my anti theft device

[nyle]

so. i had a cavalier before my ti. one night i got stuck in philadelphia and ended up towing back to my house.... 27 miles away.

it took me three days to realized that i had a faulty clutch safety switch and all i needed to do was tie the wires together, talk about a cheap fix.

that got me to thinking, if i ever need to disable a car, i'll just disable the clutch switch. soo....

today i had some free time and a spare toggle switch lying around my house and decided to put it to use. i cut one of the wires connected to the clutch switch and ran them to my toggle switch, which i mounted in under my dash. now if i feel the need to prevent my car from being turned on, all i need to do is flip that switch and presto. its disabled.

thought i might share my mod :)

[96cali]

Pretty slick!

[Watchmyradical]

tight idea.

[Mallard]

do you have a www.bmwfans.info pic of the clutch switch?

this sounds very interesting :)

[nyle]

i'm actually having trouble finding it. i don't know what system to expect to find it in. it's the clutch safety switch.. some people bypass them so you don't have to press your clutch in to start your car.

[Mallard]

im not sure what the electronic element of the clutch would be?

please enlighten :)

[nyle]

its not a part of the clutch really. i wish i had batteries for my camera so i could take pictures.

if you take of the under dash cover, and follow along the clutch pedal you will see a switch mechanism. if you press the clutch in it will hit this plastic pin thing, activating the switch. this is what allows you to turn on your car. i know that older bmws didnt have them. i thought i saw somewhere that maybe it was in '96 that they put them in?? anyway. there are three wires into it. two are brown (one of the brown has a stripe down it) i figured that this must be the wire that gets connected to allow the car to start, which means its safe to put another switch in between. i hope that clears it up a little better for you.

[Mallard]

http://bmwfans.info/original/images/2804_p.png (http://bmwfans.info/original/E36/com/318ti-M44/USA/L/M/1998/06/mg-21/)

is it number 25 in this pic?

[nyle]

found it.
http://bmwfans.info/original/images/49633_p.png (http://bmwfans.info/original/E36/com/318ti-M44/USA/L/M/1997/07/mg-35/)

in the picture its number 8
part number 61 31 8 363 710

[zboot]

Thieves can still start the car by popping the clutch. . .

[nyle]

when i had the issue on my cavalier i tried probably for an hour to start it like that and it didnt work (and i've done it before so it's not like i was trying to figure out how to do it). but regardless, i doubt a thief would go through the effort of trying to pop a clutch to steal a car.

[Will'sBimmer]

i dont have to press my clutch in to start my car

[zboot]

when i had the issue on my cavalier i tried probably for an hour to start it like that and it didnt work (and i've done it before so it's not like i was trying to figure out how to do it). but regardless, i doubt a thief would go through the effort of trying to pop a clutch to steal a car.

it's not that much effort. I had to do it a few months ago with my car. If I was parked on a slight enough incline, removing the parking brake and pushing in the clutch was enough to get rolling fast enough to pop the clutch. I suppose it would depend on the thief. Before I got my car, I wouldn't have even thought about that, now, I know. But then again, I also have an appreciation for other people's property so I wouldn't be stealing cars anyway. . .

[DocDuvi]

i dont have to press my clutch in to start my car

hmm i dont either ha!