Car got broken into, and it's time to re-equip the audio system!
06-17-2004, 10:22 AM
#1
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Posts: 11
Car got broken into, and it's time to re-equip the audio system!
Last weekend some lowlifes broke into my car at work. This was in the broad daylight, not more than 50 feet from the plant "security" shack. These guys have some serious stones to say the least, but I did get a little bit of a break as they got spooked partway through the job and left some of my audio equipment behind. Imagine my disgust when I saw the smashed window, unlocked the door and opened it up only to have the useless factory alarm go off when i opened the door. WTF good is this, an alarm that doesn't activate with a smashed window but does when you open the damn door!?!?!
What they took was:
Alpine 7875 head unit
Alpine MRV-T420 amplifier (powered my subs)
Bel Vector LR radar detector
Cd wallet containing approx. 75 cds
They left midway through the heist job, and actually left the most valuable items behind. They left my alpine sub box and 2 12" Type R subwoofers behind, as well as a phoenix gold ZX450 amplifier, which I use to power my components and rear fills. This almost works out in my favor, as I was seriously considering picking up a new deck with mp3 capabilities, as the one I had was several years old and starting to have difficulties reading burned cds. The amplifier that was stolen I suspect was faulty right from factory, as it would consistently overheat/cutout after 20 minutes of hard bass, no matter whether it was wired in stereo, or bridged. Jokes on them in that regard.
Now it's time to think of what to replace the stolen amp and deck with. I don't think I'll be purchasing another radar detector, as I don't feel they are worth the cost. Go fast enough and you can end up with an estimated ticket, which I earned myself one of. (105 in a 50 zone, good thing he didn't get it right as I was going closer to 130, but that's a story for another thread I guess
)
I haven't decided at all what make/type of amp to go with, whether just a single channel would be best for driving the 2 subs, or a 2 channel amp as I had before. I'll likely avoid Alpine here due to my negative experience with the previous one. The subs are 4ohms, so that's something I'll keep in mind. As far as the head unit goes, I'll likely go with another alpine as I really liked the one which was stolen, and have no qualms whatsoever with going with this manufacturer again. I'll also likely pick up an alarm system at the same time. Any suggestions here would be greatly appreciated.
What they took was:
Alpine 7875 head unit
Alpine MRV-T420 amplifier (powered my subs)
Bel Vector LR radar detector
Cd wallet containing approx. 75 cds
They left midway through the heist job, and actually left the most valuable items behind. They left my alpine sub box and 2 12" Type R subwoofers behind, as well as a phoenix gold ZX450 amplifier, which I use to power my components and rear fills. This almost works out in my favor, as I was seriously considering picking up a new deck with mp3 capabilities, as the one I had was several years old and starting to have difficulties reading burned cds. The amplifier that was stolen I suspect was faulty right from factory, as it would consistently overheat/cutout after 20 minutes of hard bass, no matter whether it was wired in stereo, or bridged. Jokes on them in that regard.
Now it's time to think of what to replace the stolen amp and deck with. I don't think I'll be purchasing another radar detector, as I don't feel they are worth the cost. Go fast enough and you can end up with an estimated ticket, which I earned myself one of. (105 in a 50 zone, good thing he didn't get it right as I was going closer to 130, but that's a story for another thread I guess
)I haven't decided at all what make/type of amp to go with, whether just a single channel would be best for driving the 2 subs, or a 2 channel amp as I had before. I'll likely avoid Alpine here due to my negative experience with the previous one. The subs are 4ohms, so that's something I'll keep in mind. As far as the head unit goes, I'll likely go with another alpine as I really liked the one which was stolen, and have no qualms whatsoever with going with this manufacturer again. I'll also likely pick up an alarm system at the same time. Any suggestions here would be greatly appreciated.
06-17-2004, 11:25 AM
#2
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,280
Two tips:
You can add a shock sensor or glass sensor to the factory alarm if it is a 5th gen, check the 5th gen faqs. you might be able to do the same to a 4th gen too, but I am not sure.
When you get the new stuff, keep burned CDs in your car. I have no real CDs in my car. They are all either MP3 discs or copies of real CDs. Then if they get housed, no big deal.
You can add a shock sensor or glass sensor to the factory alarm if it is a 5th gen, check the 5th gen faqs. you might be able to do the same to a 4th gen too, but I am not sure.
When you get the new stuff, keep burned CDs in your car. I have no real CDs in my car. They are all either MP3 discs or copies of real CDs. Then if they get housed, no big deal.
06-17-2004, 11:29 AM
#3
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 152
hey man that sucks im sorry, even tho youre very fortunate to have not lost the stuff you really care about, its still crappy reguardless. Did the security guys step up? or do they have one of those "not responsible for lost or stolen goods" etc.
06-17-2004, 11:44 AM
#4
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 11
No, the security officials have no intentions of doing anything whatsoever to help me out. If I had my way they'd at the very LEAST be paying my insurance deductible, but that's wishing too much. The thing that really ****es me off about the whole scenario is that the previous night to my breakin, there were 3 other vehicles broken into, in about the same spot I was parked in. The very next morning the thieves were able to come back for more, that's just simply ridiculous how lax the security at this plant is. All the security officials seem to be concerned about is whether you flash your time card on the way through the security building and let them look inside backpacks/lunchboxes on the way out.
I do have to say I'm very pleased with how my insurance company has treated me throughout this, they are still willing to reimburse me for some items that I could not locate the receipts for, but at a 50% reduction in quoted price. If I would have had the receipts handy for that stuff, I still would have been looking at a 40% depreciation anyway, as they knock off 5% for every 6 months that have passed. So all in all, no problem there at all.
The cds is actually the thing that bothers me the most, as I tend to listen to hard to find, rare european metal bands, and much of this stuff will be next to impossible to replace. Yeah, I agree I never should have had that many cds in the car, the face plate in the deck, or the radar detector out in the open, but I live in a smaller town, and over time grew complacent to the risk of a breakin, believing it wouldn't happen to me. Especially not at work during the daytime, that still blows my mind.
I checked out the faq's, but was unable to find anything related to adding a shock sensor to the factory alarm system. Can anyone help point me in the right direction here?
I still think I'm going to install an aftermarket alarm at some point, if nothing else for the visible deterrent that such an alarm would entail. That would at least keep the amateur thieves out of my car, and I was planning on adding a remote starter at some point, so this would be a good opportunity to do so.
I do have to say I'm very pleased with how my insurance company has treated me throughout this, they are still willing to reimburse me for some items that I could not locate the receipts for, but at a 50% reduction in quoted price. If I would have had the receipts handy for that stuff, I still would have been looking at a 40% depreciation anyway, as they knock off 5% for every 6 months that have passed. So all in all, no problem there at all.
The cds is actually the thing that bothers me the most, as I tend to listen to hard to find, rare european metal bands, and much of this stuff will be next to impossible to replace. Yeah, I agree I never should have had that many cds in the car, the face plate in the deck, or the radar detector out in the open, but I live in a smaller town, and over time grew complacent to the risk of a breakin, believing it wouldn't happen to me. Especially not at work during the daytime, that still blows my mind.
I checked out the faq's, but was unable to find anything related to adding a shock sensor to the factory alarm system. Can anyone help point me in the right direction here?
I still think I'm going to install an aftermarket alarm at some point, if nothing else for the visible deterrent that such an alarm would entail. That would at least keep the amateur thieves out of my car, and I was planning on adding a remote starter at some point, so this would be a good opportunity to do so.
06-17-2004, 03:31 PM
#6
Originally Posted by Kojiro_FtT
Two tips:
You can add a shock sensor or glass sensor to the factory alarm if it is a 5th gen, check the 5th gen faqs. you might be able to do the same to a 4th gen too, but I am not sure.
When you get the new stuff, keep burned CDs in your car. I have no real CDs in my car. They are all either MP3 discs or copies of real CDs. Then if they get housed, no big deal.
You can add a shock sensor or glass sensor to the factory alarm if it is a 5th gen, check the 5th gen faqs. you might be able to do the same to a 4th gen too, but I am not sure.
When you get the new stuff, keep burned CDs in your car. I have no real CDs in my car. They are all either MP3 discs or copies of real CDs. Then if they get housed, no big deal.
06-17-2004, 04:36 PM
#7
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,280
Originally Posted by slickrick
hey i just skimmed the how to and faq and didnt see it. how easy is it to add the window sensors for the 5th gen? i might be interested in doing this.
Anyways, you get a shock sensor or glass sensor and wire it to the hood trigger wire. You can get one online from $5 to $20. Any shock sensor will do, though if you get a dual-stage then you can only use one, not both. The sensors have 3 wires, red for constant power, black ground, and then a third odd color for trigger (a dual-stage will have a fourth wire that you will not use). Run the green to the hood trigger and tap it in. Most people zip tie the sensor to the steering column, though there seems to be some debate as to whether it should be loose on the column or very tight. So when the sensor goes off, the Nissan alarm thinks someone has opened your hood and the alarm sounds.
You can also tap into the same hood trigger wire someplace behind the dash, but I do not know where. When I did mine I just ran it to the switch itself up front.
-----------------
Edit:
WTF? Why is 5th gen maximas.com a filtered word? Just cuz Russ was banned? Lame.
06-17-2004, 09:43 PM
#10
Eventhough adding the shock sensor to the stock alarm is great and all, I still wouldnt skimp out getting a real quality alarm since all it takes to disable the stock alarm is to cut the factory horn off which can be done simply by snipping the wires from the front of the grill.
06-17-2004, 11:03 PM
#11
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Join Date: Nov 2002
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Damn, now knowing it's that easy to disable the factory pos alarm, I'll definitely be adding in a proper alarm before any stereo equipment starts going back into my max. No sense in just giving these guys my stereo stuff if they come back someday to finish the job.
06-22-2004, 12:52 PM
#14
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I'll definitely not be bumping the system at all when I pull into work from here on out. It's sad that I have to worry about that kind of crap when there's a security building so nearby though.
Anyway, back to the original post. I have two alpine 12" type R subs in a sealed box. What are some good ampilifier recommendations for powering these subwoofers? Do you guys have any preferences in head units? And any good alarm brands out there you could recommend to me? As soon as my insurance settlement comes in, I'll be doing some shopping.
Anyway, back to the original post. I have two alpine 12" type R subs in a sealed box. What are some good ampilifier recommendations for powering these subwoofers? Do you guys have any preferences in head units? And any good alarm brands out there you could recommend to me? As soon as my insurance settlement comes in, I'll be doing some shopping.
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