I've been VIOLATED!

Man, that sucks. That is almost always the problem, and why there is the endless leave the door unlocked or not debate, because the damage to the car is usually greater than the loss of the contents. To tear away your tonneau like that is just insulting. The idiots don't even realize that the tonneau cover itself is worth far more than anything that they took, though I guess that they would need to be online thieves for that to work. My guess is that your pipe is no longer a tobacco pipe.....

I have a dash here from a 1990 model that I would practically give away, but you almost could not pay me enough to install it. Taking it out was painful and difficult enough. If you have the coverage, it might be worth paying the deductible, the labor is going to be very high.

I would think that something like this could be repaired, though I have not seen the damage. It seems like filling the plastic in with a repair kit and then re-installing the screw would take care of it, and the screw head should cover any sign of repair unless the dash was torn badly.

Do I remember correctly that you are in Phoenix? It was Friday night last night, I am sure that you got bumped way down the list. Hopefully there would have been a much faster response if the call had been "break-in in progress".

Pat

Missed that detail. How long are the cracks?

(Bleep)ers!

Pat

There's a crack about 2" long downward from the place where the right most stud screws in, there's a slightly longer crack running downward from where the right center stud screws in and some chips where that stud was torn out. I'm going out now and inspect the tonneau cover to be sure the zippers aren't damaged........ Good news, the zippers are undamaged and the snaps are fine. I think the fix will have to be a dash mat for now, I'll check around and see if anyone does repair of cracked dash boards, I'll bet I can find some in the yellow pages maybe but I'll call Mike's Place

first and see if they have a recommendation. I see there's also a small scratch in the paint near the trunk lock, obviously they didn't know about the release in the center console but they must have been looking right at it, go figure? I did the modification to allow me to disconnect the inside release by turning the key counterclockwise but I had not done that, the release would have worked and they could have stolen my spare if anyone would want it.....

See previous post. Dashmat is going to be the fix, I think..

Then sell the car or move to a better neighborhood (or different planet).

That's awful. I had a similar experience years ago when I caught a credit card scammer calling local businesses. I got their street address from the phone number on the caller id. I called the police and was told to call some other number. That person told me to call yet another number. The third person asked that I email it in, presumably so they could delete it without having to do anything about it.

No wonder there are so many criminals.

I had my '99 broke into when it was about 3 years old. I had the doors locked, so the theif cut the top and went in on the passenger side. He took a few things, most of them not worth more than a total of $50, but of course I had to get the top replaced. I went for an OEM top since I had to pay the $500 deductible anyway. Was about $1100 total including installation.

The good news is, the police came right away, and I filled out the report. The officer asked if I wanted to have my car dusted for prints. He said they do not clean up the dusting powder so I should decided if I wanted it done. I told him I would go ahead and have it done. The investigator showed up in about 20 min. and dusted for prints. I had just washed my car, so the prints he found were pretty clean. The perpetrator was a theif with a long record, and me reporting my car being broke into was enough to get him a trial and jail for 7 years.

I continue to park in the same place and have gone to an '04 MSM. I leave my doors unlocked all the time, and have not had any further thefts. I had a call from a friend once that parks in the same lot. He saw three teenagers with the passenger door open looking in, but when he approached they closed the door and left. Nothing was missing. I still leave the doors unlocked.

Small world; I also have an '04 MSM. Great car. I always lock the doors. I keep it in a garage at home. Otherwise it's in the parking lot at work or maybe at the golf course. I don't park in bad areas.

I figure if the doors are unlocked it's maybe too much temptation for kids looking for CD's.

We are both lucky, a lot of people don't have garages and/or work in areas that are bad where they have to park.

You don't park in bad areas, but the fact that you lock the doors and your comment below shows that you still have some concern about break-ins, which is fully understandable in any area. That leaves the age-old question of what is worse, losing what items you have in the car or having your top slashed?

I remember at least one person on here that had their top slashed on their unlocked miata, but thieves that are looking for random items are not the brightest people. Still, you can at least hope that they try the door handle first.

They can have my backup CD's, I'll just burn more copies when I get home at about 10 to 15 cents each. They can also take my sunscreen and my air pressure gauge if they want it, there might even be a buck or two of change in the console. Anything of real value either goes with me or is left in the trunk when I park away from home.

Pat

Carbon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@nospam.verizon.net:

I live in a bad area.

Why do you think the trunk is safe? My '05 MSM has a trunk release in the center console and I assume you Miata does also.

I lock the doors but reconsidering if this is good practice.

-Bob

One of the first mods I made to my '97 when I got it was to disable the trunk release cable. So now there is no way into the trunk except by the rear keyed lock. I'd highly recommend it for those of us who park with the top down or doors unlocked. There's an article on how to do this somewhere on miata.net (probably in the garage area). It's very simply.

Yup, I did the same here on my 1996 miata.

My 1991 does not have a trunk release, I am not sure when they added that "feature".

Disabling it on the later year models is just a matter of taking the center console off and unhooking the wire, which attaches like a standard bicycle brake cable.

A savvy thief might break the console and pull the wire. Not real likely for a grab and run scumbag and not something that I have to worry about since there is no wire or release handle on my year model.

Pat

I did that right away, here's the article:

Note that 2000 and later Miatas should have this feature already, not sure about 2006 and later.

Turn the trunk key 1/4 turn to the left to disable the remote release temporarily. Mazda made that standard in 2000, but earlier models can be converted fairly easily:

1990 models don't have a remote release.

I thought about doing that, but then realized that I never used the trunk release on my 1996 model, so I just unhooked the cable. I definitely don't miss it now that it is not an option. It was either 2 minutes to unhook the cable while I already had the console off for transmission service or 2+ hours with a grinder.

I doubt if I would have ever used the key-enable option, but I can see how some people would like it.

Pat

Same with 1991. XS11E's 1992 has one, so that must have been the year that it was added.

Pat

That can be disabled in NB and NC models, and also in NA models after a slight modification to the trunk lock cylinder with a file.

I never lock the doors. But, I don't leave anything in the cockpit that's worth anywhere near what a window or roof costs.

Finally, the voice of reason....

Thanks. :)

My previous Miata (96M) came with a "factory" alarm system. Even though I never locked the doors, the alarm system auto-armed when I shut off the car.

So, 15 seconds after the local JD opens the door and starts rifling though my car, the alarm goes off. Said JD (having shit for brains) decides to pry the alarm switch off the steering column (which of course doesn't shut off the alarm but does result in a gouged up steering column cover). At least the kid had the sense to try the door to see if it was open before slashing the top...

Cost of the whole incident: $1.87 in change gone from the ash tray and $100+ to re-install the alarm switch and fix the steering column cover.

Had I _not_ had an alarm, it would have cost just $1.87. :/

I'm all in favor of an engine-disable, but the horns going off when the door is opened proved to be a bad idea. Trying to prevent theft of things left in the cockpit of a convertible is a fool's errand.