My mate, who's a good hobbyist mechanic, said the best way to stop your car being nicked
Is to take off the distributor cap whenever you leave the car. He showed me how to do it, and it's really easy and quick.

I will do this if/when I own a car.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 12:20, 24 replies)

I'm pretty sure
that no car made in the last 20 to 25 years has been made with a distributor cap!
(penrose your dog's got tits, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 12:24, closed)

^this
And most modern cars are almost impossible to start without the keys anyway, hence the increase in burglaries just to get the key...
( TheMattInAHat has a particular... odour..., Mon 26 Apr 2010, 12:29, closed)

Nonsense
My car (T-reg) has one. It has electronic ignition but the spark is still, er, distributed by a distributor.
(Flap Burger hasn't really got a burger made of flaps, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 12:34, closed)

really? fucking hell, what is it?
even Fiats had coil packs by then.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 13:43, closed)

Ah. OK - point taken.
My mate drives a 1967 Triumph.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 12:34, closed)

Not quite
25 years ago, many cars still had carburettors for fuel mixing, and distributors for the spark. It's only since the advent of the mandatory exhaust catalyst in 1993 that all petrol cars have been fuel injected, and even then, not all had individual coil packs until a few years ago.

And of course, diesel cars have never had distributors
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 13:54, closed)

BMW used distributors til 1993
So I'm sure a load of tinshit like Peugeots and Fords, let alone the Korean crap, were still using them in this millenium.

That aside, I wouldn't take the actual dizzy cap off, as then the coil charges up with nowhere to go, then earths to wherever it can and goes BANG. Not good.
( Grrrmachine the indifference engine, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 14:58, closed)

nah, doubt it past 93 for the reasons K2k6 gives.
it's simply an easier way of getting stable running, so therefore prolonging the cat life.

Oddly, a lot of the Korean shit was fairly advanced, electronically. Pity it's all shit otherwise.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 15:37, closed)

Shockingly, the Kia Clarius ran a distributor until 1999
(good old Autoparts guide.)
( Grrrmachine the indifference engine, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 16:48, closed)

fucking hell, really?
that's pretty special lack of advancement. I'm probably massively stereotyping based on an exes Hyundai.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 17:12, closed)

There's one drawback to this...
At many an outing to motor shows, concerts, etc., you would generally get an announcement saying that someone had found a distributor cap for a Ford or something. The owner was requested to come up to the stand.

Invariably about 20 minutes later you'd get another announcement saying "If anyone's found a cap for a Vauxhall, please hand it in"...

They'd be the 2 cars left at the end of the day.
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 13:36, closed)

apart from the whole "most cars not having one" thing
it's a rather odd thing to do. You'd have to disconnect all the HT leads and a dizzy cap is a) rather big to go in the pocket of, say, jeans and b) usually dirty and c) quite easy to damage.

taking the rotor arm out would be a better solution, I would suggest, achieving exactly the same effect for an awful lot less effort.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 13:40, closed)

Yeah he said about the rotor arm as well.
I think the idea is that if you've got a day-bag with you, then you put it in that.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 14:09, closed)

What's just as good
In my old Mini's you could easily get to the spark plugs. I just used to swap the order of the middle 2. Runs like a bag of spanners and can't be driven away.

Although I'm sure I didn't always get them back in the right order, they way some of them ran!
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 14:17, closed)

the only problem with that
is that all the thief needs to do is swap them back.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 14:34, closed)

Sure.
but why would you bother when you achieve the same effect by removing the rotor arm? it's effectively like wanting to, I dunno, protect a TV from a power surge while you are on holiday - and going about this by unscrewing the whole socket from the wall rather than just unplugging it.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 14:34, closed)

I don't know
I'm not a mechanic.

I'm sorry.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 14:44, closed)

There's plenty of simpler and easier ways of disabling a car
like nicking the fuse or relay to the fuel pump, or the DME relay on more modern cars, or just taking an HT lead with you blah blah blah

If you were going to all the hassle of opening the bonnet and yanking something out every time you popped to the shops, you'd just wire in a cut-out switch somewhere anyway.
( Grrrmachine the indifference engine, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 15:01, closed)

When the then Mr Quar wanted to sabotage my car to stop me going out
he'd loosen the air filter.

He denied it strenuously but the car always ran smoothly for him.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 15:27, closed)

well given loosening the air filter
would do the square root of fuck all to a car's performance* I'd suspect he probably did deny it.

*with the caveat that, yes, eventually, you might suck in some debris or small woodland animal that might terminally damage something. I meant as a short-term effect.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 15:34, closed)

My friend just fitted a small hidden switch under his dashboard he flicked when he left the car,
it disabled the ignition. Seemed to work fine.
( ..wil, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 15:48, closed)

what, much like an ignition switch, then?

( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 15:50, closed)

Yeah
But not as obvious as the big keyswitch under the steering wheel (Or by the handbrake for old SAABs.

Won't stop a committed car thief, but will slow the average joyrider up enough to make them say fuckit and go somewhere else
(Sir Tainley Barking Ezekiel 23:20, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 17:10, closed)

a hidden switch
is a good idea on old cars (as in proper old, like my 79 camper van) as, if you fit it on the coil supply side, you can spin the motor over a few times without it starting, allowing a decent bit of oil pressure to build before you flick the switch.

stops it going takatakatakatakadrrrrrrrrrrr when you start it...
(micky2shoes has more shoes than feet, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 20:29, closed)