"Locking" Gas Cap - ain't that tough
 

With the price of gas, theft is becoming more of an issue. I was looking at the "locking" cap on my 07 S. First comment: For those of you who want to "liberate" your cap from the leash, there's no need to cut the leash. With the chrome exterior cap OPEN, the leash will pop right out of the arm that holds the exterior cap, and can be popped right back in. You don't PULL it out, you SLIDE it to the side. Before you do this, OBSERVE that the hole the leash end fits in becomes LARGER as you slide it to the side. It's easy.
That said, the exterior cap is not much of a locking cap. Even the pivoting arm that holds it to the car is plastic, and I'm sure that a solid push with a large screwdriver as leverage and the exterior cap is opened. And RUINED.
With the interior cap leash so easily removed, it would be easy to put a locking interior cap on IF it will clear the exterior cap, or so it appears.
Anyone found a locking interior cap that will install?
AFTER that locking cap install, it might be smart to have a "INNER CAP LOCKED" label on your car above the exterior cap. Laugh, but I have been through this destruction of the exterior cap on another car (old VW) and the parts to fix it alone were over $125, and I'm betting it would be a LOT more on an 07 Mini, not to mention the damage to the body of the car.

It has been reported that it is so difficult to syphon out of most cars today, that thieves now just cut through the bottom of your gas tank.

yeah- theres no point in getting a locking gas cap in bmore. They drill right into your tank here

its a nice little surprise when you get to your car :roll:

If I was going to steal gas I would look for a pickup truck before bothering with a small car that has a small gas tank.

I dunno? If I was stealing gas I wouldn't be looking to get more than 5 gallons at a time. Credit card in one hand, gas can in the other.
Even a MINI holds more than 5 gallons, so they wouldn't be off my potential target list.

I haven't seen a locking cap that works, but I haven't been hunting for one either.

Post if you find one. It would be good knowledge to know.

I'm missing something. Why only 5 gallons, and what's the credit card for?

How true. :thumbsup:

Yup. Local news reported this happening in Salinas to a van for a flower shop. Spilled gas all over.

So why not just put on a decoy label? If a thief still goes for it, the outer cap gets destroyed whether or not you had actually installed an inner lock. To avoid damage, I think if you install an inner lock, the best strategy might be to disable the outer lock.

We could take some comfort that a MINI is a less attractive target than most cars: smaller vehicle = smaller gas tank.

5 gallons because of the time it takes to get it. Staying longer takes more guts than sense.

A "credit card" is a piece of hose for syphoning gas. Sorry about that, slang term, usually called an Arkansas credit card. Prolly not in Arkansas, though.

Good Responses, NAMers!
 

Good and thoughtful responses, one and all! Let me add to my beginning post: My "personal thieves" drained an entire ten gallon tank of "fresh" gas with stabilizer in it out of my old vintage 71 bug, right in my driveway with the security lights beaming down on them! These cats are brazen! Destroyed the lock mechanism/cable and even took the inner gas cap with them! By the time I had it fixed, between gas, the $125+ in parts, the @#*#!! pita repair job labor by ME, and a new locking gas cap, I'm out a couple hundred bucks. Oh yeah, I forgot that they ruined the car cover! A friend with a big Dodge truck had his truck DRAINED right in his driveway a few days later, and like my home, the driveway area is extremely visible in two directions and under plenty of streetlights (mine has streetlights PLUS the two big blazing motion detector lights). I SOLD the bug after I fixed it, because this situation made me so mad and was so bold. BTW, my friend with the truck now parks it facing the other direction in his driveway, and parked so there's six inches of clearance at best between the side of the truck and the fence. And of course he put a locking cap on it.
I'd already heard about the thieves tapping into tank bottoms and also the ones who just cut the hose between tank and cap. Hey, since we're sharing all these good times, may I mention that in the SF bay area, the new theft item is your CATALYTIC CONVERTER, cut out from under the car.
Where's Charles Bronson when we need him? :thumbsup: How about a booby trap to release a big load of pepper spray and set off the car alarm?
I hate having to think about this stuff.
BTW, my mini, aka "The Fridge" stays in a wired/alarmed garage with my Grinnall Scorpion. Anybody hits that garage while I'm home, they have thirty seconds tops till they're talking to me and Mister Colt and a one pound can of pepper spray, whichever I feel is needed first.:thumbsup: Any other time, they can dance to the two alarm boxes and expect any number of my friendly neighborhood watch group to be on them, pronto. Yeah, we've all had enough of this nonsense.

And lower to the ground. Here in Vegas suv's are the prime target for gas crooks.

I've had to repair/replace gas tanks on a couple SUV's now, there's nothing you can do to make your car (or it's gas) truly theft proof, but the low height, small tank, & locking cover are all good deterents.. Just try to park near someone who looks like a better target ;)

on the locking gas-cap front, I've seen no end of problems with aftermarket caps, they almost always fail to seal properly & set a check engine light, eg. p0455 serious evap leak detected...
but go ahead with the sticker, how's anyone to know what's really under there until they've already taken a screwdriver to your car.

No Need for a Locking Gas Cap
 

When you lock your doors, the door entry to the gas cap locks.

Read the frst post again, more slowly. :thumbsup:

How about a sticker that says;
'INNER CAP LOCKED, PLEASE DRILL THROUGH TANK' :)