Illicit entry.

[ak96ss]

I pull in to work yesterday and shut the car off. I leave the key in the ACC position, with the stereo still going so I can hear the last minute or so of the Nickelback CD I was listening to.  Sounds like something may be rattling outside - I'm pushing somewhere north of 1k watts - so I get out of the car to check if there is a rattle and where it may be.

The good news is, no rattle - it's actually pretty unobtrusive outside of the car that I have the stereo cranked.

The bad news is, my alarm is set to auto-arm, and, when I close the driver's door and step to the back of the car, it does so.  Windows already up, sunroof closed, and I hear the chirp of the alarm as it locks the doors and arms itself.

I do the dramatic lunge for the car door to try to get it open before the door locks, but no luck.

So now I'm standing outside of my car as the stereo is blasting away, staring at the keys in the ignition...  {sigh}  what a way to start the day off.

What I learned:

a) either leave the sunroof or the window open when checking for rattles, or have the spare remote in my hand when I get out. The alarm will roll the windows up, but if I can get my hand in there, it should auto-reverse, and I'll be able to get my damned keys out.

2) it is depressingly easy to break in to the car, even with the radar unit on the alarm. With a coat hanger and a ruler to pry against the window frame, I was in the car in under 5 minutes, and this is maybe the 3rd time I've ever done it. If I had a proper wedge and some practice, I'm sure it would've been far less time. The only damage was to the door seal, which I am replacing anyway, and that was because I had to pull the coat hanger out to tweak the bend on the end.

So, it looks like I need to tighten security a little more. The stereo has a removable faceplate, and there are no steal-me stereo decals all over the car, and I never leave anything visible in the car. I reckon I could go to smooth aluminum door lock knobs, and now I'll have to more seriously consider a fuel pump kill switch or something along those lines.

The double-lock on the car doors would work, but that negates the use of the remote to lock the doors. May have to do that anyway.

Just thought I'd share.

[e9nine]

Yeah the coat hanger is one of the most tried and trusted ways of entering many cars. Ever notice that most cars made in the early 90's went away from the door lock pins you can use the coat hanger on...my guess is car manufacturers finally caught up on the trend and had to eliminate the most common varibale??

[318iEnthusiast]

oh man that sux! i did that last weekend at the gas station, i had to to take a leek soo bad that i locked the doors and closed the door without taking the keys out...luckily my mom was 10mins away and could bring me my spare haha

[sheepdog]

I leave a spare in my wallet.

I guess that could be bad if you leave your car outside at night and your wallet gets stolen though. Then again, if they want the car, they will get it regardless.

[ak96ss]

I leave a spare in my wallet.

I guess that could be bad if you leave your car outside at night and your wallet gets stolen though. Then again, if they want the car, they will get it regardless.

My wife has the spare, but I was in DC and she was on the way to Baltimore to go out to dinner with some friends from work, so I was looking at a minimum 2 hour wait.  And my wallet was on the center console, so the spare would probably not have helped anyway!  

I totally agree - if they want it, they will get it.  My goal is to make my car less desirable than the car next to mine to the casual thief.  If someone, for some very strange reason, has an order from a chop shop for a 1991 318is, well, not much I can do.  But if some local yahoo is wandering down the road checking doors to see if they are locked, I want them to know that they will at least attract attention when they try to get in to my car.

There's always the ploy some friends of mine use - they leave the car unlocked. Figure it's easier to let the thieves rummage and find nothing than to try to replace a pulled door lock or a busted window.  I haven't gotten that far yet!