I came home the other day to find that my Fit Sport's rear driver's side wheel had been stolen. The car was still up on a jack, and two of the four lug nuts of the front driver's side wheel were missing as well. I'm having Honda replace the rim and tire, and am having wheel locks installed. I didn't even think to have locks installed before, though now of course I wish I had.

Two questions:

Does anyone know how much of a deterrent wheel locks actually are? That is, how much safer should I feel after the locks are on?

Unfortunately my only parking option is on the street in front of my house. I live in a fairly nice part of Seattle. Any recommendations on how to keep the car as safe as possible, other than installing the locks, and parking under a street light?

Thank you!

 

wheels locks are punk deterrants but can easily be breached with a
slighly smaller diameter socket/easy outs, mallet, and ratchet.

i had to help remove one cause a buddy of mine lost the lock.

 

Locks should deter petty theives, if you are really worried have two sets of locks put on. The bad news is that any determined thief could figure out a way to defeat them. Whatever you can do to slow them down is your best option.

One other warning, there was another FitFreak memeber that started having stuff (like sport wheels) stolen and the thieves went after his body kit later.

One thing that might be kind of a good deterent is something like this; Motion-Sensing Dummy Camera FMC-1
It is basically an el-cheapo dummy cam that has a red LED that lights up when there is movement. It operates on batteries and you could even strap it to an outdoor light pole. It would have the effect of people wondering what the hell a camera is doing attached to a pole, but also probably be enought to make would-be theives think twice.

 

I learned the hard way that wheel locks, specifically factory wheel locks, are pretty much a waste. From what I have heard most thieves have an arsenal of wheel lock keys especially if they are out to nab specific wheels. I had a Jeep with wheel locks on my spare and it didn't stop the thieves. If you do get wheel locks, get after-market. It might be less likely for the thieves to have them. Although there is always a way to get them off if they want them bad enough.

MikeyG

 

F#cking theives

 

yep, and try to find an aftermarket lock that pretty much fills up
your wheel's lug bore so that its is impossible to fit a larger socket
over them.

best deterrent is to paint them hyper pink. jk

 

Sort of related to the topic...but what's the security system like on the Sport models? If it's not very effective and you are still concerned...id upgrade the security system.

 

they can still find a way to undo your battery and tow it away if they want. its where you park that makes the difference.

btw, i had a Gen5 98 pearl white. was a kickass car.

 

i stay up late at night and protect my property with force. i would feel sorry for anyone that tried to steal from me. they would find themselves staring down the barrel of my mossberg with two options.

 

You want the solution:

Move out of the shitty area.

It's harsh but true.

 

well I lucked out. The dealership included wheel locks for free on my car.

 

Wheel locks can themselves present a problem. The worse is McGard and the model with the pattern at the bottom of the socket. The pattern is made of a softer metal and eventually will start breaking off in pieces and strip completely. I had this happen when I had a flat tire and had to call a tow truck because I couldn't remove the flat. At the garage, the mechanic told me that he frequently sees cars come in with McGard nuts that people can't remove because of the poorly designed key. Then he just hammered a smaller socket over the McGard nut and used an air wrench to remove it...to less than 30 seconds.

 

^^ yep, you have to watch out cause some tire places (even my
non-Honda dealer) use like 150lbs/ft on their air tools to tighten the
lugs. and after the lug settles it takes almost 200lbs/ft to loosen it.

 

damn that sucks man i feel for you there. My buddy just recently just got his car broken into and they stole his cd faceplate, radar detector, amps, and subs. He couldn't report that in because his downpayment for the insurance company was already 500 bucks and all of that cost a little over 600. So it would've been wasted. i hate kids and posers who steal this crap just to make a buck or two or to pimp out their shitty cavalier.

 

McGard wheels locks are pieces of $#!^, not worth it. They break.

 

I got rays lugs, and locks on my wheels.

 

I have always wondered this... Do all Honda wheel locks use the same tool? If so, then if the thief happens to have one, there goes your rims.. So i find them to be helpful, yet not.

 

Hondas and Acuras each have a different master set for their own brand. The ones that Honda uses are different than the ones that Acura uses, then if you move up to say an RL, or an MDX the lugnuts/studs are larger, so there is yet another set of wheels locks, so they're different, but odds are if someone has been steeling cars/wheels that kind of stuff for long enough they'll have their own master set that they have taken from cars they've stolen.

IMHO wheel locks are a good way to keep the kids down the street from steeling, even if they have the proper tools to remove a wheel lock its not an easy task with the car on the ground using hand tools, while trying to be quiet.

Basically if someone wants your stuff bad enough and they are determined enough they'll take it, and they'll exhaust every resource necessary to do so.

 

wow that suxxxx

 

There are four or five different keys that Honda service uses for their wheel locks. The service department carries a small rectangular box that holds the lock keys and they are color coded. I don't what the colors are, but you can take your wheel locks to them and they will find the appropriate color key for you car in case you lose it or do not have it.

Also, I have had a tire company remove my wheels locks and put them back on without my key because I had forgotten to give it to them.