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In the previous article I tried to show you how easy it is to fit car radios and amplifiers. This month I hope to reassure all of you that, if you can cope with them, then you can cope with the next step up the ladder of experience.
Confidence in yourself and your own abilities is the key to this type of work and, let's face it, would you leave your new motor with someone that looks like he's afraid to touch it?
Equally so, if you give him the impression that the minute his back is turned you will rip his car to bits, irrespective of whether or not you can reassemble it again, then that can work against you as well.
So the watchword is confidence not over confidence.
Most owners asking about alarms and immobilisers will start the conversation with the question, "is it insurance approved?" This isn't as easy to answer as it is to ask. Most insurance companies will give you a discount on your premium, if you have an alarm fitted, but you will get a bigger discount if you have a "category 1" alarm fitted. This will have to be Thatcham approved, or else it won't qualify. Needless to say that to be Thatcham approved costs money to the alarm companies and this indirectly gets to go on the price of the unit, which means that they sell less of them, so they prefer not to pay. But this doesn't mean that their units don't conform to Thatcham standards. It's just that they won't pay to be certified and, thereby, miss out on some sales.
In the odd instance when it is the insurance company themselves that specify a Cat.1 Thatcham approved alarm, it would probably be better to go to a main dealer, as a certificate would be required after fitting, to send in to them.
To get back to the plot, before fitting an alarm, you have to ascertain what you want it to do. Do you want it to operate the central locking, or do you want it to close the windows on operation; do you want motion detectors, or do you want ultrasonic detectors inside the cabin unit, or microwave detectors? It is important that you decide beforehand, because these extra add on interfaces cost money!
Now, to get down to, how to fit it! And where? Well, you will have to work that out yourself, but a word from the wise is: plan it out before you go stripping the interior down. By that I mean it is inevitable that you will remove something you don't need to, but replace it quickly so you don't have too many bits around you. You'll thank me for that wise tip one day. Next, look under the bonnet for places to put the siren / horn, so that it will not get too wet, or hot, or to be fitted in such a place that, when it goes off, it sounds muffled and, therefore, defeats the object of having one.
I have fitted numerous alarms /immobilisers to motor homes and cars, and my favourite is always the motor home, mainly because I like to work with a lot of space around me. That doesn't always mean that they are the easiest vehicles to alarm as, sometimes, the client wants microwave coverage as well as door and bonnet coverage, and ultrasonics, and motion detectors, to boot.
So, take a good look around inside the cabin area, and also a good feel underneath, and around the dashboard area for space to fit the alarm box and wiring. I always fit alarms and immobilisers inside the cabin of the vehicle. There are three reasons for this. Firstly, the thief can't find it if he lifts the bonnet of the vehicle. Secondly, if he tries to start the vehicle, he will have to spend a lot more time inside it looking for the alarm unit and thereby increasing his chances of being caught. Thirdly, sensitive electronics in plastic cases don't always mix with high-pressure steam hoses, in the odd case when you decide to have the engine de-greased. You will never find me fitting one underneath the bonnet, and so I will always take longer, to fit one properly and carefully, than John Wayne, as we call him, the local cowboy.
All of the alarms that I have fitted come with basic but easily understood instructions and normally have pictures as well. Once you have unpacked your alarm it is important to check you have everything you should have, to do the job with. I'm sure that I'm not the only one to have started to install something only to find later on that a crucial component is missing!
Once you have removed the appropriate bits of trim from the underneath of the dashboard, and sometimes the kick panel by the footwell, you can proceed to find a way through to the engine compartment as there will be a wire loom from the horn / siren to attach to the main unit. You must be careful not to put it through any hole with a bare metal edge as this may chafe the wire and cause a short circuit, rendering the operation of the alarm useless.
Try to find an area inside the vehicle that you can screw the unit to, making sure that you won't be drilling through a cable or pipe. It is possible to "tie-wrap" the alarm to something that is fixed, like another metal box or something solid like a boxed section. Now comes the hard part. I use a "Power Probe" to find the state of the cable that I am checking, and it is invaluable in these situations, so that you know exactly which cable you are connecting to.
You will need to find a permanent live, and you must be careful that it stays permanent when you operate the ignition switch. Next you must find a switched live. Additionally, you need the indicator wires and, in some cases, the main beam wires, and door switch wires (you may have to add extra ones if your vehicle has a hatch back or doesn't have courtesy lights on the back doors, and bonnet). Some alarms incorporate immobilisers into the circuits and, therefore, might need you to isolate the supply to the fuel pump or ignition coil, so you need to find these wires as well.
I can not stress enough the importance of taking your time when fitting these units, as it is so easy in such a confined space to cut the wrong wire or place the new wires in such a place as to hinder the reassembly of the trim panels.
Equally I cannot stress enough how important it is to solder any joints and then use shrink-wrap sleeve on them.
It is very important that you pull back enough wire out of the loom to make the necessary connections, but equally so just as important to wrap the new wiring back into the loom neatly with insulation tape, making the finished job look like it was factory fitted.
This fulfils two criteria i.e. Should someone need to do any work around the area that you have been working, then they can't criticise your work. But, mainly, should the vehicle be broken into, the thief can't just reach under the dash, rip out your new and very obvious cabling, short them together, start the vehicle and run off with it.
Immobilisers are cheaper than alarms. However, don't think that just because they are cheaper they are any less difficult to install.
Some have a key-like device that you put into a hole to activate the unit so therefore you need to find a place to drill the appropriate hole in the dash, remembering that it has to be in a suitable position where the driver of the vehicle can access it easily. Often there are blanking plates in the dashboard where you can drill to put the flashing L.E.D. in but I wouldn't recommend these places to put the key circuit in. because they are too easily removed and tampered with.
Another quirk to fitting immobilisers is that they usually have four circuits that need connecting but, to confuse you and the would-be thief, again all of the wires are coloured black. I cannot stress enough how important it is to work on one circuit at a time and then to cut, solder, and shrink wrap the joints, incorporating them back into the loom neatly. Never leave excess wire coiled up, because you were too lazy to cut them to size. This not only looks bad, but tells the thief straight away where to start looking.
I hope that you will feel more confident to attempt the fitting of Alarms and Immobilisers, because it is my experience that once you have done one, it whets your appetite to do another and so on.
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