Audi headlight theft

The small Audi sedans are delightful cars.  The A4 is a wonderful car.  My brother has an S4, which, with a few modifications, is insanely fast and very solid.  I like them a lot, but I wouldn't own one.  At least not around here.

Just about every day I see one of them looking like Lear, hollow black sockets where once there were bright lights.  Wires draped over the bumper like tendon or trails of blood.  It seems the headlight units are valuable enough to be stolen with regularity.

It's bad enough to have your light stolen, but some of the thieves are clumsy.  The better thieves pry out the light with barely a scratch on the car.  The worse ones leave you with this:

UPDATE: It was, of course, Gloucester whose eyes were gouged out in Act III of King Lear. That post was up for a year with the wrong name in it before Autoblog corrected me.

Comments

[robbie racer]

Has anyone come up with a solution for the A4/S4 headlight theft? They are killing us here in Boston. Would like to talk with folks who are pursuing ways to fight back. 9/7/04

[roger]

Don't own an S4 yet but am considering a used 2001. I see this poor guy's S4 in Cambridge with missing headlights... maybe stolen twice !! My only guess would be to create a super sensitive custom alarm with shock sensors near the sockets in conjunction with a siren that's ear splitting (they're illegal but effective)...

good luck

[Brendan]

My headlight were just stolen from my 2001 A4 in Roslindale. Audi, the police and the garage the car is currently at all say there is nothing that can be done to prevent this. I said replace the stolen lights with regular ones, and was told they will be taken or at least pryed off because of the model of the car. How can there be no solution to this?

[roadkill]

I just had my lights stolen as well from my 1999 A4 on December 10th, from Jamaica Plain, parked at the Faulkner hospital. Went to pick up my car at the body shop and there were 3 other A4's with the lights gone. Now they are replaced but I have to park again there everyday and I'm just waiting to go out and see them gone again. I wish I could put some sign there that says "These aren't Xenon!!!!!!!"

[Candice Ferrette]

I'm a reporter in Westchester, New York writing about a recent rash of headlight thefts from Lexus RX300 and RX330. I'm looking for sources in other suburbs across the country. Wondering if this is a national trend. Can anyone help? e-mail me at cferrett@thejournalnews.gannett.com.

[snidely]

Just had my headlights yanked out of my S4 in a garage near Chinatown. Wonder about this technology:

http://www.mdatatech.com/australia/datadot_application_process.htm

[dan g]

last week (march 20th, 2005) i had my 2000 A4 lights yanked from my own driveway here in Jamaica Plain. not too much fender damage, just some chipped paint and a little dent.

i feel like a sitting duck now, though. the insurance adjuster guy said "yeah, you'll be putting in a claim every couple of months, i bet..."

this is great.

[jbm]

Gang-

I don't own an Audi, but i'm familiar with the theft problem in Boston.

Here are 3 long-winded solution, but each is worth a shot.

Look into those tinted (or clear, if they make 'em) headlight covers you can get from online parts companies. A cover is one more layer for a time-restricted thief to lift off; plus a shaded one disguises the lamp (so it would be hard to tell immediately if it's the type they're looking for).

OR. Take the above example (headlight covers),paint the outside of them pitch black. Tape some electric wires to them from the inside. Find a way to secure them quickly (use a trace of velcro tape around the edges of the cracked cover, and then on your 'good' headlamp cover). Every night when you park your car, slap the old headlamp covers on (be sure to make the wires visible and dangling out). At a glance (or, arguably, a quick study) by a thief, it will look like your lights were already snatched.

(in lieu of new headlight covers in the above example, you could simply get a flexible, black, heavy duty plastic/nylon sheet and cut it to your headlight's size, and velcro them on each night instead)

Otherwise, (the real anal-retentive solution:) you could look into a 10" or 16" cable lock (a thin one). Open the hood, find a manufactured hole/holes on the back of the light assembly (or you could use a strong adhesive to glue a closed loop (for which to pass the cable through), and run the cable through the hole/glued loop on the headlight assembly and then run the cable around a metal bar (or other fixed piece) in the engine bay. Secure the cable with a small padlock (they make 'em the size of a quarter, check your hardware store). now if someone starts stealing your headlight and they're having a hard time yanking it out (because of the cable lock), they'll probably give up (racing against time) and move on to another audi. You might have some hood damage but at least you'll have your lights.

Good luck,
jbm

[brian]

it's not just the A4 that's plagued with this. it seems Acura, Nissan, Infiniti, Lexus models are often hit, too. on the east coast there's nary a safe spot to park, and the west coast is catching up far too quickly.

here are the approaches as i see them, in order:

1) invisibility. if you stay under the radar there's less chance someone will notice you have anything to steal. hide the car, in a garage, under a cover, behind other cars. hide the lights - the covers mentioned above to make them look cheaper, or already stolen. the downside to this approach is the hassle involved for you. and the one time you get lazy is the one time they disappear.

2) deterrence. the alarm with the flashing light. security cameras, security personnel. stickers/labels that proclaim the presence of an alarm, the security measures, the cable-locked headlights. you can't make your car impenetrable, and theives know that. but you can make it less attractive to burgling than the poor sap parked next to you.

3) make them impossible to steal. the cable locks, the reinforced mounting brackets (nissan actually released updated ones for the maxima). I have a real problem with this approach, tho. You've got a thief that was clever enough to get past your ruses in (1) and determined enough to press on despite all the risks presented in (2). now he's pressed for time, the alarm siren you placed right behind the headlamps is blaring at him, and the headlights aren't coming off like they're supposed to. so he rips them out by force and you're not just replacing headlights, you're fixing the whole front end. even if he can't get them loose, you still need new ones. if you succeed in keeping them out of his hands, you've made one small step in shrinking the black market's supply, and we all thank you for your philanthropism... but you're still out a lot of money in repairs.

for me, if a thief has made it past all my preliminary defenses and has already made a significant effort to remove them, i'd like them to just pop away cleanly leaving the rest of the car undamaged.

4) tracking. this is where i justify my previous willingness to see my stuff walk away. etched vin numbers, dye on the housings that marks him a thief. i'd love to see automakers slip an rfid tag (they're cheap enough these days) into the molded plastic or HID ballast so buyers could trace the origins and verify the honesty of their seller. i've even seen ink squirters mounted behind the headlights that activate when the housings are removed.

the whole thing just stinks, really. but there's a market for stolen cars because people are willing to buy a car with questionable origins if the price is right. and headlamps are no different - our own consumerism is at fault here.

[Mac Jenkins]

What type of rice mobiles are they putting these headlights into? I say to hell with the asian and hispanic rice mobile pack and start laying my foot up side their heads!

[meticulousmobile]

I am a certified installer in the Boston area with experience installing headlight security systems in Audi and Lexus vehicles. Contact me if I can be of assistance. matt@meticulousmobile.com

[Brendan]

I am looking to buy a new car and most seem to come with at least halogen lights. I had my Audi Xenons stolen twice in Roslindale before selling the car (took a big loss) does anyone know if there is a similar problem with Mazda's and halogen lights...all the dealers still pretend they have never heard of this issue!

[Roy]

I have a 00 Audi S4 and my headlights got stolen 3 times on the border of Boston and Brookline near BU area. I am thinking selling my car since I have had enough shit of this....

[No Heinz Ketchup]

Kind of funny and gratifying to hear about crime in liberal infested Kennedy-Kerry country. Perhaps a bit more liberal compassion could rectify things (just as liberalism has solved so many world problems): tape a stack of $100 bills to your hood and beg the crook to take the cash and not rip off your headlights. This way, you feel and achnowledge his painful childhood that excuses his crimial behavior, the racist world he grew up him, his victimhood, and you elevate yourselves to a nonviolent, peaceful, negotiated settlement a la Jimmy Carter. You dolts keep voting for Kennedy and clan, you got the society you deserve.

My suggestion: liberals should not own S4's -- they should take public transportation just as they insist everyone else do to save the environment. If you're not a liberal, this message was not directed to you.

CP replies: I was going to delete your insulting comment, or point out the relative car theft rates in red v. blue states, but you're so fucking stupid, I decided to let your comment stand for itself without bothering to befuddle you with facts.

in order to remove the headlights, a criminal must touch the light housing. Buy a tazer, somewhere where they are legal, and wire it to the top of the light. If someone tries to stick a screwdriver or hand in there he'll receive a detering blast. He may even still be there when you get back so you can assure him it is not in his best interests to tamper with other peoples' proerty.

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