Just installed a compustar alarm

[brink]

Man, what a gigantic pain in the ass.

For anyone who wants to install their own alarm to save some $$, make sure you do a lot of research, talk to people who know how to do it, and have resources if you've got questions. Also, set aside a lot of time... It took me 6 hours to install mine.

The exceptionally fun thing about compustars is their "installation manual" assumes you have a general idea of what you're doing and know what the wires are for and where they go. The only information the manual gives is color code of wires to what they're supposed to do, doesn't say anything helpful like, "snip the starter wire in half and connect the two yellow wires to either end" or anything. The "install" section of the manual is literally one page.

Anyway, here are a few things I ran into that might help other people out. This may only pertain to gen4 camrys, so YMMV:

• Be prepared to disassemble your lower dash under the steering column. You will have many parts and pieces removed during the install. This is a gigantic pain in the ass.
  
• Get a couple thin fish sticks to feed wire through the firewall. I used meter long, ~2mm thick ones. Nice and bendy. Still, this also is a gigantic pain in the ass.
  
• If possible, use two different wiring guides. I used Techsoft and Installogy. They were both accurate in terms of color, but frequently one would offer a better splice location than the other. Again with the asspain. I hate comparing notes back and forth.
  
• If you mount the siren on the passenger side, you'll have enough wire to run through the grommet by the AC line in back, down behind the glovebox, and across to the ignition area. However, for some reason Toyota decided to almost completely separate the leg area of the driver from the leg area of the passenger. You need to fish the wire through right up against the firewall. Do I need to tell you that this was a pain in the ass, as well?
  
• At all times keep in mind where the wires will be stowed after you're done. You don't want to end up with two leads on either side of the steering wheel or something. This was actually not a pain in the ass, though the cornucopia of wires certainly was.
  
• Which leads to another thing, you will not need all of the wires provided. Some are duplicates, some will not work with your car. Basically go down the line with each connector and figure out which wire you need to tap for power, ignition, starter, etc. I had one connector on the alarm containing 8 wires, of which I only used 1.

It's sort of daunting at first, but if you plan it out it's certainly doable. I'm just not sure I'd have done it myself in the first place if I'd known how unhelpful the instructions would ultimately be. The mass of wires is certainly upsetting when you first see them, but after I was told that I wouldn't be using them all, it was much better. I'm trying to remember... I think there were only about 8 or 9 splices into the existing wiring that I had to do.

That's all I can think of right now. Too tired. Thought I'd throw this out while it was somewhat fresh in my mind, though. I'll try to remember to take some pictures of the inline crimp connectors I used -- they made everything so much easier.


edit: one other thing I forgot. I was fortunate to have the installer guy giving me tips, not only for helping figure out which wire goes where, but also for telling me to avoid messing with the yellow wires for the airbag. I've heard of the dangers before, but I wasn't even thinking about that at the time and probably would've killed myself if he hadn't mentioned anything. So, avoid the yellow wires.

[americanjebus]

i never realy saw much point into puttin allota effort into a car secuirity i lock my car and have a kill switch under glove box if someone wants to get into your car they will use a brick and these days u see someone rippin a car off do u intervene??? most people wouldnt and if they realy realy want ur car that bad no car protection system will help it might scare off the 19 year old joy rider but not much else that a kill switch and locked door wouldnt do

[brink]

Yeah, mostly I agree. I finally got an alarm for several reasons, though.
- discount on insurance
- the blinking light is somewhat of a deterrent for the kid who just walks by and gets a wild hair to break into my car
- If I hear my alarm or any other in the parking lot going off, I WILL go out and kick someone's ass... This isn't the worst neighborhood but it isn't the best. I ALWAYS check when I hear an alarm going off.


edit: guess this should be in the security forum. moving.

[BLUEMEANIE]

hmm... I think I might do my own. I've been pondering this for quite some time now.

side note: A friend of mine took an air bag to the face while fcuking around behind his dash. At the time it was hysterically funny. He insisted repeatedly that he knew what he was doing... then in a cloud of dust there was air bag, beer and pork rines all over the place.

[JaJay721]

Air horns will help you distinguish your alarm from others as well as allow you to hear it from a greater distance. I've also noticed they grab people's attention. If people hear a car alarm they generally don't bother looking. If you have air horns they want to see what's making all that racket.

[brink]

Okay, a question: is the Paging function really useful to have? I'm talking abou tthe sensor you stick to a window somewhere with a sticker that says, "Tap here to page the owner". Not sure if I want that on the car or not. Anyone have it plugged in? Has it been useful?

[Phi]

Brink, props for installing successfully I'm an idiot when it comes to electronics and wouldn't dare try.

As for the paging feat., I put mine on. Most ppl don't even know what it is and give it no thought. Those that do know, just laugh and page me just to piss me off (Ekam). Other ppl just stick the sensor on but exclude the sticker saying "Knock Here"

[Silver Streak]

Good work Brink...did you install a remote starter as well? I installed my own alarm a few years ago, it was kinda a bitch, but the instruction were pretty detailed (Avital) and the alarm probably isn't as complicated as yours. I think the biggest pain for you was hooking it up to the ignition, no?

*note to self - page Phi at next meet*

[brink]

Thanks... nah, I didn't go with the remote start. It wasn't worth it paying the extra sixty bucks for it. If I'd gotten the remote start it definitely would've been a lot more involved, as I'd have to hook it up to the clutch switch, the tach, and several other wires. Yes, the ignition was indeed a pain, mainly due to the location; plus, I was leery of cutting too much of the binding tape off the ignition harness and accidentally cutting something important.

I'm actually not totally done yet... I still have to hook up the glass-break detector, and am still deciding on the paging sensor. I may put it under a door panel and just only tell friends and family about its location. Still thinking though.

Anyway, as promised, here are a few pics of the pieces I referred to before:


First, the types of connectors I used. I'd never seen some of these before, but they sure were easier than cutting and stripping leads, let me tell you...




This is how the inline crimp works. You crimp it on a wire, then use a spade connector for your splice wire.



An example of this. The blue plugs are for the lock/unlock wires



That brown connector in the first pic I used for the 12V power at the ignition. There are two holes on one end, one hole on the other. The power passes through while your splice is crimped next to it with a piece of metal that pierces the insulation on both wires.




Lastly, this is the level of disassembly you need to get to in order to successfully install the alarm. Getting to this point involves removing 4 pieces of dash molding under the steering column, unplugging the OBDII socket, and disconnecting the hood release, as well as removing the protective metal plate behind the plastic and below the steering column.



Looking back, I guess it really isn't that difficult provided you can correctly identify the wires you need and don't need, and can identify the wires you need to splice into. It's just very time consuming, and kind of a pain to take apart the car, but even that wasn't bad the second time around for these pictures.

[2wickedtoyz]

i had a clifford system installed called i4. its pretty cool. the other day i was talking to the guy at the part store and my buddy in the car(still running) thought it would be funny to move the car(he didn't know you need a pin to drive it otherwise it shuts down and the alarm goes off) he got freaked out turned the ignition key to turn it off ran out the car told me what happened i got in typed the pin# and the alarm turned off car was ready to drive. i can't get car jacked there are two kill switches and if the person tries to get the pin they get 3 tries and then they can't for another 30 min. so my car is safe. and if it's towed the alarm will go off no matter what. even if the disconnect the batt. i love this thing

[2wickedtoyz]

i mean intellegard 850

[Luc]

Although T-taps make installation very easy, however, they don't make the best contact with wires, and most installers I've spoken to don't generally use them. The best & safest is to strip the wire sleeve to expose a good portion of the wire, then wire wrap the alarm wires, solder, & tape up.

BTW, if EKam or Silver Streak can PM me Phi's pager number, I'll be more than happy to pay some international calling fees to entice Phi.

[Silver Streak]

^ Werd...I try to stay away from those t-taps...especially for wiring something as important as an alarm. I think they're OK for the interior use, but don't use them in the engine bay.

I've used them before when I got lazy but now I splice everything. Take your wire, split it in two, then expose some wire on the 2nd one, and then wrap the 2 wires around, but in opposite directions. Then, tape it up with some cloth electrical tape, and tie a ziptie around it. I'm too lazy to solder.

I used a t-tap for my horn...found out it rusted out when I needed it the most.

[brink]

Hmm, well with several of the wires I did have to peel some insulation away with a razor around the tap piercing area due to poor contact reasons. I just assumed that I wasn't crimping hard enough. Y'all think I should go back and redo this? I haven't had any odd connection related problems so far, but I suppose they could develop over time.