Crook locks

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Mon 10 Mar 2003 17:04
Crook locks - Marcos{P}
One of my colleagues wifes has lost the key to the crook lock and he is racking his brains to work out how to remove the damned thing. She has no idea where the spare is so I think he will have to remove it by force.

It is a flat bar type of lock.

Any ideas?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 10 Mar 2003 17:19
Crook locks - Carl
Hacksaw !!!

I bought a krocklock some years ago which fitted between the handbrake and gear lever, and lost the key.

I called out the RAC, who were able to saw through it in 5 minutes flat, what a waste of money.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 10 Mar 2003 17:24
Crook locks - Marcos{P}
I thought these things were meant to be impossible to cut.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 10 Mar 2003 18:10
Crook locks - Carl
So did I !!!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 10 Mar 2003 18:55
Crook locks - Dynamic Dave
If they're in one of the Breakdown oganisations, give them a call and they'll have the necessary knowhow to remove it.
One certain type of steering wheel lock on the market is easily removed just by simply hitting it in the right place with a hammer!!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 10 Mar 2003 19:45
Crook locks - Dude - {P}
There has to be a simple way to remove them, as in the Thatcham Survey, professionals could remove one in less than 20 seconds. In other words they are an absolute waste of time fitting!!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 10 Mar 2003 19:54
Crook locks - Marcos{P}
Thanks for all the replies but he got home and found a spare key for the lock.
Even though it's his wifes car and he hasn't touched it in a week it somehow became his fault that she had lost the key.

Nice to know some things never change
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 10 Mar 2003 20:04
Crook locks - SteveH42
Not a total waste of time - like most things there is always a way around them, but it requires either specialist knowledge or equipment. Very few things will stop a professional, but they will encourage your average joy-rider to find an easier target.

As for not being able to cut through them - there aren't many things you can't eventually get through with just a hacksaw, and nothing that can't be cut at all...
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 10 Mar 2003 20:45
Crook locks - Ben79
A crook lock also shows the thief that you are aware of security, they should think that the valuables have been removed and removeable radio facias been taken away too.

My car may have an immobilisor and an alarm/immobilisor, but a highly visible sign is welcome too.

Ben
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 11 Mar 2003 17:12
Crook locks - Dave_TD
A crook lock also shows the thief that you are aware
of security, they should think that the valuables have been removed
and removeable radio facias been taken away too.


In my experience, a crook lock shows the thief that you have been suckered into spending 20, 30 or 50 quid or more on a pointless yellow piece of plastic and metal in the belief that it will somehow magically stop them breaking into your car! They will probably still smash a window just to *check* you haven't put your phone and stereo facia in the glovebox, or left your PS2 in the boot. Would you leave all your valuable stuff in a pile on the car roof when you park the car? It only takes a thief 5 seconds to smash a window to get to it, and then you might as well have left it on the roof...
The biggest anti-crime factor that you can influence is where you park the car in the first place, after that it's a case of fitting a decent, obvious alarm.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 10 Mar 2003 22:44
Crook locks - Mikey Jay
Marcos, I am not absolutely sure what you mean by a crook lock. Krook Lock was the registered trade name for a device that hooked over the steering wheel and under one of the pedals. These were first sold in the 1960's and 70's I think. Is every one saying that the stronger looking steering wheel locks can be removed easily by a thief?
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 11 Mar 2003 00:20
Crook locks - Blue {P}
I've got an Autolok which is more like an ornament now, it was considered very good when I bought it, but now it's attack test time is about 15 seconds. :(

The best one is the disclok, that still lasts several minutes and does very well in the tests, I doubt anyone would bother to nick a car with one of these fitted.
Blue
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 11 Mar 2003 00:27
Crook locks - Dynamic Dave
Is every one saying that the stronger looking steering
wheel locks can be removed easily by a thief?


The magazine "Which?" conducted a test with some of these wheel locks a couple of years ago, and most failed miserably. The best one was the one that covers the whole wheel (can't remember the name) but it is so cumbersome to fit and also to store, after the 1st few times people give up fitting them and leave them lying in the boot!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 11 Mar 2003 17:30
Crook locks - SjB {P}
When I lived abroad many years ago, a friend fitted a racing car quick release steering wheel to his 2 door coupe, and purchased a device that locked the driver's seat hard up against the steering column.

At the end of a journey, he simply detached the steering wheel, put it in his brief case if going to work, and tipped the seat forwards until it locked.

No doubt effective, if unconventional!

BTW, I found my twenty year old Krook Lock (the genuine article) in a dusty box last weekend, and threw it away. Having taken the cosmetic plastic off, what a manky pile of junk it is underneath! How did I ever expect it to help protect my car, even if I did 'oh so cleverly' pump the brake to exhaust the servo, and hook on to the brake pedal instead of the clutch, to reduce the risk of someone forcing it?!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 14 Sep 2010 08:44
Crook locks - argybargy

Ive never understood why car manufacturers at best, or after market security firms at worst have never adopted a seat locking system as opposed to a steering wheel lock. If youre able to lock the seat hard up against the wheel the car is impossible to drive, period. It shouldnt be beyond the wit of any company worth its salt to invent a simple system of rails or bars to allow a seat to be pulled forward and locked either to a hook in the vicinity of the steering wheel or to allow a locking mechanism to be activated in the seat guide rail to prevent it being moved back. I can only imagine that the reason they dont adopt such a simple and effective solution is because making cars impossible to steal is bad for sales figures.

As for the Krooklok, yes I had one. Fitted it to my Ford Escort Mark Two between steering wheel and brake pedal, drove off having forgotten to remove it (obviously not quite orange enough to make it conspicuous), went to apply the brakes and of course the pedal was locked tight. Handbrakes sometimes come in VERY handy.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 11 Mar 2003 21:41
Crook locks - Cyd
The reason the ones which totally encase the wheel are the only ones worth having is simply that a steering wheel is only a simple hoop of mild steel about 12mm thick covered in foam and leather/pvc. It is a simple matter to cut through the steering wheel each side of any 'super-stop-thief-bar' and hey-presto it falls away.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 12 Mar 2003 09:14
Crook locks - nick
One of the wheel covering types is Thatcham Cat 3 approved and was the only one that had any chance of stopping or slowing down a determined thief, according to a consumer test I saw a couple of years ago. All the rest failed in seconds, usually due to Cyd's method detailed above.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 13 Mar 2003 02:03
Crook locks - Dave_TD
Or by reclining the front seat, sitting on the gap between top of seat and headrest, and bending the bottom of the wheel with feet until the crook lock could be lifted away. I know this works, I caught someone doing this to my MkII Cavalier about 12 years ago! He didn't touch it again though...
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 22 Sep 2010 00:55
Crook locks - 1litregolfeater

About 30 years ago we were woken up by suspicious noises outside, peeped out to see someone inside my rusty old Capri. Flinging the lights on and curtains open while shouting and swearing and totally naked, the thief ran off leaving a huge bunch of keys behind.

That must be the secret, buy a Ford.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link