What those kinds of things do more than preventing car theft is leaving people stranded, in my limited experience with them. If the dongle fails or is lost, you're walking. Or sitting around waiting for the dog who ate it to poop it back out.

If car theft were at all a problem here, I'd open up the start relay coil circuit, plumb it through the normally-open contacts of a relay, and configure the relay to be latching. Then I could trigger the coil with the headlight high beam circuit by just quickly toggling the passing lights after the key is on, and everything would just work -- but a thief isn't likely to suspect that the engine isn't turning over because the high beams haven't been turned on once since the key was. $20 or $25 to build and install it oneself, and if the relay should punk out it's easy for the guy who knows it's there to jumper it out for the time being.

If that's too much bother, a simple toggle switch to break the same circuit and installed in an accessible but not visible location will do the same trick for five or ten bucks. I just happen to like the idea of hiding the function in plain sight within factory installed components.

All of that to say: Magic will always bite your butt, so it's better to keep it simple. We live in a world in which a computer crash means you can't buy groceries. Be smarter than that!

 

There is some truth in that. I got a remote starter/alarm from clifford some time after i got my truck. It was no cheap alarm and came with a ton of wiring. Took a while to install everything. Worked great for the first year or so then the relay module started to "click" every one and while. It progressed and would stall the motor. The relay module was bad. By then DEi( directed electronics) bought out clifford and no longer supported their alarms. So that leaves you SOL. I took apart the relay module and seen if i could get replacement relays. I could but would have to buy 50 of them. I even contacted the the manufacture of the relays with no help. When i installed the alarm i was thinking ahead and made a jumper to bypass the relay module if there was a issue with it. Well it's been in there ever since. You can make one yourself to cut out the starter and power to the pcm. Fairly simple to do if you have the wiring diagram to the truck.

 

All it does is delay the inevitable. They are easy to defeat once you know how they are wired. (and any car thief worth his salt will know this.....)

A hidden kill switch is just as effective, if not more so.

I can't come up with the technical term for it....... its an ignition interlock of some sort, but, most of what I come up with for those is related to alcohol.

 

I can neither confirm nor deny that I use this...


http://www.jeepsunlimited.com/forums...t%20protection

Easy enough to wire into the ignition instead of the jeep's ASD relay.