So,
Since they stole the HID the first time my car was sitting in front of my apt for 3 days with no headlights. Having a car which looks abandoned isn't such a good idea, so I drove the car to my parents (about a mile or so away) to park in their carport so the car is by the house and not on the street.
In the meantime I've been going to junkyards and whatever to get halogen lights for the car (I got a pair and silverstar 1157 and 9003's for $250).
I still need to get the screws to hold the lights in (probably on the street still where they stole them) and the 1157 and 9003 sockets.
Last night the second seder (Passover) ran late as usual and we got home (walked from some friends down the street)at around 2 a.m. and the car was still there the same.
Today we wake to find the windows rolled down? What's this? Well nothing inside the car was touched, the manual and handsfree cell phone plug are still on the rear seat. But the drivers door handle is popped out and where the factory screwdriver pop release is located is a small gash. Apparently they tried to steal the lights again, except to their dismay, and possible humor, the lights were already gone.

So


obviously they didn't want to steal the car considering the carport supports are on one side, and there is a big white dodge caravan parked behind it. So why else break into the car, except to steal the headlights again.
Must've been funny for the guy to see that he was beaten to the punch.

This is strike 2.
Strike 3 and the car goes bye bye.

Seth

 

It's just a hunch, but I think the org may not like this how-to!!

 

Just sit in a spot where u can see ur car 24/7 with a gun or something, and f**king kick their *** next time they pull some shi*t like that.

 

My dad suggests to get rid of the "SE" on the back and change the silver tails to the all reds.
Either that or get quick-release headlights which I can easily just pop out and stick in the trunk or take in the house with me like a removeable radio faceplate.

Seth

 

Sorry that you were victimized again in such a short time period. I believe that the how to and detailed pics are way too much information.

 

that would be a great idea if you're leaving the car in the open for an extended period of time.

seth, too much how-tos and great info for the crooks

 

That's insane! Sorry to hear

 

Moderator, please delete this thread ASAP!....you never know what kind of kind of unscrupulous individual may be browsing through the org and see this....now they know the easy way to break into all the cars of the 2k2-3 guys. NOT GOOD. PLEASE DELETE!

 

Motion to delete stupid how-to, and ban of

 

I edited the 'how to' just because it may be 'offensive'. Obviously its already common knowledge if the typical guy on the street knows how to do it.
But what I don't understand is that if you walk around with your fly unzipped, why do you tell everyone else not to look instead of just zipping up your fly?

I posted this so you can protect yourselves and so that the would be thieves know that we're on to them.

Seth

 

<double post> It's what happens with a sluggish server. Sorry bout that.

 

I doubt that "method" is common knowledge....most people who break into cars are pros...not just guys doing it for fun. I doubt the guys who broke into your car were just the "typical guy on the street"...

 

Thanks for editing your post Seth. I did the same. Again, sorry to hear they hit you again. Crazy stuff. Glad they walked away empty handed.

 

Im Sorry to say but this method is comon knowledge alot of people know about this and about the grille being easy to rip out. Anyone who installs alarms or Sterio systems knows about this which sucks because thats how it got spread out abot how easy it is to steal our head lights. Me personally I got Smart and got the Viper 790 2-Way Rmote that pages me when my alarm goes off so im waiting for an ******* to try and ill beat the **** out of him real good for all of yall.

 

Hmm,
I don't know who changed the subtitle on my name but its odd because before i even registered I read the maxfaq:

https://maxima.org/maxfaqs/index.shtml

and the faq link sticky on the top of this forum:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=36867

Beacuse these did not address my issue, and because the servers are undergoing service the search was down, I posted.

I had a 16 day old silver maxima with paper tags, and no headlights which was undriveable. The dealers had no idea what to do except re-install $1500 headlights which was unnacceptable. So I posted a question with the knowledge that it was already beaten to death just so I could get the car back to a driveable condition. (which it still isn't in)
Then in the midst of getting responses I was hit yet again. This time only 1 day after putting my license plate on the car.
As you can imagine my family is very upset and seriously reconsidering keeping this car. I think I've showed considerable restraint in the matter.
That is of course unless the subtitle change was automatic and not a direct response to my grievance.

Seth

 

Class Action

 

Seth - The subtitle is automatic for all people with a low number of posts. If you look around, you'll find others with the same subtitle as you. As you make more posts or contribute to the org financially, the subtitle changes.

 

Sounds good.
I'm aware of the 'automatic changing as post increases' thing, just not sure what they automatically change to. By the tone of the conversation I thought it was done on purpose.
Its cool now.

Seth

 

Try this for an alarm:

Get your headlights fixed,
Take a 50 ft. power cord, plug one side into your house (inside and run the cord out a window so it can't be unplugged), strip the female end and tie it to your frame, then plug it in.

It'll be like a bug zapper.

Sorry to hear about the theft, if you’re ever in the N.E. with your car make an appointment with a dealership so you can get the datadots, I'm in the same boat, I live around DC and the dealer said they never heard of Datadots. That's such BULL.

Good luck on the HIDzapper, and try to return the car, I love mine, but you shouldn't have to be a victim just because you bought a nice car.

 

Yeah,
I seriously thought of hooking up a taser to the hood latch.

Seth

 

Wouldn't the ECU fry??

 

Maybe, since it'll be AC current, what about making an electric puddle to park in, of course you need to unplug it before you leave.

And in the morning you tell the police that you where working on your car, and you feel horrible that you left the exposed live wire in a seemingly constructed puddle of water, but it wasn't done on purpose. And you can pretend that you feel bad.

What about something spring loaded? Maybe those confetti firework things, they pop real loud, and shoot stuff (confetti/shrapnel mod).

We need to come up with something, I want to see on the news "Vigilantly security system, Maxima owners say enough is enough"

Man that would be sweet.

 

You are in Florida and your headlights are getting stolen? It must be the same person hitting your car twice, hoping to get the *new* HIDs your insurance company would have bought for you. Hmm...

 

Well,
The car was in 2 different locations and the thieves used 2 different methods to pop the hood.

In total:

new HID from dealer $1500 + harness $50 = $1550.
OEM HID off ebay + dealer harness = $600

new halogen from dealer + harness (custom by me) + silverstars ($100) = $650

new HID halo imitation off ebay + custom harness + quality bulbs = $400

halogen housings from junkyard ($190) + silverstars ($100) + harness custom by me with dealer pieces = $350

The method I went with is the last one.
Just need 1 more 1157 socket and the socket clips and its finished.

Seth

P.S. We bought the car off someone elses lease. When doing my custom harness I found out the car had its HID's stolen when it was with its previous owner and the dealer didn't tell me this when the car was purchased. I found out because it has the harness repair kit installed. The other owners ended their lease early and went into an '04 maxima.

 

In case anyone cares to do the HID to halogen swap here's how you modify the harness:

There are 3 sub-harnesses, a large two wire harness, a small two wire harness, and a 3 wire harness.

First the small 2 wire: this is the turn signal.
The 3 wire is the most complicated: 1 is a ground, 1 is a low beam, 1 is a power sensor for the fog light relay. It allows the fogs to go on with the low beams and off with the high beams and off when off.

Then the large 2 wire: the high beams.

What you do is attach the turn signal separately. Find the high beam ground and hide it away. Attach the high beam to the high beam wire from the 9003 connector. Attach the ground to the ground from the low beam connector. Attach the low beam to the low beam on the 9003 connector and using a wire tap-in connect the fog light wire to the low beam wire. Instead of 'discarding' the high beam ground you can tap-in it to the low beam ground.

This makes it so that the high and low beams are on at the same time just like with the HID's. I haven't figured out how to kill the low beam when the highs are on beacuse when both are on the heat shortens the bulb life.

Seth

 

lol, thats funny, looks like the theives are not very smart. You may be able to out do them.

 

this took place in miami? im terrified now. i check my car every night like 5x. im going 2 get data dots asap.

 

seth,

did you have to use the h4 wiring harness? like this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...472068748&rd=1

were all the wiring intact? in your instruction, which wires were used (oem vs. h4 wires)?

so now if you turn on the high beam, both of your low and fogs are on?

 

anyone know how to disable the auto window down thing?

 

Hmm,
I don't know about that H4 harness. What I did was get the 9003 female sockets from the dealer. The rest of the wires was trial and error to get the lights to work. Once I finally got it all working the fuses blew, so I have to make sure the wires are set up correctly.
I don't know if that H4 harness has the turn signal clips.

Seth

P.S. To disable the auto window down you have to remove that clip behind the door handle.

 

BTW,
If anyone has a haynes which says which colors the wires are (ground high low relay, etc, since I believe now the let and right headlights are connected in series not in parallel) it would be a big help.
Thanks.

Seth

 

damn, you got a good sense of humor man. i'd be puttin holes in my walls if i were in your shoes.

 

Someone asked if the fogs stay on with the high beams.
They don't.

Just curious now that I have the right side working, the left side quit. I need to know if someone can go out to their car and tell me which color wires run to which bulbs. Thanks.
Same for halogen cars. I can't find a haynes for this model yet.

Seth

 

^^^^
How's that for a laugh. A 21 day old 2002 maxima SE with 20k miles and halogen headlights.

Seth

 

so did you get it to work?

 

I'll tell you tomorrow when I hook up the drivers side.

Seth

 

Is stealing the HID's just a "coast" thing or is it happening in the midwest also?

 

It happens everywhere there are 2002+ maximas.

Seth

 

There have been no reported incidents in the midwest. The hot spots are Jersery, NYC, Miami, and a couple reports in Socal.

 

Seth: The same thing happened to my uncle. They made a little hole underneath the door ****, brought the windows down, tried to pop open the trunk and lift his replaced HIDs...but they couldn't, he had the anti-theft kit in.

This was a side-effect of my uncle's 02' GLE after they tried to steal his HIDs again. Your windows roll down everytime you turn off the car, right? You need to take your car to a shop.