DIY alram install (auto start), for n00bs

[PlacentaJuan]

Hi,

I have just finished installing my new car alarm.

Go to the pictures if you dont want to read the boring bits

It is one of those ones that has a pager and will start your car and work as a turbo timer also.
It has only one immobiliser circuit, but that can be converted to as many points as you want.

Main priority was turbo timer / auto start and I will build the immobiliser part later, I'm not worried about insurance because the car isn't that expensive anyway, also I believe with a custom immobiliser circuit it will be more secure than a standard alarm.

I searched both here any other Toyota forums for help and information with DIY alarms and found very little, so I thought I would share my experiences for anyone else who felt like doing it themselves.

Even though I have a lot of trouble with 'lectrics, I wouldn't want anyone else installing my alarm or touching my electrics because I know how dodgy people are (except for Mos )

The previous owner had an alarm and it was a real dogs breakfast.

All wires were able to removed from their connectors with a small watchmakers screwdriver, so I could solder the alarm wires and apply heatshrink.

Although the alarm did not have black wires, I will fix this in the future, and replace the coloured wires with Toyota loom colours to make it even more confusing, and hide the control box better.

Please note I find this kind of thing quite difficult, and consider myself a bit of a n00b when it comes to this type of work, I know had to use a multimeter and that plus mx73 and mx83 wiring diagrams were required for this alarm.

Although this was done in a mx83 Cressida, wiring diagrams from an mx62 and mx73 were used, so I am sure this will be help to other Toyotas also.

For my alarm I required the following inputs:

Ignition loom (ACC, STARTER, Ignition, etc)
Alternator input (so the alarm knows that the car has started ok, havn't hooked this up properly yet)
Lock / Unlock door wires
Door open circuit
Dome light (optional & same as door open circuit)
Both indicator circuits
Brake light ON
Boot Input (I havnt connected this yet)
Bonnet open (installed myself)

Power and siren etc, were not taken from the Toyota loom so I will leave these bits out.

Locations:
To find where the looms I needed were, I just pulled off the trim and had a gander:





First the ignition connections, this had been tampered with before by a previous alarm and was very messy:



Information for this was from dantheman65 from the Cressida forums, and was exremely helpful.

http://thermactor.com/forum/viewtopi...ghlight=#96620


Ignition barrel:


(picture courtesy of dantheman65)

I used his on/off table and other diagrams to work out how to connect to the alarm.

The only thing I have not connected properly is a signal wire to the alternator. I used the BATTERY circuit that lights up the battery symbol if there is a charging fault, but have so far hooked it up to the wrong part of the circuit and the alarm doesn't recognise if the car did not start properly (only about 20% of the time luckily)

Other than that, the ignition connections were the easy part;

The indicators were next, and there would obviously be in the loom coming from the steering wheel. I used a multimeter to find which pins carried the voltage when the indicator was on. It didn't matter about left or right indicator, also I played around with the HAZARD switch, but after looking at the wiring diagrams, thought it best to keep well away from that.



Door locks next, located in the red box (I think its even labelled 'door lock' or something). Luckily the previous alarm showed me what wires I needed and all that was required was a bit of trial and error to get the wires right.
I'm sure a multimeter would have worked just as well, had the wires not been marked.



Now I had to find an input that would tell the alarm that a door was open. The obvious choice was the DOME LIGHT circuit, which used the door open switched to turn on the light. The alarm also had an option to turn on the DOME LIGHT upon DISARM which I used, and connected to the same wire.
This wire I located in the drivers side door loom (close for the alarm, but I will relocate it to the passengers side later)



Brake light was the final input from the factory loom, luckily I found a strange black thing connected to the brak switch output via spade connectors, which made it easy to splice in extra wires without cutting the factory wires.
As you can see the black thing on the right plugs straight into the connector on the left.





That was pretty much it, later when I put a new engine in I will relocate the alarm, and replace the colourd wires with Toyota loom colours, and make up an immobiliser circuit, to ensure that car will stay immobilised even after the alarm is cut or disconnected.
I am not a big fan of sirens and only require one to make a noise for programming, otherwise I am still deciding about that.



Special thanks to Peewee (Cruzida) for his wiring diagrams:
http://conceptual.net.au/~peewee/wiring/

dantheman65 from Cressida forums,

Mos for his help.

Other sites I found usefull:

http://www.the12volt.com/relays/page2.asp
http://www.commandocaralarms.com/wir...oyota/Cressida

[PlacentaJuan]

All the Toyota plugs I was able to remove the wire (pin) I wanted, so that I could put on some heatshrink. All the plugs worked off the same principle, using a small screwdriver to lift the plastic strip, then unlock the pin for removal:

[Lambolica]

Good post, with pictures and all. very easy to follow...

one thing I'd like to add as a disclaimer. Auto Start timers are illegal in Manual cars in some States and Completely illegal in others. It may be worth checking out if you want your car to be on the right side of the Law. (if they would even know?!?)

Cheers
Simon

[gearb0x]

If your lucky you have a manual car with a neutral switch according to the workshop manual on the s13 ive half installed a remote paging alarm for there is one, havent confirmed it yet..

Installing alarms is a daunting task! that said, if you stick to it, keep your multimeter handy and use your brains you should have a reliable install

i just urge ANYONE that does DIY wiring to NEATEN IT UP WHEN YOUR FINISHED! it doesnt take long to tape up looms, cut them short, etc. It wont hurt to cut the alarm loom to length! if you move it to another car later you can extend wires if need be! dont just jam the rats nest under the dash and forget about it....

*end rant*

[Adam_Cressi]

nice write
+ve for u

[PlacentaJuan]

If your lucky you have a manual car with a neutral switch according to the workshop manual on the s13 ive half installed a remote paging alarm for there is one, havent confirmed it yet..

Installing alarms is a daunting task! that said, if you stick to it, keep your multimeter handy and use your brains you should have a reliable install

i just urge ANYONE that does DIY wiring to NEATEN IT UP WHEN YOUR FINISHED! it doesnt take long to tape up looms, cut them short, etc. It wont hurt to cut the alarm loom to length! if you move it to another car later you can extend wires if need be! dont just jam the rats nest under the dash and forget about it....

*end rant*

yes even though i am a noob the install took about 2 weeks because i wanted everything perfect.

i hate not knowing what might be wrong with something electrical when shortcuts have been taken, which increase the chances of something going wrong tenfold.

[Toobs]

Just a note... when connecting your door triggers up that way you should double check that the alarm will still go off when the dome light is set to off (not door).
If it doesn't go off the you inadvertantly tapped in to the wrong side of the dome light.

[PlacentaJuan]

Just a note... when connecting your door triggers up that way you should double check that the alarm will still go off when the dome light is set to off (not door).
If it doesn't go off the you inadvertantly tapped in to the wrong side of the dome light.

i actually checked that after reading your thread, and yes it still works, but only because i have hooked it up to the courtesy light in the drivers door which ALLWAYS comes on.

its not ideal, and i will change it to the proper circuit (on the passenger side) later.

also is probably the reason why the alarm powered dome light (when alarm is disarmed it turns on the dome light for 20sec) is only half the brightness.