Sooner or later, every car enthusiast thinks about upgrading his car. Someone, inspired by the famous show “Pimp My Ride,” is pumping up factory molds in his garage, bringing them to perfection. Technical tuning, fine-tuning the car - whatever you call it - all this is done to improve the running and external parameters of the car. And not a single car owner would want to voluntarily part with their car, so for safety, many install an additional lock on the hood with their own hands.
Is it really necessary?
Whatever you say, a hood lock is not just a bonus to auto tuning. Of course, many car owners do without it, using a simple car alarm the old fashioned way. But if you are worried about the safety of your four-wheeled friend, and do not want it to go to another owner, or even worse - to be dismantled, then the hood lock is a vital part of your car.
Protection against thefts is not the only advantage of installing such a lock; it prevents the hood from opening spontaneously while the car is moving and, as often happens, at the most inopportune moment. This is especially not very pleasant at high speed. So in any case, installing a blocker will not be superfluous.
In order to install a hood lock, you can take the car to any service station, wait in line, pay money... But there is an easier option - to deal with this issue yourself. Firstly, this option is many times more economical, since prices at stations cannot be called low, and installing a lock with your own hands does not require serious financial costs, and secondly, no one can guarantee that even the most advertised service station will take the matter seriously and will not be nullified by a mediocre installation.
What is the price?
Approximate prices for purchasing devices:
| Name | Price, rub |
| Starline L11+ | 4000-7000 |
| Defen Time | 2800-4500 |
| Fortess Lock | 4500-6000 |
| Mil-T-Lock | 3000-3800 |
| Construct | 5000-6500 |
| Kondrashov Castle | 8500-9500 |
| Prices are relevant for three regions: Moscow, Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar. | |
What types of castles are there?
Now about the castles themselves. Since blockers have been on the market for several days, and the demand for them is only growing, they have managed to acquire a bunch of modifications and options. Let's briefly look at the general principle of operation of locks.
So they fall into two categories:
Mechanical locks
Mechanical locks are opened with a key and are considered the most reliable - if the car's power system is de-energized, the lock will remain closed. Non-volatile option. But such locks also have disadvantages - they are inconvenient to use, you have to use a key and lock every time - keys tend to get lost or break, and locks tend to rust or not open in the cold.
Such a lock can scare off a novice thief - in order to open it, you will have to tinker, on the other hand, an experienced thief, with one glance at the hood, has already mentally gone through and identified the tool for breaking.
Electromechanical locks
It is much more convenient to use such locks, since the hood is locked and unlocked automatically when arming and disarming the alarm. In other words, just press the button and no fuss.
An obvious plus is that it will take an attacker a lot of time to find this button. But in practice, such locks have some play, due to which a gap is formed between the hood and the iron bar, through which it is quite possible to break the lock.
In addition, electromechanical locks are usually equipped with a safety cable in case of relay failure or battery discharge.
The disadvantage of such a cable is that there are not many places where you can hide it. Kidnappers have long learned to recognize these places. Here you need to approach the installation creatively and bring the cable to a place where it is difficult for an attacker to reach it. It happens that such locks are installed without a safety cable - instead there are two wires that act as a safety mechanism. And if the additional lock does not work, you will need to connect a twelve-volt power source to these two wires. How many of us have a spare battery waiting in the trunk?
If you still decide to install the hood lock on your own (you don’t even need to decide!), Let’s get straight to the point.
First, you need to decide on the type of lock. To install a mechanical lock, we will need: a garage, tools, and only half an hour of time.
Electrically driven devices
The lock is made as a separate block and can be used in conjunction with a standard lock. For control, a special drive unit is used, connected to security equipment and controlled by electrical impulses. Signals are transmitted via wires directly to the central locking or through an additional locking relay.
Main features of the device:
- The product can be connected to a standard immobilizer.
- If power surges or other defects appear in the on-board network, this may affect the operation of the blocker.
- Electrically driven products are supplied with a special safety cable. It can be used to perform emergency unlocking of the device.
It is important to know
Electrically driven products are more reliable than mechanical ones due to the ability to connect and work together with the anti-theft system.
Algorithm for installing a mechanical lock
Let's prepare the tools
- Drill (with a set of drills)
- Round file
- Roulette
- crosshead screwdriver
- Key to 19
- Anti-corrosion liquid or primer
- Solid oil lubricant.
Installation of locking bolts
We mark with a marker on the iron strip above the headlights the place where the hood locking bolts will be installed so that there is an equal distance on both sides. Let's drill a hole. We tighten the bolts and apply a drop of lubricant (solid oil is fine) to their ends so that the places of the bolts are imprinted on the hood of the car. We close and open the hood again - there are now marks for the locks.
The next thing we do is drill a hole in the hood for the lock. This needs to be done very carefully, so first we drill a hole with a small drill, then use larger drills to increase the diameter, and then file the hole.
An important point - we drill only from the inside of the hood so as not to damage the paint on top.
If the hood closes well and the holes do not touch the rods, then everything is done correctly. To avoid corrosion, we treat the edges with a primer.
Using a thin drill, we make four holes for the screws, then screw the plates to the hood. Now you need to open the hood and screw the rods to the bar so that they rise above the plates for subsequent fixation of the pins in their holes. The last thing we do is screw the safety cables with self-tapping screws to the body (they are needed so that the studs do not get lost). Voila`! The castle is ready.
General advantages and problems
Before considering the implementation of solutions among hood locks, it is worth saying a few general words regarding all hood locks at once.
Hood latches are important and necessary. Along with the alarm. While the siren locked under the hood is screaming, the attacker cannot feel confident. Hood locks are loved and popular also because they contain some uniqueness, a trick or something. Their importance is not obvious enough to an uninitiated person “on the spot,” but after the essence is explained, the customer feels like a real “cunning person.”
There is, however, a whole range of problems that, to one degree or another, apply to all hood locks, and are clearly not in their favor.
Hood lock prevents car thieves
Let's see what will happen next. It turned out to be quite a long part, although I tried to avoid unnecessary details. Sorry.
I will not be lazy to repeat that from the point of view of the thief, any blocking is simply a car malfunction that needs to be eliminated. If the power supply circuit of a module is broken, voltage must be applied to it. This is why it is stupid to turn off the power to the fuel pump - it doesn’t matter how perfect the lock is, the thief won’t even think about breaking it, he will simply supply voltage from the nearest accessible place, it’s not easy, but very simple.
Therefore, the correct solution to both the question “how to block” and the question “what to block” is of great importance. The second question, in turn, has two subquestions: how to complicate the diagnosis and how to complicate the bypass of the blocking even with successful diagnosis.
We discussed the first sub-question in general terms in the previous part. I don’t see any point in dwelling on it in more detail, since I’ll have to go into detail about the electrical part of the car, but do you need it? It is enough that you already understand what the result should be, and the means to achieve the result are the installer’s headache.
Let's return to the hijacker. After an unsuccessful attempt to start the engine, he must understand which circuit (or several circuits) is broken. In other words, the hijacker must be a competent diagnostician. Let's make another assumption that our hijacker is not just competent, he is a genius, and in just a minute he realized which chains were broken. I'm sitting right behind the wheel. What was on our counter, five minutes? Now it's six.
Since we made the locks correctly, it is physically impossible to restore the broken chains from the interior. The circuits are located under the hood, the locks are there, and the locks are controlled digitally.
The thief really doesn’t want to get under the hood, but he has no other options. He pulls the hood lever and... (depressing music plays) the hood rises only a couple of millimeters, because it is locked with an additional lock.
How does the hood lock work?
A hole is drilled in the body panel, and the lock itself is installed under it, which is a box with a locking pin running inside it. In the “open” state it looks like this:
In the “closed” state:
The counter part of the lock is placed on the hood and may look, for example, like this:
The mating part enters the lock, the pin extends, preventing the reverse movement of the mating part.
We will not dwell on them in detail, unless someday later. Now I will only note that the lock must be installed in a place where it is impossible to reach it from the outside, the hood at the installation site must be reinforced, there must be protection against sawing, the installed lock must be carefully adjusted, including in order to minimize the movement of the hood when locked condition.
In short, the ability to quickly break a lock by any means should be completely absent.
Anti-theft protection is a fertile topic for all kinds of experts and online experts. Most of the population is familiar with this topic, so you can talk any nonsense with a smart face - they will believe you, and they will even give you likes. The latest example with a coin is another confirmation of this.
When it comes to hood latches, experts claim that they break easily, just slip a special pillow into the gap under the hood and inflate it with a hand-made frog. If suddenly such experts are reading this text, I invite you to visit, I will provide you with several different cars with different hood locks. For each hood opened with a cushion, I pay $3,000 at the current exchange rate right on the spot. For each one that could not be opened with an airbag, you pay $1000 plus compensation for damage to the car, if any. We'll make a cool video at the same time.
By the way, it’s easy to protect yourself from an airbag by sticking sharp pieces of iron into the hood, which will pierce it when you try to inflate it.
Another myth is cutting the hood with hydraulic shears. Have you ever seen scissors 2 millimeters thick? They have to be exactly like that, otherwise they won’t get close.
In fact, a normal lock is a wildly strong thing, much stronger than the hood itself. There is no trick against scrap, this is true, but it may be the hood that is broken, not the lock, which is bad for the thief - the more he destroys the car, the less money he will receive for it. In addition, a person who breaks a car on the street attracts too much attention to himself and risks receiving additional charges if caught.
Video illustration of hacking the hood from theft.net. I think it's very clear.
The lock needs to be opened and closed somehow. The drive can be mechanical or electromechanical.
The mechanical one opens with a regular key. The larva is located in some place quite convenient for the driver. There is a cable from the cylinder to the lock. We send such locks to the furnace for two reasons.
Firstly, since the location of the larva is convenient for the driver, it will also be convenient for the thief. If the thief knows how to pick locks, it is likely that he will pick this one too. The cable is another weak link; you can bite it and act on it directly to open the lock. Manufacturers try to protect themselves from such things, but a hijacker will certainly try and, quite possibly, succeed. The hijacker's qualification factor is one that we cannot influence, and the lottery is not our method. Thus, such a lock does not perform its direct function very well. What is important is that it is neutralized from the interior, which the hijacker does not like to leave.
Types of anti-theft equipment
The constant modernization of cars and the increase in the number of thefts lead to the improvement of security measures and the emergence of new types and combinations of anti-theft devices. Today the following types of equipment are in operation:
- Electronic.
- Mechanical.
- Radio search engines.
- Satellite.
- Transponder.
- Biometric.
The last four types are complex technical means and require special skills and knowledge during installation. But electronic and mechanical systems can easily be organized independently. At least the electronics, if not installed, are not difficult to modify.
Block No. 1 or how to protect your car from theft using electronic means
Electronic devices include time-tested “secrets” - toggle switches, buttons and mechanically opening contacts. Often, a standard car button is used as a secret contact, duplicating it with a hidden toggle switch.
More advanced devices are distinguished by the presence of shock, motion, volume and opening sensors with subsequent interruption of the ignition or fuel supply circuits. Decent results are demonstrated by the use of an immobilizer, the task of which is to prevent the car from being stolen “under its own power.” Modern automakers know how to protect cars from theft , which is why almost all vehicles are equipped with a standard immobilizer. This security system can have several configurations that block a specific node, but in two different ways:
- Using a contact mechanism, starting the engine is possible only if you have a key coded specifically for a specific immobilizer.
- Using a contactless mechanism, a coded card acts as a key, which only needs to be in the car’s interior for the driver to be able to start the engine. If you take the card out of the cabin, you will no longer be able to start the internal combustion engine. The only drawback is that it is not possible to install such a system yourself, and its cost corresponds only to expensive models.
Manufacturers
To buy a reliable block, you cannot choose a handicraft product. , Megalock, Starline produce mechanical kits.
Electromechanical hood locks are model locks. They are produced for a specific car brand of a specific year. The cost of such a lock is up to 10,000 rubles.
Multilock lock is a collective name for products from Mul-T-Lock. An international company that specializes in the production of all types of mortise locks (office, apartment, transport) and padded structures. The blockers have a high secrecy cylinder, the cylinders are made of high-strength steel. They are not subject to corrosion, do not sour, and are resistant to acid solutions.
Mechanical blocks from Megalock are universal and suitable for blocking large areas. The original kit contains a set of brackets and fasteners, a lock block, a standard steel braided cable, a lock, and three keys.
When choosing between an electric and mechanical lock, consider all the factors that may attract thieves to your car. If the entrances are locked with an effective alarm system, there will be no chance for thieves to steal a car. It's a rewarding feeling when your car is securely protected.
Block No. 2: how to effectively secure your car against theft with your own hands using mechanical means
From the name it is clear that these means mechanically prevent fraudsters from trying to get into the car. Although electronic systems are easier to operate, mechanical devices are popular due to their ease of installation, reliability and affordable price. Although the combined use of these options gives the maximum anti-theft effect.
Any car enthusiast will be interested in learning how to efficiently and inexpensively secure his own car against theft with his own hands using mechanical locking devices. Among these means of combating fraudsters, the most popular are:
- Steering wheel, pedal, door and wheel locks.
- Special locks for the ignition switch, gearbox and hood.
- All kinds of “secrets” (for example, pins installed in certain parts of the machine).
Important! Each type of locking mechanism is designed for use with a specific car component. When selecting additional protection, you should take into account the make and model of your car, because some products are made taking into account the design features of the car.
You can choose mechanical locks yourself or leave this matter to specialists. Let's look at the most affordable blockers.
Door locks
They are retractable pins that work like door bolts. The latches are driven by an electric drive, after which the doors can only be opened by violating its integrity. Usually installed at the end of the door. Although there are positive aspects, this method has its disadvantages:
- the need for radical intervention in the door structure, which can lead to body corrosion;
- the need to install locks on all doors to obtain a full anti-theft effect.
Steering locks
Since the standard lock is not particularly reliable, additional mechanical protection is designed to prevent criminals from “stealing” the car. It is quite suitable for owners of cars from the budget segment and who have not yet decided how to protect their own car from theft, because:
- the equipment has a low price;
- convenient to use.
Naturally, such a device can only resist novice car thieves. Unfortunately, the “sharks” of the criminal business overcome such blockages quite quickly.
Gearbox locks
Popular protection among car enthusiasts, which makes it impossible to change gears. Based on their design and operating principle, products of this type are divided into two types:
The first type is a lock with a screwed bracket. The latter, in turn, is attached to the body. Installation of the device is not particularly difficult and can be done by a motorist with minimal experience.
The pin version involves installing an additional pin in a special hole to prevent the movement of gears or forks. However, you can engage the gear from the engine compartment, so a secret lock on the hood won’t hurt at all.
Hood lock
The device is mounted directly on the hood and comes in two types:
- with a mechanical drive that opens with a special key;
- with an electromechanical drive that operates from an electronic signal.
As a separate security device, the hood lock can resist professional car thieves for no more than two minutes. However, as an additional measure, a lock is quite relevant.
Hood-Lock Saturn, Titan, Sentry, Falcon, etc.
Judging by the list of names, one can guess that this Taiwanese product is supplied by various reputable companies. The differences in sales between brands are insignificant; in fact, they are the same product. But let’s be a little lenient - this is a pioneer blocker, that is, it was the first of its kind and has not yet been scrapped. There seems to be only one reason: there is no equal in cost (purchase price).
The lock consists of a cable connecting the lock cylinder and the locking bolt, a slide for the bolt and two types of locking plates. A plate needs to be selected for a specific car, bent and attached with self-tapping screws to the hood cover using the existing holes. The lock cylinder is installed in the car interior, the locking mechanism under the hood is a classic scheme of a mechanical hood lock. To lock, you need to press down on the cylinder (also a classic action). The lock cylinder is spring-loaded, and when turned with the key, it returns to its original position. There are different modifications that differ in the length of the cable from the cylinder to the locking bolt - 3.5, 5, 6, and even 7 feet.
The cable has the ability to stretch up to 2 mm per year of operation, which will inevitably lead to a claim (usually non-warranty), if you do not provide a more decent gap between the bolt in the unlocked position and the plate (but more than 4-5 mm is still impossible - it will not work, you can open the hood simply by tilting it).
Even though the lock is mechanical, it has an important electrical part. The wire extending from the cable allows, using a powerful 10-ohm resistor, to electrically block a carburetor engine in almost “one motion,” while blocking engines of other types requires the installation of an additional relay. Ground appears on the wire in the closed position of the blocker. Ground can be applied through a resistance to the pulse contact of the ignition coil, which will prevent the engine from starting. As practice has shown, for domestic contact-transistor ignition systems (carburetor GAZ, UAZ), a resistance of 10 Ohms is too much, but two resistors in parallel (5 Ohms) will be just right.
Eventually
Any motorist who is thinking about how to protect their personal car from theft with their own hands must take into account that the protection must be comprehensive. This is the only way to achieve maximum efficiency. It only makes sense to install any one device if:
- the car is of no interest to car thieves and belongs to the inexpensive category;
- lack of funds.
According to experts, the cost of an anti-theft system should be at least 5-10% of the price of the car. If money is tight, then we install a budget-class programmable “secret” and hope for the low qualifications of the thief, who is not ready to cope with additional problems other than the immobilizer.
An ideal anti-theft system should consist of several components. Moreover, they should be selected in such a way that the functionality is mutually enhanced, and the unsatisfactory aspects are compensated.
How to choose the right one?
To understand which lock is best to choose for your car, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the selection criteria:
- First you need to decide on the type of product. If a mechanical device is being installed and configured, it is important that it be equipped with a floating cylindrical component. Such devices use cylinder technology.
- It is necessary to pay attention to the secrecy of the larva. It is desirable that this component have at least 5 million combinations.
- It is recommended that the lock be equipped with a double coded password cylinder.
- If mechanical devices are preferred, the thickness of the metal cable should be at least 26 mm.
- The security cable must be made of multi-layer material. Each layer performs a specific function to provide protection. If the device is three-layer, then the first element is designed to protect against biting, the second - cutting. The third layer in such devices is used to protect the previous one.
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