Car Alarm Disconnect

88911coupe · 09-12-2002, 06:07 AM

I searched the threads and can't find an answer to my ?. My alarm (Clifford 10) is randomly arming itself or just going off while driving. Last night the car lost spark, but not lights or electrical, while on the highway and the alarm had gone off 5 minutes before (while driving). Here's my question...how hard is it to temporarily disconnect an alarm to see if it's the cause? Am I risking stranding myself?
Thanks,

bell · bell's Garage

you first need to find where the alarm brain is located, i don't remember if the clofford 10 had a normally open or closed starter disable relay. try unplugging the whole brain, if the car starts your good to go, if it does not you need to bypass the starter disable relay to get a signal to the starter for the car to start.
it sounds as if you have a bad ground for the brain (a loose/coroded ground can cause the woes you're having) but i've seen cliffords do some silly things.
hope this helps

RANDY P · RANDY P's Garage

There's a wire that tells the Clifford the car's running, it should be White with a Brown trace and it's a 14- 16 ga wire. Sounds like this connection failed. If you can't get valet mode, this is probably what happened. Whatever color it is, it should be in the vicinity of the key and steering column, and tapped into a wire that has power while the car is running. If you give up-like Bell says, unplug the thing and all should be well. You aren't hurting anything by driving it like that. Clifford S/K is installed normally closed.

Maybe the circut powering your coil (failing keyswitch perhaps?) is cutting out, causing your alarm to arm, but if you lost power for that long, your car should've died while you're driving.

Scary though, if you lost that connection, what about the rest of the system? Take it back to where it was done, everything should be warranted, esp. the installation. Clifford doesn't reccomend anything weird that cuts off power to any circuts while the car is running, and a good shop won't install that for fear of liability. Doubtful the thing is hooked to kill your Coil or Fuel - but, you never know.

Cliffords, have always been good alarms for me, always my 1st and until recently, my only choice. ( I heard DEI bought 'em

rjp

RANDY P · RANDY P's Garage

www.clifford.com

RoninLB · 09-12-2002, 07:38 AM

the Clifford start cut out and brain on my '77 was under/around the fresh air box.......Ron

bell · bell's Garage

yes DEI (viper/sidewinder/etc) bought clifford some time in the past 2 years and were going to dismantle the company (clifford). luckily for many clifford owners they didn't do that. there was a period after the buyout where the absolutely nothing was being done with the clifford line (warranty/repair/service) at the factory.
i've used dei since the mid-90's and they are simply bulletproof.

911boost · 911boost's Garage

I put a splice in the alarm wire that leads to the horn with a quick disconnect. I got tired of working on the car in the garage and having the damn thing go off. I can connect the audible part of the alarm when I am driving and parking the car, and it still disables the car from starting even if I forget.

just what I did.
Bill

arcsine · 09-12-2002, 10:42 AM

I recently removed the non-functioning Clifford from my car. The brain was found installed under the passenger footwell board along with the motion detector. It took a while to trace all the wiring to their terminations to get them out. The only "issue" I had was that I had to splice the starter wire back together at the ignition in order to start the car.
After the fact, I have had no problems with any electrical systems and removed quite a bundle of sensors, switches, relays and wire bundles to boot.
Good luck

88911coupe · 09-12-2002, 07:48 PM

I've found what appears to be the "brain", it's a black plastic module about 6" by 3 1/2" in the pass. footwell, near the motion sensor. What's likely to happen if I just disconnect this from the harness? Can I just plug it back in if the car does not start? Does this effectively remove the alarm from the system?
Thanks,

bell · bell's Garage

if the car doesn't start look under the dash behind the keyswitch to see where the starter wire connects to loop through the alarm.
disconnect the aftermarket wires there and reconnect the factory starter wire together again.
if you can't figure it out take a pic and i can photoshop arrows as to what to reconnect.

if the car starts after you unplug the brain you can do the above anyway but it won't be neccasary
hope this helps

RANDY P · RANDY P's Garage

Unplug it. Won't hurt anything. If you want to go further than that and eliminate the whole alarm and starter kill, be careful. If you're not used to doing this, get a pro to help you, you can screw up a lot of things trying to undo the starter relay. It isn't a heavy gauge wire for nothing.

rjp

basset1 · 12-26-2007, 06:41 PM

To BSiple (Bill):

Did you find a good place to splice into the alarm horn other than 1) having to go under the car and take off the plate and access the horn, or 2)take out the fresh air blower to get access to the alarm control module?

I want to also put switchs in for the siren and the alarm horn but would love to find that pesky red/white wire that in an easy-to-get-to locating, or even the brown ground wire to the horn.

tx

Reed

bell · bell's Garage

holy 5 year old thread batman

welcome to the board

911boost · 911boost's Garage

Reed, I got your PM, but man, this was a while ago. To be completely honest, I can't remember where I put the splice in. My current car, the 964 T has an aftermarket alarm on it as well, and i just cut the wires to the horn, which was and added on one in the engine compartment. I am pretty sure on my 86 cab (the one I referenced in the thread) I was able to find the correct colored wired in the car, but where, to be honest, I just don't remember.

Bill

basset1 · 12-29-2007, 07:06 PM

ok, thanks Bill. I just spent about 2 hours trying to get a bolt back in on the stone guard when I got access to the alarm horn. I decided not to cut a wire so I'm still trying to find a red/white or brwn grnd wire for the OEM alarm horn without taking out the fresh air blower (sounds like a real hassle, disconnects cables, hoses, etc.). Driving me crazy... I now have a switch on the siren so I can disable that but I still need to disable the alarm horn. From the Bentley, the relay is right next to the alarm module so I'll keep plugging away looking for the elusive alarm horn wires......

Reed