My Type S is only 1 month old and they ripped off my headlights - literally. I came out of work and my front bumper was on the ground, snipped at all the bolting points, the hood was bent up on each side and the headlights were gone. The parking lot is in a suburb in NJ and is usually quite safe.
Be careful. The cops say this is the new thing.
I don't know what can be done to prevent this in the future but if anyone has any ideas, let me know. The stock alarm sure as hell did nothing.

 

:o :o

Man, NJ is a tough place!

There must be a way to run a few KV through the headlights to "light up" the thieves.

Low life scum....

 

Same thing happened to me in NJ. My car was two days old and parked in front of a busy On the Border restaurant. I came out and the bumper cap was lying on the ground if front of the car. Apparently the thieves got scared off before they could finish. I was lucky - it only cost me $100 to have the bumper reattached. You're looking at a $3,500 repair. Needless to say I don't park the TL-S anywhere it could be in danger. Putting lots of miles on my MDX that (fortunately) doesn't have HID's.

 

I really hope this doesn't spread to TX.

Sorry about your car.

 

Oh man.....I'm sorry to here about that. I'm getting my TL-S in about a week and I've been worried about the headlight's, I don't even have the car yet! I'll tell ya, who the hell would of thought we have to worry about HEADLIGHT'S!?!?!

 

This has happened a lot esp in the NJ, NY area. There isn't really anything you can do but park some where safe. Somebody scanned in a newspaper article about this earlier. Because of the platform sharing, our headlights will easily fit an Accord. From what I hear it only takes two people and about a minute to rip out the headlights. It really sucks but thats what insurance is for....better luck next time

 

Sorry to hear about the vandalism. Could you be specific as to where it occurred, since I'm in Northern NJ? I hope insurance covers the loss.

 

Is that true for the '02 TL since it has a bigger headlight?

 

They aren't stealing the HID's for the headlight housing. They're stealing them for the bulbs, igniters, and ballasts that are then jury-rigged to fit other cars. For example, a Civic driver rips off the HID's from a TL. He then takes the bulb out of his Civic headlight housing and uses glue and fiberglass to attach the TL parts. It's a pretty crappy attempt at HID's and they can't be adjusted. So if you see a Civic or Accord with one HID pointing toward the sky and the other aimed at the ground they were probably stolen. There are aftermarket kits you can buy to put HID’s on cars that weren’t originally equipped that way. So don’t take revenge on a potentially innocent Civic or Accord driver that might have paid the $500 to acquire his or her HID’s legitimately.

 

Sorry to hear about your headlights, that totally sucks.

I try to always back my car into spots, I figure I might get lucky and have someone drive by if it ever happens that they are trying stealing my lights. At least backwards the theives have no where to hide b/c they are exposed to the road. Getting my alarm next week, going to request that it be set on ultra sensitive, I don't care if my neighbors like me or not so long as my baby is safe!

By the way, my friend at the dealership & I were talking about this (they have 4 on their lot with stolen lights), he said that the common theif steals the lights by taking the bumpers off...a professional will go through your wheel well. I don't want to post all of the details in case we have some twisted visitors. The damage isn't nearly as severe but you're still stuck waiting for headlights b/c of some a$$.

 

I wonder if we can create some sort of protective "shield" that would prevent a would-be thief from gaining access to the clips and screws he needs to remove the light without damaging it.

 

Thanks for all the posts.This occured in Passaic County NJ, but my dealer was in Bergen County and claims this is happening all over.
The cops are quite aware of the problem too.
We all have a major problem here. My car may take up to 4 weeks to fix. I hope this doesn't happen every month, I'll never have it.
I also wonder what this is going to do to insurance rates in general on Type S. If they have to shell out $3500 all the time, we are going to be paying through the nose!

 

Boy i just installed Hid fog lights to my car. Man i hope they dont steal them.. Why do they got to be pickin on our TLs. Man
go get em out of a BMW or Mercedez Or Lexus.. ...........

This pisses me oFF!

 

Does anyone know if they make special locks or screws for the headlight housing? If not, someone should because I don't want to see this happening all over the country. Here in the San Francisco bay area, I haven't heard any headlights being stolen yet, and I hope it stays that way.

 

Sh*t!! Sorry to hear about your headlights. I live in NJ too and always fear that my headlights will be stolen. I try not to park in unfamiliar areas, but it really sucks that I have to worry everytime I park somewhere.

 

I don't know if this will work but...how about replacing 2 or 3 of the screws with one way screws from a hardware store? If we match up the thred pattern and size we shouldn't cause any damage. The problem then becomes what if God forbid we get into an accident and the housing needs to be replaced???

Any ideas?

 

I thought about this myself. I was going to replace the factory screws with some Torx screws (star-shaped pattern) or some Robertson screws (square pattern) so without a special tool (or some preplanning on the thieves' part) they wouldn't be able to take them out.

The only problem with this solution is by the time the thieves get to the point they can actually see the screws, some serious damage has already been done. They've probably already bent the hood, cracked or removed the bumper cover and destoyed some of the grille and trim around it. They get that far in only to find they can't remove the headlights and they're likely to take out their frustrations on your car in different places. Sure you saved your headlights, but there's probably more damage now than before. Either way it's going to be an insurance claim.

Just like stealing a car, if they want them they're going to get them no matter what you do. So make your car a less appealing target:

1. Good aftermarket alarm with shock sensor (or add the shock sensor to the factory alarm)
2. Parking in well-lit areas
3. Parking with nose of car towards traffic areas (usually means backing into parking spaces). They have to be in a wide open area to take your lights this way.

There are always easier targets for thieves out there. Don't make your car one of them.

 

I'm going to Home Depot this evening to do that very thing. I'll post specs on what I find.

BTW, I mounted my Clifford alarm siren right under one of the ballasts so anyone trying to steal them is gonna get an ear ful. Oh and it's really hard to find the power wire to the siren.

Neil

 

This is why the first thing I'm doing is getting a shock sensor installed. Of course I'm going to make it very sensative too!!

 

Where do you guys get the shock sensor? How much does it cost? oh and one more thing: Does it void the warranty, I hope not...

 

how bout a 15F capacitor hooked up to the HID casings, triggered by a shock sensor from the alarm. or 50F if you are feeling a little more mean

that otta get their attention.


hmmm a little cable from my stereo, and a distributor block....hmmm <plotting>

 

I think what u guys are forgetting/ignoring is that they are not gentle when they take out the light, since they dont care about the housing. Most cases i've heard about, and i have a friend who owns a body shop and gets the TL/CL's every once in a while, is where it looks like they just took a crowbar and ripped out the whole light assembly using the fender for leverage. It doesnt matter what kinda screws u use, they all get torn out. As someone said in the beginning of the post, they are interested in the guts of the light, and don't care about the housing. So securing it in any way is a waste. I think they only thing u can do, is setup some kinda "self-destruct" mechanism that'll fry the whole system if its forced out. At least this way u get the satisfaction of knowing they dont get working lights

 

I know the Acura3200, me and our friend Eddie put shock sensors on our factory Alarm (thanks to Mr. TL) just for that reason. The impact from bangin on the bumper should be enough to set it off. Can't really test it though, but I do know the sensor works.

 

My dealer told me that Acura is working on something that would prevent/minimize headlight theft. They didn't have any details though. Jens have you heard this? Making it harder for a thief to get your lights will probably only cause them to do more damage to the car. Sigh...

 

man i hope that wont happen to me i pray to god.. Because i have hid fog lighs that cost me lots of money Man...........

 

RedHot TL where can i get these sensors and how much.??

 

A friend of mine who lives in NJ got the clears on his TL stolen in Manhattan over the weekend. The scary thing is that his car was parked in the open on a busy street in broad daylight!! This really sucks … obviously these guys are able to get the entire assembly out in a matter of a minute or two if not seconds. Sure hope Acura is able to come out with a fix for this.

 

Someone needs to come up with a solution to this problem. I don't think I have read about this happening yet in California. I don't know why - we usually lead the nation in all things good AND bad! There is probably more scum per capita here than anywhere else. I would like to rig my car to blow the scum to hell, but that's not possible. Well, it IS possible, but that's pretty extreme. Maybe Acura should provide all of us with 24 hr armed security for our cars. Ha ha