Kill switchs do work !

turbolou

Lou's Automotive 949-378-1590
Joined
Jun 23, 2001
Two weeks ago while his car was in my shop a customer requested a kill switch to be installed. Today I got a call that his car was saved from a would be thief who attempted to steal it and failed. it was in a parking structure at work. The steering column is broken which is a bummer but at least he still has the car. This hopefully was caught on camera & the thief will be caught. Now if only more cars had this simple $3.00 toggle switch installed more cars could be saved.
 
Car thieves should be publicly beaten. The thought of a car being stolen angers the hell right out of me. Good save Lou. (y)
 
That's good news for once.

I have a kill as well.

You still can't take your eyes off these cars in public though.

A flat bed can take the car in 5 minutes or less and if they have one of those drop down wrap around the tires and lift wreckers it's gone in a minute or less.

Nice work Lou. Be proud.

D
 
Lou,

I know they work, one saved my buddy Jason's car from being stolen when we were in Vegas at one of the race events there 15 years ago or so. He had one of those B.S "touch and go" kill switches that Kirbans used to sell. The thieves broke the steering column but couldn't start the car. Good thing since Ralph owns it now. Who knows what would have happened otherwise.

Neal
 
Thank God and thank Jason for that kill switch !!


I love my limited even at 132k

Neil can't wait to see ur Buick at the show;)
 
Need to install one on my T-type, though it won't see the outside of the garage for awhile. And I recently moved onto a Vineyard that isn't exactly near a city!
 
. He had one of those B.S "touch and go" kill switches that Kirbans used to sell.

Neal

Neal,

Kirban's still sells them. I bought one and plan on having Lou install it while I'm out there for the Bates show.

There are some other tricks in my car to discourage thieves but I want to add yet another layer.

Question, why do you call it a "B.S." switch if it did it's job?
 
I installed a kill switch on my 85 Cutlass back in 97 when I was in Cherry Point. The only thing is, most people install a "kill switch" to open a circuit to disable something (spark, power, fuel pump, etc) but I actually wired mine from the power of the distributor cap to ground. So if this switch was left "closed" when you turn the key on it would blow the fuse. This way, even if the thief found the switch after looking for why the car wouldnt start, they couldnt just flip the switch so the car would start. They would flip it and they car would just crank and not start. You would have to go under the dash, replace the fuse with a spare fuse that you just happen to have on you (unlikely) and then hope the switch is in the right position so it wouldnt blow the fuse again! This thing worked so well that I blew a ton of fuses forgetting to turn the switch off! LOL.... But the car never got stolen (or broken into) so I never got a chance to test it (and catch a thief) but I did end up buying a ton of 15 amp fuses!

So if you do install a kill switch I would recommend to do it that way. Because if all the kill switch does is open a circuit, then you risk the thief finding the switch, flipping it and the car starting right up. Good luck yall!
 
I installed a kill switch on my 85 Cutlass back in 97 when I was in Cherry Point. The only thing is, most people install a "kill switch" to open a circuit to disable something (spark, power, fuel pump, etc) but I actually wired mine from the power of the distributor cap to ground. So if this switch was left "closed" when you turn the key on it would blow the fuse. This way, even if the thief found the switch after looking for why the car wouldnt start, they couldnt just flip the switch so the car would start. They would flip it and they car would just crank and not start. You would have to go under the dash, replace the fuse with a spare fuse that you just happen to have on you (unlikely) and then hope the switch is in the right position so it wouldnt blow the fuse again! This thing worked so well that I blew a ton of fuses forgetting to turn the switch off! LOL.... But the car never got stolen (or broken into) so I never got a chance to test it (and catch a thief) but I did end up buying a ton of 15 amp fuses!

So if you do install a kill switch I would recommend to do it that way. Because if all the kill switch does is open a circuit, then you risk the thief finding the switch, flipping it and the car starting right up. Good luck yall!
 
I know back in the day if I ended up parking my car somewhere I felt uncomfortable I would go under the rear bumper and unplug the fuel pump. I'm fairly sure most thieves wouldn't know to look there. Having a kill switch in the trunk tied into the fuel pump circuit is a good deterrent to would be thieves .

Neal
 
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