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Having found out to my surprise quite how easy it was to open my rear door lock without using a key, I think it might be time to upgrade the lock(s). I appreciate there is a good amount of material on here that speaks to additional security upgrades in a layered approach but, are there any good replacement locks/barrels etc that I can fit. My vehicle is a 1987 CSW 100 V8.

Any thoughts and or advice greatly appreciated.

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I would not waste any money upgrading the locks on a Defender. If the miscreant is prepared to bend the door tops they are in/can reach in anyway, (unless you have the one piece steel doors that have a bit more moral fibre). The high security deadlocks you see on some armoured vehicles might be worth the trouble, but the door structures will be different anyway.

Anything visible in your vehicle could be stolen by reaching in, (after bending the doors), so leave nothing on display. I have a £50 car stereo that even junkies won't steal and leave nothing of value visible.

I would change the standard lock barrels so you have only one key; removing the wear and being as convenient as possible. (If is it easy, you will do it more often). This will discourage the random chancers, but not anyone stealing to order.

For the commercial thief types, use a pedal box and reinforce the standard ignition lock, (X-Eng products). Hopefully they will move on to a less protected vehicle.

To get your truck back after it was nicked, a tracker unit. The original Tracker is probably still the best, but there are cheaper alternatives; you pays your money and takes your choice.

My truck has the above, plus an electrical cut-off switch, (FIA red key job), and a concealed switch for the stop solenoid. Will it work? Who knows? 5 years after the rebuild, I still have it, but it  was painted a distinctive non-Land Rover blue and has various stickers on it, (and it is a less popular 200Tdi).

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The later style Td5 era door locks use I think a 14 pin tumbler as apposed to an 8, so its the same key for ignition, side doors and rear door, I have read about a few instances where thieves have tried to break the barrel and the longer 14 pin ones resist better than the early short key 8 pin barrels.

I fitted one of these to the rear door on my truck, very inconspicuous and looks nice and neat too.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XX-ERA-BLOCK-VAN-LOCK-ADDED-SECURITY-3-KEYS-NO-DRILLING-REQUIRED-FITS-MOST-XX-/151801334667?hash=item2358108b8b:g:p9QAAOSwkNZUiLOf 

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I've got one of the retrofit kits that has one key for the ignition / door locks, and it's carp - they file down the pins of standard locks to make them fit the key, so the locks are sloppier and easier to open than the originals!

My plan is to get remote central locking up and running and remove the locks from the front doors. I know Optimill make milled handles with better locks, but they are hundreds each :blink:

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23 minutes ago, =jon= said:

I've got one of the retrofit kits that has one key for the ignition / door locks, and it's carp - they file down the pins of standard locks to make them fit the key, so the locks are sloppier and easier to open than the originals!

My plan is to get remote central locking up and running and remove the locks from the front doors. I know Optimill make milled handles with better locks, but they are hundreds each :blink:

Can't say I've experienced this, there are some nice aluminium door handles locks out there for sure, but then its just another key on the ring to hoof about.

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As above, if they really want in then there's no way of stopping them. Whether it's bending the doors or smashing the side glass they'll get in regardless....I've got no locks on the front doors and central locking. With a later style rear door (all steel) it's a bit more robust and this has the only keyed entry (if the remote fails I can still climb in the back). 

Its stopping them taking the damn thing away that's the hard part! Pedal locks, transmission locks and trackers are all good with immobilisers and secret switches all helping.

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The one that got away......

My best security product which never saw the light of day as my liability insurers wouldn't touch it with a barge pole:

Your steering box has a bypass pipe on the outside.  Replace the pipe with two quick release hydraulic connectors screwed in to the steering box (Llama 4x4 can furnish the fittings) with a short removable flexible hose in between.  Remove the hose and you can turn the steering to the right but not to the left.  In practice it just feels like the steering lock hasn't broken - even if it has.

One could connect the ports via a hydraulic valve and connect that to your tracker so one could lock the steering remotely - if you were so inclined.  I thought it might be fun to watch the live tracking data and be able to lock the steering at a strategic moment such as on the approach to a roundabout!  Really, I'd like full remote control of the car but that's more in the realms of movie special effects ;)

Si

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That's a different kit to the one I have - mine was about £30 and came with a new ignition barrel and 4 new old type barrels for the doors / filler cap. As said they rekey the barrels to the front half of the ignition key by grinding down the levers, so some of the locks aren't that good... It was about £40, but I can't see them listed anymore...

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The kit I've listed is a factory "upgrade" to the later style of lock barrel, the barrels are longer and slightly wider in diameter, hence why you need to replace the whole handle unit too.

The ignition key/switch is the td5 style so the pin connectors are slightly different, but still work with old wiring (mines 86).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Trouble is there are handy little videos on youtube showing you how easy it is to pop one of the rear quarter windows out of its rubber, reach in and unlock the back door. Presumably if it is possible to do that to one of the quarter windows, it is possible to do the same thing with the later style main window in the back door and climb in that way

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, Maverik said:

A good set of internal window grills can combat this too.

External can be cut to easily, but generally they just prevent you from cleaning the glass and so are a bad idea unless you have quick release fittings inside.  Even more so for the side windows, as the grilles prevent their use as emergency exits.

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If it's deadlocks that you specifically want then there is a set here but they are not cheap and still don't prevent the tea-leaves smashing windows or bending the door tops.

https://www.landroverdefendersecurity.com/collections/exterior-security/products/land-rover-defender-deadlocks

A friend of mine recently fitted very neat padlock hasps, again they don't combat the above problems and its another key you have to faff with but they weren't expensive. He also argued that his doors are less likely to be stolen since they now have bolt holes in them...

As others have said, the X-eng pedal lock is great, easy to use and no heavy lumps of metal to injure occupants should there be an accident which could happen with other variants.

Edited by Boris113
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52 minutes ago, Boris113 said:

If it's deadlocks that you specifically want then there is a set here but they are not cheap and still don't prevent the tea-leaves smashing windows or bending the door tops.

https://www.landroverdefendersecurity.com/collections/exterior-security/products/land-rover-defender-deadlocks

A friend of mine recently fitted very neat padlock hasps, again they don't combat the above problems and its another key you have to faff with but they weren't expensive. He also argued that his doors are less likely to be stolen since they now have bolt holes in them...

As others have said, the X-eng pedal lock is great, easy to use and no heavy lumps of metal to injure occupants should there be an accident which could happen with other variants.

Looks pricey for what looks little more than a standard household door lock. 

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To combat the door top being bent open, drill a hole in the gutter and put a padlock through it.  The padlock alone will get in the way of bending the top - and opening the door.

A neater if slightly less secure option is to screw a bar to the inside of the window frame such that it overlaps the A post when the door is closed.  This holds the top front corner in place.  It also makes it a lot harder to remove the door by unscrewing the hinges.  I envisaged these being CNC'd out of Aluminium, anodised in a range of tasteful colours.

Why didn't it happen?  I got a bit disillusioned by the number of people who would rather have the truck stolen than drill a couple of holes!  It's why there was no Puma Pedal Lock.  It needed a few holes drilling - and was met with horror from the trial group.  None of them agreed to fit it.  @#$%^&* 'em - I thought to myself! ;)

Si

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50 minutes ago, simonr said:

Why didn't it happen?  I got a bit disillusioned by the number of people who would rather have the truck stolen than drill a couple of holes!  It's why there was no Puma Pedal Lock.  It needed a few holes drilling - and was met with horror from the trial group.  None of them agreed to fit it.  @#$%^&* 'em - I thought to myself! ;)

Si

 

Perhaps some sparkles, go faster stripes, self polishing high sheen surface or similar frippery would have had appealed to the new breed of  thrusting, go getter, metrosexual, image conscious Puma owner.

:hysterical:

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