A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

Re:A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves by pavel_lishin on Monday July 17, 2023 @12:56PM (#36760685)

My car in high school had a similar system. The radiator fan didn't turn on automatically, so my dad wired it directly into the AC controller. (The AC also did not work. It was not a great car.)

If you got in the car, and did not specifically turn the AC to the correct setting, the car would overheat about a mile down the road.

Luckily for me, I never had a chance to put this into practice, because nobody stole my car. Unluckily for me, there were several times where I forgot that I had to do this, and my car overheated about a mile down the road.

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Re:A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves by tadfisher on Monday July 17, 2023 @01:23PM (#36761111)

Sounds like a recipe for blowing head gaskets!

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Re:A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves by hodgesrm on Monday July 17, 2023 @01:34PM (#36761296)

Or destroying the pistons. I did this once. It was a long walk as in many kilometers from where we broke down to Mannheim train station so we could get home. Normally you could hitchhike but it was late at night and for some reason the locals didn't want to pick up a couple of scruffy looking American GIs.

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Re:A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves by mikestew on Monday July 17, 2023 @02:33PM (#36762127)

The radiator fan didn't turn on automatically, so my dad wired it directly into the AC controller.

All that trouble, rather than run to NAPA to spend $12 on the thermo-switch that would be easier to install than hacking into the A/C controller. Yeah, I've known some dads like that.

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Re:A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves by derefr on Monday July 17, 2023 @06:07PM (#36764730)

"Run to NAPA" in what car? Presuming the nearest auto parts store is more than 10mins down the road (probably much more), you won't make it there without first doing something hacky.

And then the stupid solution is already working, so...

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Re:A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves by rmbyrro on Monday July 17, 2023 @07:23PM (#36765487)

But then you have no story to tell! What a boring thermo sensor lol

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Re:A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves by Fatnino on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @05:30AM (#36769856)

I have a 2000 civic. The thermoswich went bad and I replaced it (bit of a bother, tried to do it fast while coolant was pouring out the opening).

Couple years later it went bad again (I probably put in a crappy one from a generic country) so instead of going through that again I just stuck a bent paper clip into the socket of the wire that plugs into the thermoswich. Now it always has the fan on when the car is on.

Could have gotten the same effect by tampering with the relay (this short that I added actually just activates the relay for the fan) but I went with the easiest option.

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Re:A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves by pengaru on Monday July 17, 2023 @05:21PM (#36764283)

I'm the type of person who will start a cross-country road trip with a nearly broken car with locking pliers and zip ties in the trunk just to try create some fun adventure along the way.

And even I wouldn't do something that stupid.

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