UPDATE: Home Burglary: 1 wk for new keyfobs, need tips! Yesterday afternoon I received a frantic call from my son. He had just gotten home from school and discovered that we had been robbed. The animals (3 dogs & 2 cats) are ok and luckily no one was injured. Early tally is nearly $20K in electronics, jewelry, & guns were stolen. ALL of my digital cameras, tripods, lenses, filters, extra battery packs, memory cards, external hard-drives & thumbdrives were also stolen. I no longer have ANY of the MINI pics that I've taken over the years since 01/2007. :sad: They also stole my spare keyfob. The homeowners' insurance is going to cover the costs of replacing the keyfobs & all the parts/labor that will be done by the dealership. It will take seven days for the parts to arrive from Europe and then 2-3 days for the dealership to do the work. In the meantime, I need some tips/advice on what I can do to easily disable Schultze while he's in the general parking lot where I work. Lastly, since I have an '06 Justa, I was wondering how easy/complicated/possible it would be to install the OEM alarm system. (Recs for aftermarket systems welcomed, too!) Thanks in advance. Erika
Erika, I am so sorry. We were robbed once and it gives you a very bad feeling to think your home has been invaded. It is a place where one feels safe and then all at once it no longer feels that way. Hopefully they will recover your stolen items, as crooks do tend to stockpile that type of stuff and move it slowly. Hang in there. Jim
Sorry to hear about this. IMHO Alarms are about useless in cars these days. People tend to ignore them. I always set off a bunch of them in parking garages with my exhaust note and no one even looks. I'm also shocked that MINI doesn't have these parts in the US. BMW/MINI parts does fly over parts on a daily basis for cars that are waiting under warranty. I'd talk to your dealer and implore upon them the need to handle this in a very timely manner. A week is not acceptable to get the parts and then 2-3 days to do the work, that's just lack of customer service as I see it. If you have to call MINI and let them know of the situation as well if the dealer will not budge.
I agree.....the alarm is useless. And the MINI is just about impossible to steal w/o the key. My suggestion until the new keys arrive is to just pull the ground from the battery while parked outside or just leave it at home in the garage.
Thanks, Jim. I'm so pissed about the entire situation. The mess made hasn't been fun to clean...dammit, it's TOO EARLY FOR SPRING CLEANING!!! I agree that it shouldn't take a week to get the parts in, but apparently quite a bit of paperwork & registration/de-registration is involved. In the meantime, I was hoping for a short-term "trick" to disable Schultze so that he can't be driven using the spare keyfob. I guess I could disconnect the battery cable, but that would NOT be fun in the rain!
Thing is, they HAVE the spare keyfob and they have several of my recent paystubs which have my work address. I'll have to do the battery cable method because the previous homeowners converted the attached garage into a family room. Ug!
I use to park my Harley in the living room to prevent it being stolen, but I wasn't married then. :cornut: Jim
Sorry to hear about the robbery, that really suks! If your going to leave it parked anywhere, you can disconnect the plug for the clutch, it won't start cause it doesnt see the clutch engauged. As me how I know? First day with the MINI, brand new, my big a## workboots knocked this plug loose and it won't start. Had to have it towed!
If you look under the dash in the footwell, the switch is just to the left of the clutch pedal when you push it all the way down. I can take a picture tonight when I get home if youd like.
I'll take a peek when I go outside to leave for lunch. How in the world did you manage to get your foot under the dash?!
Sorry to hear this, Erika. When I was a kid, we were burglarized several times in South Florida when our neighborhood went to pot and I know full well the feeling of violation and anger. If the dealer can't make it happen sooner, ask them to keep the car and let you have a loaner. At least it would be locked up on their lot and out of harm's way. The worst part is the dust they use to get fingerprints, which usually result in you and your family being "found" all over the house. That dust is a pain to get up. After the first time, we didn't let them do the search fingerprints again since they really didn't make much of an effort to find whoever did the deed...
You are not kidding Johngo. I always tried to use the magna brush when I could to help people out. Sometimes the person would really be nasty to me, so out came the "silver powder". Get it wet and it is there for life. Jim
I would remove the battery. Take the car to another location, preferably a garage, and remove the battery. Then they can't drive off in it.
Perhaps your insurance company will allow a rental until your new stuff arrives and you can park yours without the battery? ....Les
The more appropriate question is, how do you drive a Mini with workboots on? My size 13s don't work in my car unless I have on proper shoes. I keep my boots at work if I need them because of this, hehe.
I'm so thankful your family is OK. I know it sucks to lose your belongings, but in the grand scheme of thing that is just stuff & can be replaced. As far as your MINI goes I would pull off the negative terminal. If someone comes for your MINI they are not going to take the time to trouble shoot the problem. As far as alarms go the MINI one is not too expensive & not too hard to install. Once installed a trip to the dealer is needed to program it. I'm not sure how effective an alarm will be. Your best price will be from Classic MINI in Ohio. Good luck...