Having finished dismantling the antenna, I turned my attention to the mailfunction alarm. Ever since I've had the car it's been a bit of a concern. The alarm was originally fitted by a friend, and when I bought the car he warned me that it was not his best work as he was in a bit of a hurry, and that I would probably be better of getting an entirely different alarm.
How perfectly honest he was, I was about to find out...
Although the alarm would always remain armed, it would lock and unlock both doors. However the indicators never flashed, the horn was not installed, and it would go off whenever it felt like. Not that that stopped anything working.... A few days after I got it, the alarm decided it would be a good idea to only be able to lock my doors, rather than unlocking them as well. Now this would have been fine by me, if it wasn't for the fact that the car has been delocked....
Being tired of having to break into my own car whenever I wanted to work on it, as the alarm would lock the doors whenever it felt like, I removed all the panels lacking screws, and located the alarm. (like my friend said, he was in a real hurry to put this back together)
This is what I found behind the dash:
oookay....
Some of the wires seemed to be unused. Clearly, that had to be why some random wires where hanging down next to the clutch.
Everything orange clearly being out of use, i started by pulling those out, to try and get some sort of system, to give me an idea as to what I needed to remove. At this point, I still haven't found the live for the alarm, and it seems all the wires are wrapped around the stereo wiring, so I disconnected the alarm ecu, and started unveiling everything.
Having unwrapped the wires a bit more, I found the live for the alarm. Remember that red power cable that went straight across the floor to the stereo? Well, that seems to supply the alarm as well.
Having sorted out the wiring a little more, this appears to be the ones that aren't used:
On the other hand, these are connected to something, and I'll have to find out exactly what it is they do, so I can put the wiring loom back to standard. The only thing missing from this lot of wires is the shock sensor that was plugged into the ecu. I know that the central locking is connected, so that doesn't leave a lot of wires.
Following the wires was easy enough. All are visible on this photo, and I started by tracing the brown one that's wrapped itself around the clutch pedal, and through the spring.
It ended up at this relay on the drivers side of the car. It was latched onto some wires that goes into the door, so that's obviously the central locking. I unsoldered the connections, and removed the relays.
The other wires went to the big lump of cables coming of the ignition barrel.
Same procedure as with the other wires, I unsoldered the wires that where spliced in, and so far, I've not cut a single wire on the car to remove the alarm.
I did end up cutting one wire. This alarm is a rather cheap one relay affair (although it clearly uses 4 relays for different things) Because of that the immobilizer works by cutting the fuelpump. Ok, that makes sense. However the fuel pump wire had been cut, soldered to a wire that did a loop inside the dashboard, and soldered back into the fuel pump, bypassing the alarm in its entirety. I'm not sure why, but I know the car wouldn't start one lae wvening, and something got temporarilly fixed, and this might just be it. It does at least explain why the car would start even when the alarm had gone off.
Thats it for now. Next up is shrinkwrapping and soldering the wires, so the car is back to factory standard.
How perfectly honest he was, I was about to find out...
Although the alarm would always remain armed, it would lock and unlock both doors. However the indicators never flashed, the horn was not installed, and it would go off whenever it felt like. Not that that stopped anything working.... A few days after I got it, the alarm decided it would be a good idea to only be able to lock my doors, rather than unlocking them as well. Now this would have been fine by me, if it wasn't for the fact that the car has been delocked....
Being tired of having to break into my own car whenever I wanted to work on it, as the alarm would lock the doors whenever it felt like, I removed all the panels lacking screws, and located the alarm. (like my friend said, he was in a real hurry to put this back together)
This is what I found behind the dash:
oookay....
Some of the wires seemed to be unused. Clearly, that had to be why some random wires where hanging down next to the clutch.
Everything orange clearly being out of use, i started by pulling those out, to try and get some sort of system, to give me an idea as to what I needed to remove. At this point, I still haven't found the live for the alarm, and it seems all the wires are wrapped around the stereo wiring, so I disconnected the alarm ecu, and started unveiling everything.
Having unwrapped the wires a bit more, I found the live for the alarm. Remember that red power cable that went straight across the floor to the stereo? Well, that seems to supply the alarm as well.
Having sorted out the wiring a little more, this appears to be the ones that aren't used:
On the other hand, these are connected to something, and I'll have to find out exactly what it is they do, so I can put the wiring loom back to standard. The only thing missing from this lot of wires is the shock sensor that was plugged into the ecu. I know that the central locking is connected, so that doesn't leave a lot of wires.
Following the wires was easy enough. All are visible on this photo, and I started by tracing the brown one that's wrapped itself around the clutch pedal, and through the spring.
It ended up at this relay on the drivers side of the car. It was latched onto some wires that goes into the door, so that's obviously the central locking. I unsoldered the connections, and removed the relays.
The other wires went to the big lump of cables coming of the ignition barrel.
Same procedure as with the other wires, I unsoldered the wires that where spliced in, and so far, I've not cut a single wire on the car to remove the alarm.
I did end up cutting one wire. This alarm is a rather cheap one relay affair (although it clearly uses 4 relays for different things) Because of that the immobilizer works by cutting the fuelpump. Ok, that makes sense. However the fuel pump wire had been cut, soldered to a wire that did a loop inside the dashboard, and soldered back into the fuel pump, bypassing the alarm in its entirety. I'm not sure why, but I know the car wouldn't start one lae wvening, and something got temporarilly fixed, and this might just be it. It does at least explain why the car would start even when the alarm had gone off.
Thats it for now. Next up is shrinkwrapping and soldering the wires, so the car is back to factory standard.