Removing an Old Aftermarket Car Alarm

[wrxnofx]

I'm thinking of trying to remove an old car alarm that was installed somewhere along the line of previous owners, and I don't really know what can and cannot be removed from the front boot. I'm hoping that you fellow pelicanites can help!

Here goes:
The module in the foreground seems to be the alarm "brain". Can I remove all wires seen in this pic?


One of groups of colored wires goes from the brain to this little black box that was zip tied to a vertical member. Can I remove this little box and the colored wires?


These wires ran into the brain box from the left. There are 3 white wires with black stripes that end up in the cabin (one goes to a stupid button, another appears to be spliced into the ignition harness, and I haven't found the other yet). The blue wire is spliced into the harness that goes
to the boot light. The red wire is shoved next to one of the HVAC tubes down into the passenger footwell.
I assume I can remove the blue, red, and 3 white wires?







These are more wires that come out of the brain box to the right. The black is obviously ground to the driver's fender. The blue is spliced into another harness like its counterpart on the passenger side, and the yellow, orange, and red wires all head to the fuse box, connecting to the headlight fuses.





Thoughts on being able to remove all this (after disconnecting the battery)? Seems like yes, but just wanted to make sure.

[Bob Kontak]

My thoughts are that you will need to find where the box interrupts the starting of the car and just get that crap out of there.

It will set you free.

[JAR0023]

One thing I'd add is that you'd be well served to have a complete wiring diagram of your car (Bentley or otherwise) before you get started cutting wires. Good luck. -J

[CCM911]

If those wires go to the fuse box, could it be reasonable to assume that the system disables either the starter circuit, or maybe disables the fuel pump relay?

[Kraftwerk]

Once you dig in it is pretty easy to see what is aftermarket and what is stock. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a fuel pump shut off hidden somewhere, might want to keep that part of the system.

[wrxnofx]

Originally Posted by JAR0023

One thing I'd add is that you'd be well served to have a complete wiring diagram of your car (Bentley or otherwise) before you get started cutting wires. Good luck. -J

Agreed. This is definitely on my list of near term purchases.

Originally Posted by CCM911

If those wires go to the fuse box, could it be reasonable to assume that the system disables either the starter circuit, or maybe disables the fuel pump relay?

From what I can gather, in the fuse box the wires connect to the front headlight fuses and taillight/cruise control fuse. I presume this would be to get them to flash on and off when the alarm is tripped.

Ultimately, there was a wire with button added to the dash that enabled the system. I've removed this from under the dash. There was another wire spliced into a relay under the dash. The yellow wire on the ignition harness was cut and spliced into the same relay, also. Removing the relay and mating the 2 yellow wire halves back together seems to be the logical thing to do:

[Porchdog]

I pulled a Clifford alarm out of my 81 SC a couple of weeks ago. The alarm installers cut into (3) separate circuits behind the fuse panel. (it was definitely interupting both fuel and ignition, I think the other circuit was lights). Once I unscrewed the fuse panel from the inner fender it was pretty easy to see what they'd done and restore it.

The trunk latch solenoid was painfully hot.

Some of the splices were painfully amateur. All the alarm wiring was overwrapped with black duct tape which made an aweful mess.

I did manage to get everything out. The car works perfectly and I have more peace of mind.

[HelmetHead]

black box under front appears to be a shock sensor with a gain knob...splice the two yellows back together under dash for ignition circuit and yank the rest...there might be wires going to the light switch to flash parking lights..etc.

[Joe Bob]

I had my car stereo guy do it.....best $150 I ever spent.....

[wrxnofx]

Thanks for the info, everyone.

The one piece that is eating at me that is not working right is my parking lights. When I turn my headlight switch to position 1 (the parking lights), the headlights turn on dimly, and the taillights turn on. But the amber side marker lights in the front do not go on. This is NOT correct, right? That is, the amber lights should go on and the headlights should not turn on until position 2? Turn signals work fine (as they flash the inner amber lights), as do hazards, fog lights, reverse lights, etc.

I noticed that one of the gray wires going into the headlight switch had zero insulation, which means it got really hot and burned it off at some point in the past (I blame the alarm I think). I have separated each of the wires and taped them back up, but a new headlight harness is ordered.

With that being said, it almost seems like the headlight switch is fried for that part of the circuit. Perhaps that is causing the incorrect headlights to turn on instead of the amber parking lights.

[JAR0023]

Originally Posted by wrxnofx

Thanks for the info, everyone.

The one piece that is eating at me that is not working right is my parking lights. When I turn my headlight switch to position 1 (the parking lights), the headlights turn on dimly, and the taillights turn on. But the amber side marker lights in the front do not go on. This is NOT correct, right? That is, the amber lights should go on and the headlights should not turn on until position 2? Turn signals work fine (as they flash the inner amber lights), as do hazards, fog lights, reverse lights, etc.
[snip]

Position one should turn on running/park lights with key off. Position two will be the same unless the key is in the run position. At least that's the way my car behaves with relays for the headlamps. My headlamps work only with the key in the run position.

As far as the dim headlamps. If you have H4 lamps then there is an option for city lights. Small 4v lights wired in with park lamp circuit. Not normally seen on US cars but the wiring is mostly all there and PO could have set it up this way by switching them over instead of adding them to the park circuit. Other than access this wiring is not horribly complicated up front at the lights. There's another reason for that wiring diagram. -J

[wrxnofx]

The PO did put in H4 lights. When I get a spare night I'll have to look more into this to see if he wired the parking light circuit to these city lights instead.

Regarding access, this would all be wired within the headlight dome, yes? So if I remove the headlight assembly itself I would see this in there? I haven't found a spot in the front boot where the parking/turn signal wires enter, so I'm thinking this must all be in the headlight dome of the fender.

[JAR0023]

Originally Posted by wrxnofx

The PO did put in H4 lights. When I get a spare night I'll have to look more into this to see if he wired the parking light circuit to these city lights instead.

Regarding access, this would all be wired within the headlight dome, yes? So if I remove the headlight assembly itself I would see this in there? I haven't found a spot in the front boot where the parking/turn signal wires enter, so I'm thinking this must all be in the headlight dome of the fender.

I think so. I've slept since I did this. Harness runs into and out of the bucket. I know to set up city lights you tap into the park light circuit from inside the headlamp bucket with a simple 'Y'. The ground for the city light is just folded back and taped in the end of the harness sheath. Access to the back of the park lights/turn signals if from the back of the bumper. A bit of a pain but doable with the car on jack stands. IIRC there is at least one thread with some good photos. Let me see if I can find it. -J

Here it is...City lights

[Charles Freeborn]

I just pulled the alarm out of mine too.
You've pretty much covered all of it. Mine had a relay that interrupted the yellow wires from the ignition switch. It was controlled by the brain box. If you've got that too get rid of it. There was one power lead from the fuse block to the brain on mine. You'll want to figure out where the door switches were tapped into as well and undo that. It's usually the switch that turns on the dome light when you open a door. My Targa also had a motion detector for when the top is off.

Your running lights, etc issues may be due to faulty / dirty ground wires.
-C

[myamoto1]

I've pulled a Cobra alarm out of my 911 and a Carr (dealer installed alarm) out of my Subie. My general approach has always been:
1) disconnect a sensor
2) see if the car starts - if yes, goto 1, if no goto 3
3) reconnect sensor
4) disconnect a different sensor - goto 2
5) once all sensors that can be disconnect are identified - pull associated wiring
6) for remaining sensors, trace back to where sensor ties into factory harness - repair
factory harness - goto 2
7) drink beer

[wrxnofx]

Originally Posted by JAR0023

I think so. I've slept since I did this. Harness runs into and out of the bucket. I know to set up city lights you tap into the park light circuit from inside the headlamp bucket with a simple 'Y'. The ground for the city light is just folded back and taped in the end of the harness sheath. Access to the back of the park lights/turn signals if from the back of the bumper. A bit of a pain but doable with the car on jack stands. IIRC there is at least one thread with some good photos. Let me see if I can find it. -J

Here it is...City lights

JAR - I believe you are DEAD on with these lights being city lights (I had never heard the term before you mentioned it here). I went down and turned the headlight switch to position 1, peered into the H4 lens, and this is what I saw:



It's a small light that is below the main center area of the housing. That does help put my mind at ease, actually. I was concerned the problem might be the headlight switch.

Originally Posted by Charles Freeborn

I just pulled the alarm out of mine too.
You've pretty much covered all of it. Mine had a relay that interrupted the yellow wires from the ignition switch. It was controlled by the brain box. If you've got that too get rid of it. There was one power lead from the fuse block to the brain on mine. You'll want to figure out where the door switches were tapped into as well and undo that. It's usually the switch that turns on the dome light when you open a door. My Targa also had a motion detector for when the top is off.

Your running lights, etc issues may be due to faulty / dirty ground wires.
-C

Thanks, Charles. Will do. I changed out one of the dome light switches already and there was (mercifully) no wires associated with that one other than the single brown wire. I think of this alarm as a virus that is just embedding itself into every part of my car trying to kill it. It must be stopped

Originally Posted by myamoto1

I've pulled a Cobra alarm out of my 911 and a Carr (dealer installed alarm) out of my Subie. My general approach has always been:
1) disconnect a sensor
2) see if the car starts - if yes, goto 1, if no goto 3
3) reconnect sensor
4) disconnect a different sensor - goto 2
5) once all sensors that can be disconnect are identified - pull associated wiring
6) for remaining sensors, trace back to where sensor ties into factory harness - repair
factory harness - goto 2
7) drink beer

That's a pretty good strategy, and one that I've employed thus far, and will continue to employ.

[wrxnofx]

Well, it's gone finally. Man this thing was into a lot of places. Ignition wiring, fuse box, harness for front trunk light switch, another harness on the driver's side similar to the trunk light switch that I couldn't figure out (the mating parts have green dots on them).