I have a 2002 Max and they stole one of my xenon headlights. I already filed a police report and have to talk to my insurance agency.

Do you think I'll be compensated. I'm still paying it off so I have full coverage. I'm sure tons of other headlights have been stolen. Can someone tell me what happened??

 

you will have to pay your deductable and they will then replace them

 

That sucks. They only stole one?

 

Yup , they only stole one. It was a quick pull, they messed up my hood a little too

 

That's something I don't understand. I see quite a few folks get their headlights 'jacked'. While I understand the "why", I don't understand the "how". I mean, there's 2 overlying questions (and I'm hoping 5th gen owners can enlighten me with THEIR pearls of wisdom)
1. How is it that they are able to pop open the hood from the outside
2. Don't pretty much ALL 5th gen Maximas come standard with factory security? One that protects opening of the doors AND hood?

I'm just curious, fellas - and I'm sorry for your loss, Horsepower... hopefully everything works out for you.

 

they do not need to open the hood and the factory alarm does not go off when you poke around the headlight. which is why it's 'easy' to steal them...

 

Horsepower, you may want to search through the 5th Gen Maxima forum. You'll find plenty of answers (and maybe more questions) there, as well as other 2k2/3 Max owner in the NY/NJ area who have had their HIDs stolen also.

 

There's plenty of discussion on the 5th gen forums about this.

Some insight as to WHY...

Supposedly there was a post someone found in another message boards where someone wanted to buy an HID upgrade for their car, and someone replied "just relieve a 2002-2003 Maxima of its eyes... the bulbs are a common size, just think of them as "universal HIDs"
So supposedly the Maxima's HIDs are such a common size that they are easily transplanted into other cars. I'd be willing to bet that alone is the main reason they're stolen so much.

 

They take our headlights because they are so easy to steal. Nissan cheaped out on the design of the headlights using plastic to hold the lights in. Not only that, they made the bolts so easy to access without opening the hood. People found this out and decided that we were an easy target. This is common on other cars to. Someone pointed me out to an old RX300 with the lights ripped out. I've seen Acuras with their lights ripped out. I have also seen a WRX with no lights. Until the price of HIDs go down in the aftermarket, these thefts will continue to happen.

 

But what about the ballast and ignitor for the bulbs? Does the headlight housing contain them too?

 

i am pretty sure the ignitor is incorporated in there somewhere...the ballast is under each headlight housing

 

does someone know how exactly are these low life stealing these lights.

 

They take them off the car. I don't think people are willing to describe HOW the lights are being stolen.

 

ohhhhh i see so is that why head lights turn up missing. thank you for clearing that up for me.

anyways seriously now.

i wanted to know how they are doing it so i can do preventive measures on my dad's car. if someone that know please PM me so i can figure out how to prvent it.
whats getting me is you guys are saying the hood does not even need to be poped to take the lights. WTF?????

 

my friend had his headlights stolen from his '02 SE TWICE. and the third time, he just bought a pair of '00-'01 headlights to avoid anymore Stress..
He lives in Brooklyn, NY and parked his car on the street in his neighborhood.
Good luck.

 

As Mac indicated, I'm not willing to describe the process but, I will say that it's not a pretty process.

 

why wont you all get the new recall on the head lights? We get them in all the time at work and they make the headlight theft alot more dificult

 

First off, the guy is in Cali where the theft of the lights is virtually nonexistent so theres not much need to worry. Second, the recall effects people in the Northeast only.

 

I live in North Jersey and have seen countless 5th gen 02-03s without headlights, and even my friend's 02 HIDs got stolen right outside of the highschool his sister goes to (Teaneck High School). Its extremely easy to steal these lights, and the process of how it is done has been shown in various places. I recall a news-story about this in which the body shop they interviewed literally went over the steps in which the theives use to get the headlights, and I can guarantee you it can be done in less than 2 minutes. . . thats why it happens so much.

 

ok well answer me this. if i can make some sort of plate that fits over the head light mounting bolts that acts like a shroud for the plastic brackets.

rivet this "shroud" onto the radiator support. will that make them harder to jack??????

 

Even if you add preventive measures, if the thief doesn't know, they may still try and that means destroying parts of the hood and whatever else they try to attack. Its really a lose-lose battle at this point.

 

I've never had any problem with HID theft myself but I got the recall done. However, someone who had the recall done already had their headlight (1) jacked at Menlo Park Mall (Edison) over the holidays; apparently the recall brackets DID make it much more difficult as they only got the one light.

Best bet: Recall + sensitive alarm = The Way to Go (to borrow from NJ Transit)

 

thank you y2k2driver thats all i wanted to know.

 

all i can say are 2 things....

sorry

get aftermarket pager alarm