Bit of an open question really; the 16v has a typical plug-type immobiliser (which until fairly recently was classed as Thatcham cat 2), and until my new steering wheel was fitted also had a properly old "Stoplock" steering lock attached overnight. The stoplock had a 7 pin barrel lock on it (the ones you can get around in 5 seconds with a biro) but I still used it as a bit of a visual deterrant to the casual scally. I hate car alarms and don't have the money to upgrade at the moment, but just out of interest are other people happy using cat 2 immobilisers on their Mk2s, or are these considered to be pretty useless now?
16v is petty difficult to immobilise as it needs next to no wiring to get it going, everything is in the engine bay and mostly mechanical. for all the good the immob does in terms of time taken to bypass, might as well just pull the fuel pump relay when you're worried car might get nicked! to make it harder pinch the king lead as well. you're better off with a well installed alarm, that way anyone trying to nick it will have lots of attention drawn to them by the sirens
Alarms are fine as a deterant to stop someone stealing something inside the car (how many people actually take any notice of a siren going off). I perfer immobilisers be it diskloks, snap offs or mechanical.
I had that type of immobiliser fitted on my old Mk2. Supposedly Thatcham Class 1-2 (or 2-1, can`t remember...). The car was nicked a couple of months later, and they had simply by-passed it (and the alarm), so obviously easily defeated.
Thanks chaps John - I do usually pull the fuel pump fuse if I'm anywhere particularly dodgy, I appreciate the little flashing red LED on the immobiliser as a bit of a deterrant, though Dragonfly - I hear you on that one - something visible is always good. Unfortunatly I'm skint and don't really want the additional hassle of carting yet another heavy bit of kit around in the car.. Stu - that's unfortunate.. having familiarised myself with my immobiliser it would be easy to bypass. Suppose it's a double edged sword really; the better integrated the alarm / immob. is the harder it is on the scallies, but it also makes for a far larger headache if it starts playing up Oh well, I'll keep my fingers crossed for the time being that the pikies leave it alone..
I think a good immob on a 16v would be to trigger the over-run cutoff valve, 16v wont start when thats playing up. wiring to it is behind the dash also would take a very knowledgeable thief to figure that one out I bet
