Yeret
The Village Drunk
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2014
- Posts
- 943
- Reaction score
- 178
- Ram Year
- 1999
- Engine
- 5.9 Magnum
Simple enough job, replace the combination switch (as well as examine a suspected loose hot feed to the low beams). After finally nabbing a set of starhead bits with a small driver to actually reach the torx screws holding the cover on (why the crikey hell did they have to put them that deep in there???), I successfully remove the cover and am ready to unbolt the combo switch. That's when I am greeted with a new adversary: a torx screw with a raised, circular center. As I immediately guessed, my torx bit will not even attempt to grab it. Wonderful.
And it gets even better! After one Google search, I come to find that these are "tamper-proof" screws. Tamper-proof. TAMPER-proof. In other words, they discourage people from unbolting and stealing/hiding/eating your ****. That's fine and dandy, but who in the hell goes around stealing combo switches from vehicles?! Especially considering the cover itself is enough of a pain in the ass to deal with. The ********* radio is held in with nothing more than a pair of standard hex screws that anyone with a basic socket set can remove and is underneath a bezel that can simply be ripped off. Yet all this attention to making things "tamper-proof" went into a part that has even less resale value on the black market than the OEM radio.
If someone wants to mess with you, I guess there's that, but if your idea of messing with someone involves screwing with their vehicle (which is, like, the cardinal sin in the world of man anyway and you should be severely beaten for doing that), there are much simpler ways of doing that than plucking the combo switch.
Who the hell designs/figures this stuff???
Okay, rant over. I've got two weeks off coming up and need to prepare the ole warhorse for a partial restoration. Just miffs me that I can't do a very simple repair now because of some silly engineering decision. Now I have to mail-order the "tamper-proof" T20 bit that I need to finish the job. Look out y'all! There might be a dude walking around your neighborhood with a set of "tamper-proof" tools and he's gonna jack your combo switches tonight!
And it gets even better! After one Google search, I come to find that these are "tamper-proof" screws. Tamper-proof. TAMPER-proof. In other words, they discourage people from unbolting and stealing/hiding/eating your ****. That's fine and dandy, but who in the hell goes around stealing combo switches from vehicles?! Especially considering the cover itself is enough of a pain in the ass to deal with. The ********* radio is held in with nothing more than a pair of standard hex screws that anyone with a basic socket set can remove and is underneath a bezel that can simply be ripped off. Yet all this attention to making things "tamper-proof" went into a part that has even less resale value on the black market than the OEM radio.
If someone wants to mess with you, I guess there's that, but if your idea of messing with someone involves screwing with their vehicle (which is, like, the cardinal sin in the world of man anyway and you should be severely beaten for doing that), there are much simpler ways of doing that than plucking the combo switch.
Who the hell designs/figures this stuff???
Okay, rant over. I've got two weeks off coming up and need to prepare the ole warhorse for a partial restoration. Just miffs me that I can't do a very simple repair now because of some silly engineering decision. Now I have to mail-order the "tamper-proof" T20 bit that I need to finish the job. Look out y'all! There might be a dude walking around your neighborhood with a set of "tamper-proof" tools and he's gonna jack your combo switches tonight!
