How do you install a car alarm?

[Gatman 10+ year member]

hey guys, i want to put in a car alarm but i dont have much cash to put out, so i figured id save alot to install it myself. But is it hard to do? And how do you do it?

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[Heeltoeclutch 10+ year member]

Well, it's just a bunch of wires and a bunch of pulling your car apart to find them. It's not that difficult, it can just take a LOT of time.

for the basics, you need to wire to

-your door trigger, which can be the wires going to your door pin that tell your dome light to turn on

-lock/unlock system- not sure how this works on newer cars as the alarms I've installed have been on cars that I've also installed power locks in

-parking lights, to flash with arm/disarm

-siren(s), at least one under hood, preferably an additional 783 on the inside of the car

-preferably hood pin, so that the alarm triggers if a thief pops the hood

-shock sensor- can attach to any sturdy part of the car, senses when someone tries to break a window or tow the car

-battery and ground of course

It is best to hide your wiring and components as best you can, as this will make it more difficult for a thief to disable it. There is an excellent stickied thread here all about car security and alarm systems; I highly recommend you read that if you haven't already. I got some ideas from it //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Ineed$ 10+ year member]

Well, it's just a bunch of wires and a bunch of pulling your car apart to find them. It's not that difficult, it can just take a LOT of time.

This. Make sure you have at least an entire day and the wiring diagram for your car before starting.

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

also make sure you take the time to properly connect them by soldering or military connecting. i've seen to many ppl install their own alarm with t-taps or butt connectors and a few weeks later have the thing not work or where it works too good.

 

[Gatman 10+ year member]

where could i get a wiring diragram for my car? what i understand its a matter of finding, and connecting.

 

[Heeltoeclutch 10+ year member]

the12volt.com is a good source for such things, but they don't always have everything. Sometimes if you buy from an online seller or ebay or something they'll include a diagram with the alarm, but you should be able to find it on a car-specific forum, like omgIlove1995camrys.com or something for your car. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif are you a member of any such forums?

 

[ecko_0113 10+ year member]

are you wanting to do just alarm or alarm and remote start? also what kind of vehicle?

 

[Gatman 10+ year member]

just alarm, in an 05 dodge stratus sedan.

 

[Gatman 10+ year member]

any more help?

 

[ecko_0113 10+ year member]

I'd suggest a viper 350 they're pretty good alarms

 

[ShiningBuick 10+ year member]

There's not all that much to know. Once you get your wire colors/locations it's cake...

IIRC the Stratus has 4 door pin triggers, all negative. So you'll have to split the - trigger input into 4 wires, diode isolated (a diode on each, with the band facing away from the alarm brain)

Then add the hood and trunk triggers in the same way. Trunk should have a trigger too, especially if it has a trunk light.. just tap into the switched side and attach to either the negative or positive trigger input depending on which type of switching it has.

For the hood just add a hood pin or mercury switch and diode isolate to the negative trigger.

The door locks I'm pretty sure are negative trigger... so just track the two wires down... check them w/ a mulitmeter (cont to ground when pressing lock/ unlock), and tap into those.

The factory arms/ disarm wires are the same thing.. should go to ground when you turn the key in the driver's door lock cyl.

The starter kill relay is easy enough.. snip the starter wire and wire it to the relay as described in the manual.

Domelight wire I usually don't bother with, the trigger zones work best IMO.

Add an extra siren under the dash while you're up in there.

Loom and tape the wires good... hide the brain somewhere sneaky where it's super hard to find / get to.

Hmm... that's all I can think of off hand.