than to wander the streets until you happen to find the car you want parked in front of a house.

At the same time, other people with their own keyfobs for their cars probably have to be far away. So basically you and the owner of the car you want to to steal have to be close and isolated enough from other people, so your signal relayer does not relay signals from other nearby people's keyfobs.

Not necessarily. You can amplify all of them. The targeted car will recognize its own signal and will ignore the others.
The same happens if you have two or more keys in your pocket, from several vehicles, even of the same brand. The car will recognize the correct one and will unlock. Two or more extra signals won't upset it.
I've tried that. If I have my key and my wife's in the same pocket, I can unlock and drive both cars. Each car will see its own key and will ignore the other.

 

[Michael_vroomvroom]

Not necessarily. You can amplify all of them. The targeted car will recognize its own signal and will ignore the others.
The same happens if you have two or more keys in your pocket, from several vehicles, even of the same brand. The car will recognize the correct one and will unlock. Two or more extra signals won't upset it.
I've tried that. If I have my key and my wife's in the same pocket, I can unlock and drive both cars. Each car will see its own key and will ignore the other.

I was thinking the rouge signal amplifier/relayer would not be able to relay the signal from different nearby keyfobs and a specfic car back and forth at the same time, but possibly you are right and that is not a problem for them.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Frankly, I don't know how (and if) it works. I'm just thinking out aloud.
However, the very fact that many cars did get nicked from shopping mall garages seems to indicate that it isn't as difficult as it may seem.

 

[I Bleed Ford Blue]

A few years ago I was told by a tech at the dealer that on ford's intelligent access system the keyfob needs to be motionless for 30 seconds before it stops emitting the signal. So in the shopping mall scenario, the fob would always be active while you were moving around the mall shopping. If your that concerned about your mustang being taken via this method just get a small faraday pouch and put the fob in it before you exit the car.

 

[Michael_vroomvroom]

A few years ago I was told by a tech at the dealer that on ford's intelligent access system the keyfob needs to be motionless for 30 seconds before it stops emitting the signal. So in the shopping mall scenario, the fob would always be active while you were moving around the mall shopping. If your that concerned about your mustang being taken via this method just get a small faraday pouch and put the fob in it before you exit the car.

https://www.carnationcanada.com/blog/ford-introducing-new-key-fobs-to-prevent-hacking/
https://www.ford.co.uk/owner/resour...intenance/car-features/motion-sensing-key-fob

Apart from those two articles I don't see much about this online. It seems like a simple and good idea to reduce the chance of signal relaying in many scenarios, though obviously not all.

 

[ZeroTX]

Great discussion underway! Thanks guys!

The more we know, the safer we can be, for those of us not in the 'I don't care if it gets stolen, that's what insurance is for' camp. Anyone who has been through that would not wish it on themselves or anyone else. You will never get YOUR car back, and if you're lucky, you get enough moeny to buy some used auction car that more or less matches the specs, but for which you have no background or knowledge of maintenance or how it was driven.

Currently these are my thoughts:
1) I'll be putting an OBD2 port lock on this one as I did my truck. (This also protects your tune from dealer tampering, BTW, and prevents them from even scanning your car w/o your permission)
2) Good info about the 'enhanced' security system on the car. One thing 'enhanced' about it is that even inside the garage, it'll go off with the neighbor's Harley goes by... Yay.
3) Yes, I park/store it in the garage. But cars don't belong in garages, and they go places. This car is my road trip car... it'll be sitting in hotel lots, among other places
4) Regarding #3, I'll be getting an RF-proof box to put the keyfob in when staying at a hotel, since the room is often within range of the car.................

Looking for other thoughts. Not sure I want to do a kill switch just yet, since I don't frequently park in high-risk area. If that changes, I'll add one. At the moment I'm a bit leery about having anyone dig into the wiring on a brand new car.

 

[Vlad Soare]

The more we know, the safer we can be, for those of us not in the 'I don't care if it gets stolen, that's what insurance is for' camp. Anyone who has been through that would not wish it on themselves or anyone else. You will never get YOUR car back, and if you're lucky, you get enough moeny to buy some used auction car that more or less matches the specs, but for which you have no background or knowledge of maintenance or how it was driven.

I completely agree. No matter how good an insurance you have, you'll never get your car back, nor a perfect replacement. Unless you already had plans of selling and upgrading, but we're not talking about that.
Personally I'm not in the 'I don't care' camp, but rather in the 'Since there's nothing I can do anyway, there's no point in losing sleep over it' camp.

1) I'll be putting an OBD2 port lock on this one as I did my truck. (This also protects your tune from dealer tampering, BTW, and prevents them from even scanning your car w/o your permission)

I've heard of people relocating the OBD port, precisely for those reasons. A lock will merely slow the thief down. Not finding it at all might be a more efficient deterrent.

4) Regarding #3, I'll be getting an RF-proof box to put the keyfob in when staying at a hotel, since the room is often within range of the car.................

I can't check right now, but I seem to remember there was an option in the IPC menu to disable the keyless entry. You could use that when you park at a hotel, then just use the keyfob buttons to lock and unlock the car.

 

[Doug V]

Best theft deterrent.

I was thinking the same thing

 

[Johnnybee]

My convertible has a tipping feature in the alarm (I don't know if the coupes came with it) to deal with tow/flatbed situations. I can tell you that it works very well, as one day when I was swapping the winter/summer rubber I had brought the car out on the driveway and then locked it, and then came back to do the swap. Not thinking about it I started to lift one corner with the floor jack and did not even get the car up high enough for the tire to be off the ground and the alarm went off. As for the rest of it, I can't speak to that.

 

[Zrussian13]

All those things will help the car from disappearing. It also means that any failed theft attempt will probably leave access damage to the door, window or whatever. So maybe it doesn't get stolen but it's still going to suffer damage.
IMO, the only thing that might work is one of those big steering wheel locks like the old Club. It's obvious from the outside and hopefully enough of an aggravation to prompt the thief to just move on.



This is pretty much my thought. I don't keep anything much in the car that I'd miss. The most "valuable" thing is an ancient ipod that stays plugged into the console.
I drive a convertible so I assume at some point it will be broken into. If that happens I'm sure the car alarm will go off and be obnoxious for a few minutes. I'm also sure it will be ignored. by any passer-bys. So I just keep good insurance on it and if it disappears I'll replace it.

I club my mustang every time it gets parked. It's also a manual and I use Faraday bags for my keys at home. I even cock the wheel one way when I park just to avoid someone trying to break a window, throw it in neutral and roll it on a trailer trick. The club probably deters thieves the most. Easy to get passed but not worth the hassle.

 

[ZeroTX]

I club my mustang every time it gets parked. It's also a manual and I use Faraday bags for my keys at home. I even cock the wheel one way when I park just to avoid someone trying to break a window, throw it in neutral and roll it on a trailer trick. The club probably deters thieves the most. Easy to get passed but not worth the hassle.

Yup, 100% on The Club. It's very OLD SKOOL tech, and it can be defeated (yes, I've seen the hack saw videos), but in general, it makes it annoying enough to move on to another target. Unless they knew to bring a hack saw, which they probably didn't.

My only concern w/ The Club on the car is damaging the leather on the wheel... On my truck I use a towel between the club and the wheel, but it's a hard plastic wheel (STX truck). I don't want to damage the leather on the Mustang's wheel... Thoughts?

 

[Zrussian13]

Yup, 100% on The Club. It's very OLD SKOOL tech, and it can be defeated (yes, I've seen the hack saw videos), but in general, it makes it annoying enough to move on to another target. Unless they knew to bring a hack saw, which they probably didn't.

My only concern w/ The Club on the car is damaging the leather on the wheel... On my truck I use a towel between the club and the wheel, but it's a hard plastic wheel (STX truck). I don't want to damage the leather on the Mustang's wheel... Thoughts?

Never put much thought into that. I guess it could happen but I've used it on my mustang for 3.5 years and 68,000 miles. The leather shows no signs of wear. I do have a hole in my driver's armrest though. Never realized how much I rest my arm there until it torn through a few weeks ago.

 

[Bobn57]

well my alarm tripped yesterday under real world conditions! I was driving home with windows open and a large bumble bee flew into the stang. It was trying to get out the back window and kept crawling on the rear deck while I was driving. I was hoping it would find a way out. When I got home I couldn't find it. I assumed it flew out on its own. I even kept the windows down for an hour just to be sure. I eventually closed the windows and locked up the car for the night. About an hour later my alarm goes off and the Ford App sends me an alert. Apparently the bee was hiding on me and set off the alarm At least i know it works. The bee was released unharmed to carry on....

 

[_zOmbIE_]

Not going to lie, I did a bit of research on OBD2 port locks when I bought my Bronco (first keyless push button start vehicle I owned other than my Ducati Multistrada lol)..

From what I can tell, they're no more effective than "security" screws manufacturers use to try and stop people from repairing their electronics; they only work if someone doesn't know how to remove them. In most cases, they're simply a socket with some pins in the lip it to engage the holes in the flush covers for the bolts.

For now they're obscure/rare enough they would likely thwart a clueless thief, but from what I can tell, all you would need to use to remove the covers is:

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