Page 28 - Transporter Talk 146 - May/June 2017

Transporter Talk No 146
DON’T PANIC! ASK THE MECHANIC... continued
this issue and now o ers VWT2OC member’s a
car that has an aftermarket immobiliser with problems will tell you how e ective they are! Immobiliser kits can be purchased and DIY tted fairly cheaply these days and there are companies out there that o er tting and after sales services too.
As well as immobilisers, alarms are also now tted to most modern vehicles and these can now be added to older vehicles as an additional security measure. Alarms can be much more complicated than immobiliser kits as there are more areas for problems, such as doors and movement sensors. It is highly recommended that alarms are tted by a quali ed alarm tter and ensure that you get some kind of warranty too.
Another excellent and worthy purchase in the category of electronic security devices is a GPS tracker.
A GPS tracker is a location device that will track your vehicle if it’s taken without your permission. This is the best way of locating your vehicle quickly to have it recovered and so reducing the chance of damage or loss.
There are several types of GPS Tracker on the market, some are standalone devices that are completely user operated and some utilise a subscription service where a company will monitor the tracker and can o er di erent levels of service. One such GPS Tracker service is Skytag, which has been covered elsewhere in
discount on their tracker service.
Other methods of additional security could include kill switches or battery isolators, these are cheap to acquire and simple to t for most. These are best used when leaving the vehicle for longer periods and can be operated with a key. One problem with this is that if you have a vehicle tracker tted, the battery isolator will likely disable the tracker.
Some other di erent and interesting ideas include tting an electronic fuel pump that has a hidden switch somewhere inside the van, no fuel, no running engine! Or you could go very extreme and remove the steering wheel from your vehicle for longer periods of storage and would be much easier on earlier transporter models.
Others have suggested removing the rotor arm from the distributor as this disables the engines ignition system, but again is probably best used for longer periods of storage. To aid with tracking, some also suggest tting a number plate to the roof so that the vehicle can be identi ed from above in the event of it being stolen.
Hopefully some of these hints are useful to members for helping to think about security options, but remember that the most important thing is to keep the basics working.
Without these, any other additional security device loses e ectiveness.
KEEP YOUR
VAN SAFE
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Please send any questions for The Mechanic to mechanic.vwt2oc@icloud.com