How to Install a Hidden Kill Switch in your Car or Truck (Cheap Anti Theft System)

Hey guys! ChrisFix here, and today I'm going toshow how to install a hidden kill switch in your car or your truck.

And the whole point of this kill switch is toprevent somebody from stealing your car.

Even if they have your keys, if the kill switchis activated, they won't be able to start the car.

They can try to hotwire the car, they can tryto jumpstart your car, push start it.

This kill switch is going to prevent the carfrom starting no matter what.

The only way to steal your car is going tobe to tow it! And the best part is this is an inexpensivething to install.

It's going to cost less than $10, and it'sgoing to take less than an hour.

It's super simple, it works on most vehicles.

Even if you already have an alarm system, this can work along with it.

And it's unfortunate that I even have tomake this video.

I live in a pretty nice development.

It's pretty quiet here, everybody's prettyfriendly.

But recently, we've been having a lot ofbreak-ins.

People are getting into cars broken into, they're getting stuff stolen out of them, There's a few cars that have been stolenfrom neighborhoods nearby.

My buddy saved up for a long time to getone of his favorite cars, a Honda S2000 in pristine condition, only to have it stolen and parted out a fewdays later.

Not only was he heartbroken about his cargetting stolen, but that feeling of helplessness and gettingtaken advantage of by a criminal was horrible! So that is exactly why I'm going to beshowing all of you guys how to install a kill switch, so you don't have to feel that way.

You don't have to lose your car.

Also, a lot of people are stealing stuff fromgarages (don't look at that garage, it's a mess), so I'm also going to be installing aSimpliSafe security system.

I've got a camera, I've got a bunch ofsensors, all that good stuff, so the garage is gonna be protected and the cars aregonna be protected.

And here's all the tools that you need, it'ssuper basic.

We have a switch, we have crimpconnectors, we have 16-gauge wiring.

You need a multimeter, crimpers, wirestrippers, heat gun, and, as always, when you're working on acar, make sure you wear your safety glasses.

So enough talking, let me go show you howto install a kill switch.

And to start, you're gonna want to know thebasics on how this is gonna work.

So the kill switch that we're going to installis gonna cut the power to the fuel pump relay.

So this right here is the car battery.

It supplies the 12V through the relay intothe fuel pump.

So our fuel pump is pumping fuel into theengine and the engine will run.

Think of this relay as an on/off switch.

When you put your key in the ignition andturn it to the RUN position to start your car, the computer is telling the fuel pump relayto turn on, and that is supplying power to the fuelpump.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonnasplice in our kill switch right here.

That way, when our kill switch is activated, it cuts the circuit.

The computer cannot send a signal to thisrelay, and this relay will not send power to the fuel pump.

Therefore, the car won't start.

It's really simple.

All you need to do is find the fuel pumprelay, and I'll show you how to do that right now.

Now the fuel pump relay is located indifferent spots for different vehicles.

It'll be different in this Honda compared tothis truck, and so on and so forth.

To find your fuel pump relay, just checkyour owner's manual, check the service manual, do a quick online search, “1993Honda Del Sol fuel pump relay location”, or whatever your vehicle is.

In this case, it is right under the dash, letme show you right down here.

You can see right here is our fuse box.

A lot of the times, the relay's in the fusebox.

But in this case, Honda puts their relaysback here.

Here are all the different relays.

And this gray relay right here is the fuelpump relay for this Honda.

Now if you're not 100% sure if this is thecorrect relay, one thing that you can do to test, is to put your fingers on it.

And when we turn the key to the RUNposition, the relay should click on.

[click] You'll hear the fuel pump run for a coupleseconds, and then it'll click off because the fuelpump is primed.

I can feel it, and I can hear it, so I know forsure this is the correct relay.

Now to disconnect the wiring harness, youjust press in this tab right here with your fingers, and wiggle this back and forth.

Like that, and pull it out.

Never pull from the wires, always pull fromthe connector so we don't damage anything.

And as you can tell, there's a ton of wireshere, so how do we know which one we need to tap into with our kill switch? Well, it's pretty easy to figure out.

Let me go show you how to do that now.

So grab a multimeter.

I'm gonna set it down right here.

And we'll start by connecting the blackprobe to a ground.

So we need to find a bare metal surface, like this.

And right here, you can see a nice baremetal surface which is holding our hood release in.

So grab your ground wire and connect itright to that chassis ground.

And now our multimeter is grounded.

And now we're gonna grab our multimeterand turn it on to DC volts.

You want to set it to 20 DC volts because12 volts is the highest we're gonna see.

Now we're gonna take our red probe andwhat we're gonna do is we need to find which of these wires is gonna be hot, isgonna be on providing 12V when the car is in the RUN position only.

So when we turn the key, we get 12V.

That's the wire coming from the computergoing to this, triggering that relay.

But before we turn the car to the RUNposition, we just wanna check real quick with the car off if any of these are 12V.

If we find one that's 12 volts, we can ignorethat wire.

That one is hot all the time.

And that's what the relay's gonna connectto, to power the fuel pump.

So the top right corner is hot all the time, 12V all the time.

We don't have to worry about that one.

Now let's turn the car to the RUN position.

So now with the key in the RUN position, we're gonna probe each one of these and just see which one is gonna be ourtrigger wire, our 12V.

There we go, so we have 12V with this oneright here.

I just wanna check the others just todouble-check and make sure.

Good, no voltage, and obviously, this onewill be 12V, that's always hot.

So this one right here, I'm gonna probe, I'mgonna push this in.

That one is 12V with the key on.

If I shut the key, it goes down to 0 volts.

When I turn the key on, it goes back up to 12 volts.

So we wanna follow that probe into thewire, the probe's at the top here.

So it's this wire right here.

You can see that's the correct wire.

That is the wire that is coming from thecomputer and then triggering our relay to turn it on to give power to the fuel pump.

So we need to splice into this wire righthere.

Now before we go cutting any wires anytime you work with the wiring harness, we wanna go under the hood and removethe negative cable from the battery.

This will just prevent anything fromshorting out or blowing any fuses.

And it's what you wanna do any time youwork on an electrical system.

Now splicing into the factory harness isgonna be the part that most people are apprehensive about.

They don't wanna do it because, well, whathappens if you do something wrong? But don't worry, this is really easy! Here's a few quick tips.

First, you don't want to cut near theconnector.

You also don't want to cut near the endhere, you want to cut in the middle so you have a lot of room on both sides to workand splice in a new wire.

So we're gonna cut right here.

Good.

So now grab your wire strippers.

These are automatic wire strippers thatmakes it nice and easy in these tight areas.

You just clamp down, and it strips it right off.

So that's one side done.

Let me give you a closer look when we dothe other side.

You just put the wire where you want it toget stripped.

And the automatic wire stripper does itsjob.

Beautiful! So now that both of our ends are stripped, we can add our kill switch.

But we're not gonna wanna add the killswitch right here.

We wanna hide our kill switch which is notgonna be right next to this.

So when hiding your kill switch, there's twothings you wanna think about.

The first thing, you wanna put it in a placethat's easy to get to.

Somewhere, you don't have to reach all theway into the glove box every time and fiddle around.

You're gonna be doing this every time yougo to start your car.

So you wanna make it simple to get to.

Now with it being simple to get to, you don'twanna make it easy to find.

So you don't wanna just put it under thedash where the criminal's gonna look.

That's like the first place when they can't goto start the car, they're gonna feel for switches down here.

So don't put it under the dash, you wannafind someplace hidden, someplace where, you know, they're not likely to look.

The radio's actually not a good idea, because a lot of criminals when they can't steal your car, they're gonna try to stealyour radio.

But a lot of people like to put it underneaththe seat, you have to reach somewhere.

It's harder to find.

It's easy to get to.

Another place is the glove box.

Again, if you have stuff in here, it's harder tofind, but it's easy to get to.

Get creative, this is the part where you canhave some fun! So I'm gonna share with you my spot.

I'm gonna end up having to change itbecause millions of you are gonna see this.

But my spot, which I think is a really coolcreative idea is in the shifter boot.

So underneath the shifter boot, we'regonna find a spot.

You can't see the switch, but you can easilyfeel it and turn it on and off.

So that's where we're gonna place our killswitch.

But again, be creative! Have fun with this.

Place it somewhere unique.

So since I told you we're gonna put it righthere, this is where we're gonna go and run our wires from.

So let's take the center console apart.

Since the previous owner never put thescrews back into the console, it lifts right out.

Same with the front part of the console.

Oh, we gotta unscrew the shift knob first.

Good.

Now the console will come out the rest ofthe way.

And check this out! We have a flat surface down here, and a flat surface up here to mount theswitch into.

Now we wanna unscrew the two screwsholding in the shifter boot.

That's one.

And let's get the other.

Good.

And now the shifter boot comes right outjust like that.

Next, let's grab the switch and match it upto see if it'll fit.

And that's looking pretty good right there.

So let's make a mark in the middle here.

Then grab a centerpunch and we want toindent the spot we just marked.

And what this does is it puts a littleindentation.

That way, when we get our drill bit, the drillbit won't skip around, it falls right into that indentation, and it won't move at all so itmakes it a lot easier to drill.

So we're gonna start with this small drill bit, and then we're gonna work our way up tothis bigger one.

So on a slow speed and with some decentpressure, let's get the first hole drilled out.

Now with the bigger drill bit, let's drill thehole out to fit the switch.

Good.

Now we can test fit our switch.

Beautiful, now we can add our On/Offplate.

This is gonna act more like a washer sincewe're not actually gonna be able to see this.

Then I'm gonna add a little bit of threadlocker on here just so our switch doesn't come loose.

And then we have our locking nut whichgoes right on the end and we can tighten this down.

And our switch works great, that's perfect! The only thing that I'm concerned about is, these wires right here against this metalsurface.

Over time, they could chafe, and that canshort out, we could break a wire, and then we wouldn't be able to start our car.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get alittle rubber wire protector, and I'm gonna just slide this over the wires.

I'll slide that down, And you can see, now it's protected so ourwires won't chafe.

We'll add a little bit of black tape to holdthat in place, and that is good to go.

Now the last thing we need to do is weneed to make a quick disconnect.

That way, if we ever need to remove thisinterior piece, we can easily just disconnect this.

And to do that, we're gonna use thesecrimp-on spade connectors.

All they do is they slide right in, and there'sa good connection there.

And then when you wanna separate it.

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They come right apart.

So we're gonna put two of the male spadeconnectors on the end here.

But first, let's add some heat shrinking oneach wire.

Then we can push on our spade connector.

Crimp it so there's a good connection, andso this doesn't come loose.

Move the heat shrink up over theconnector.

Finally, use a heat gun to shrink the heatshrink.

And do the same exact thing to the otherspade connector.

Push it on, crimp it, move the heat shrink up, and use a heat gun to shrink the heatshrink.

And there we go, now we have two quickdisconnects, spade connectors that are properly crimped and heat shrinked onthere.

Alright, so with our switch in, that worksabsolutely perfect.

That's so good.

Now we can go and install this back in thecar.

And back in the car, we need to run somewire.

We're using 16-gauge wire.

And we need to run it from right about here all the way under the dash to our fuel pumprelay.

So I'm going to put the wire on the shiftersince that's about where it's going to end up.

And it also makes it easier for us to run itall the way to the relay.

So make sure you have enough wire, thenwe can cut it.

And since we need 2 wires, use the wireyou just cut to measure the second wire.

And we can cut it to the same length.

Now let's strip the ends of the wires.

Add heat shrink to both wires.

Then add the female spade connector andcrimp it.

Then do the same for the other wire aswell.

Finally, move the heat shrink over the entireconnector and use a heat gun to shrink the heatshrink.

Perfect, and I always like to run wires in awire loom to protect it from chafing.

So just press the wires into the loom, andwork it all the way to the end of the loom.

Good, now we can run our wires.

Let's snake this back behind the centerconsole area so it's hidden and out of the way.

Then we can connect our switch to each ofthe connectors.

Don't worry, the order you connect these inis not important.

Just make sure the connection is good andtight.

And I'm going to add some electrical tapeto each connector to make sure it's extra secure, and it's shielded so it doesn'tground out by mistake.

OK, so slide the loom all the way up to theback of the switch so the wires are protected.

Good.

And finally, we can snap our center consoleback into place and get the shift knob on.

And let's try out this switch.

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Beautiful! That is such a perfect spot for a kill switch! OK, now let's finish running our wire to therelay so we can try this out.

Now when you're running your cable downhere, you want to be very careful.

You don't want to get in the way of theclutch, the brake, or the accelerator pedal.

So you want to make sure this is up andout of the way.

So let's get it up and over that metal brace, then up and over the steering column, and finally, tuck it behind the fuse box backby the relay.

And now with the wiring harness up andout of the way, so it won't get in the way of anything likethe pedals, we can connect our kill switch to the wiresthat go to the relay.

So here we're going to use crimp buttconnectors.

And when using these, you want to makesure the copper goes all the way in.

You don't want any copper exposed likethat.

If the copper sticks out into the clear area, cut it and make sure the copper goes all the way in, just like that.

Then we can crimp that side of theconnector.

And finally, give it a good tug.

Make sure this crimp is tight and the wirewon't come out.

And that's in there good.

Now let's crimp the other side, and it's the same process.

Push the wire all the way in, then crimp it, and finally, we can heat shrink both sideswith the heat gun.

So with that side done, now let's go do theother side.

We're going to follow the same exactprocess, get that crimp connector in there, make sure there's no copper showing, crimp down on it nice and tight, and then double-check to make sure it's inthere good, and that is not budging.

Now we can do the same thing to the wireback here.

And you can see right away the copper endis WAY too long, so let's trim it.

Then add the butt connector.

Perfect, crimp the connector nice and tight.

Then do the pull test, and that's not goinganywhere! So let's heat shrink it for a waterproof seal, and the last thing I want to do is wrap theharness in electrical tape to make it neat.

Finally, we can push the connector into therelay, and make sure you hear a click.

Like that.

Also, don't forget to reconnect the negativecable of the battery so we can test out our kill switch.

Alright, with that battery connected, I didn'tinstall the center console because if there's any issues, it makes it easier, we just haveto pull this out to make sure we can fix whatever the issueis.

I don't plan on there being any issues, butit's a good practice when you're working on cars, don't put everything back togetheruntil you test it out.

And that's what we're about to do rightnow.

Moment of truth, we're in neutral.

I think the switch is deactivated, so itshould be ready to start up.

[Engine starts] Alright, it starts right up.

Foot off the clutch, and we're good to go.

Now I'm going to shut the car.

I'm going to flip our kill switch.

And I'm going to start her back up.

[Engine cranks] Woo, baby! Now that is what I'm talking about, and a criminal is going to be like, “Whatthe heck?!” “Why won't it start?” [Engine cranks] Pumpin' the gas, nothing.

Flip that kill switch.

[Engine starts] Starts right up! Oh man, that is exciting! So let's finish this install up by adding ourlast center console piece.

And there's a screw in here I'm going totighten down to hold the console in.

Perfect, with the center console in, our killswitch is in.

Going to activate that so nobody can goand start my car.

We are done installing the kill switch, andthere is one more thing to do.

And that is to install a home securitysystem to protect my tools, to protect my car, basically everything inmy garage.

And it's actually pretty cool how I got thissecurity system.

I posted on my Instagram asking you guyswhat do you do for security systems in your car to prevent your car from gettingstolen because of all these break-ins.

And SimpliSafe actually commented on mypost and they sent me out this entire home security system, so thank you SimpliSafefor supporting this video and sending me out an entire security system.

So now let's get this installed real quick.

And the goal obviously is to protect thegarage and the new vehicle that I'm going to be putting in the garage, also thevehicles outside.

And this is very easy to set up.

If you can put a kill switch in your car, youcan easily add another effective and reliable layer of security.

Especially with these motion sensors andthis glass break sensor.

And the feature that I've been wanting realbad is a security camera.

And I have it pointed to the most importantpart, my driveway, so I can keep an eye on all my vehicles.

And I think you guys get the idea.

Now I'm going to install the rest of this off-camera so you don't have to watch me.

I did check online because this was sent tome.

I wanted to see how the pricing was and itwas pretty fair, they also have no contracts, and finally, I do have minemonitored by professionals.

So if somebody breaks in, they will call thecops and the cops will come, which is good.

So all my cars, my tools, all that stuff isprotected.

Now we have all the cars, I need to put killswitches in the rest of them, but all of the cars have kill switches in them and then Ihave a security system ready to go.

And the reason why besides peoplebreaking in recently, The reason why I did this.

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was because I ended up buying mydream car! This mid-engine beast with AWD issomething I've wanted since I was a little kid, and I had to protect it.

[Series of engine revs] And I will unveil my dream car in my nextvideo, so stay tuned for that.

I think you guys are finally understandingwhy I've been getting so crazy with the security stuff, with a home securitysystem, installing kill switches in your vehicle.

I hope this video helpful, I hope you learnedhow to install a simple kill switch.

Very cheap, very effective.

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And as always, all the tools and products Iused in this video are linked in the description.

Stay tuned!.