I drove in it once to get lunch and near the beginning the car begins sputtering and he's like, "oh right, you're thirsty" and reached under and flicked the switch. So understated, I still laugh at the memory.
My previous vehicle was a '97 Jeep Wrangler. There were two kill switches installed when I bought it: one down by the driver's seatbelt latch for the fuel pump, and one reachable by inserting your finger into the opening for the 4wd shifter the disabled the starter. Neither was easily visible.
If you got in the car, and did not specifically turn the AC to the correct setting, the car would overheat about a mile down the road.
Luckily for me, I never had a chance to put this into practice, because nobody stole my car. Unluckily for me, there were several times where I forgot that I had to do this, and my car overheated about a mile down the road.
All that trouble, rather than run to NAPA to spend $12 on the thermo-switch that would be easier to install than hacking into the A/C controller. Yeah, I've known some dads like that.
And then the stupid solution is already working, so...
Couple years later it went bad again (I probably put in a crappy one from a generic country) so instead of going through that again I just stuck a bent paper clip into the socket of the wire that plugs into the thermoswich. Now it always has the fan on when the car is on.
Could have gotten the same effect by tampering with the relay (this short that I added actually just activates the relay for the fan) but I went with the easiest option.
And even I wouldn't do something that stupid.
In my case it was motivated more by maintenance headache - the mechanical linkage that went from the ignition switch to the ignition control device at the base of the steering column was busted and I was too cheap to buy another one and it was a pain to replace.
Project trucks that nobody can drive but you are the best trucks, IMO.
It would work great on many Hyundais built as recently as last year!
No snow means no salt which means no rust.
Not unusual around here to see farm trucks from the 80s or earlier (sometimes MUCH earlier) still kicking around.
Another story is once my friend called me for help because his car would't start. I looked it over; tested his battery etc, but it wouldn't turn over. I asked him if he had an interlock of any sort and he said no. I didnt do any more investigating since the car was still new, so I showed him how to push start it and drove it over to the dealer. Come Monday morning the dealer called him to ask where he had put the interlock loop that he had pulled out from under the dash. "Oh that thing? Yeah I thought that was weird." SMH
but i'd totally download a car
Many had a "cop switch". Cops suspecting you messed with the engine would put the scooter on a test belt to measure its maximum speed. The cop switch would instantly cap it to the allowed speed. Mine was hidden in the left mirror, a minor adjustment would activate it.
Of course, my system was just a bit flaky, and time and again I'd be on the highway, desperately pumping the lighter trying to keep the car going. I ended up yanking the whole shebang.
Same car had an alarm system, which over the years got triggered several dozen times by yours truly. The one time someone else triggered it by bumping my car, I came outside and thanked them.
To make it so that she could drive without bumping Delilah, I wired them to the defrost switch.
It wasn’t long into winter until I was forced to take them out.
The slushbox would shift into high gear and lug the engine unless you drove it like you stole it. The ignition didn't really need the keys unless you purposefully locked the steering column The exhaust split down the middle, giving the car a great sporting growl, and last but my favorite, the radio would often lock itself to the particular station and volume you were last playing. Sorry mom, hope you like metal at 11!
Damn, I thought I lived in a bad part of town.