When you park the vehicle, after locking it, the hydraulic suspension raises it up a few inches, providing (one might even say "inviting") ready access to the underside of the vehicle without the need for jacking it up. The fluid line for this system is wrapped around a heat shield that covers the catalytic converter. The only way to remove the converter is to disconnect or sever the hydraulic line, which if you don't know about it and don't have jack stands in place, will cause the vehicle to drop down quite suddenly.

Could possibly also be rigged to the brake lines, resulting in the vehicle's rapid descent in the event those lines are tampered with.
-- 21 Quest, Sep 23 2022

For 8th https://imgur.com/gallery/Xmu5pqP
I thiink he would have appreciated it. I may be wrong. [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 23 2022, last modified Sep 24 2022]

[+] Wonder if wrapping and gluing a sheet of spikes around it would work?

Got it! A bunch of metal rings you just clamp arount the pipe where they'd try to cut it. You'd have to hold them in place so they don't turn.

I'm talking a lot of them, like a mess of spaghetti. You could clamp the ones on the outside, but the ones underneith would just turn. You'd have to cut one off at a time. They'd have spikes too so anywhere you cut there's spinning rings.
-- doctorremulac3, Sep 23 2022


Some tungsten carbide in the appropriate place would help. It's all fun and games cutting thin exhaust pipe, hitting tungsten carbide would make you reconsider this particular line of theft.
-- bs0u0155, Sep 23 2022


Having the car drop so suddenly like that may seem cruel, but (and I do realize this may be a controversial opinion), cars don't actually feel pain.
-- 21 Quest, Sep 23 2022


Yea, I can see a moral conundrum. Might get the underside of the car messy.
-- doctorremulac3, Sep 23 2022


Once.
-- 21 Quest, Sep 23 2022


Evil. Creative. Necessary.

Bun.
-- whatrock, Sep 23 2022


You know, setting a dangerous traps for a thief can get you in big trouble if they work. Therefore you'll need to explain why the system was designed that way, and that it was not a trap.

The purpose of the raised position of the car when parked is that these low to the ground aerodynamic cars are sometimes hard for elderly people to climb down into and get up out of. Having the car raised up somewhat makes it a lot easier for my parents and is convenient for me as well. After making that modification I realized that this could also be an emissions improvement. It is well know that preheating a catalytic converter will reduce emissions during cold start. This system uses the energy from lowering the car to quickly heat the converter before the engine even starts. I'm really sorry that when I routed these hoses to the catalytic converter heating system, I didn't consider what would happen is someone tried to hack the converter off without using proper jack stands.
-- scad mientist, Sep 24 2022



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