Car Alarms
 

Well, seeing that I've been reading about quite a few cars being stolen, and getting SPAMed by MNSC, I've decided part of my tax return is going into a car alarm for my Talon. Not something I really want to buy, as I'm trying to get rid of all the misc crap I don't need, cluttering up the car. But well, I figure an alarm is probably a good investment considering it may save me from potential thieves.

Does anyone else out there have alarms in their car that they think works well?

Does anyone have any good recommendations of places to go for this other then like Best Buy? Not sure how good of a job those guys do. I want something with a pager that I can attach to my keychain. Something that will work with my turbo timer.

Re: Car Alarms
 

I had a simple Alpine unit on my 1G, it worked awesome. Plus, it gave the car keyless entry! I think I only paid around $300 or so for it, not a bad deal and it worked very well. At the same time, I bought one for Anna's car and she still has it (4 years now) and has had no problems with it (or the car getting stolen for that matter).

Re: Car Alarms
 

We had a couple Viper alarms w/ keyless entry and remote start installed on the Prizim and Jeep. The one on the car is still going stong. The remote start works sweet, it's got very good distance on it, and the remote isn't big and bulky.

But when looking for one for the 6, I am also thinking I wouldn't mind some kind of pager just in case. I'm either going to get an Autopage RS-600 for the 6 (which is basic and no pager but does everything else I want and is what is carried by Street Scenes Tint who will probably be installing it since I can't find anyone else to to it on a MT).

I'm also looking at the RS-622LCD that does come with the 2 way communication pager that will detail which part of the car was broken into and other misc tasks.

All the units should work just fine with other alarms (factors & aftermarket) with the piggyback features, and should be able to configured to set after the TT kills the car.

Re: Car Alarms
 

Compustar. http://www.compustar.org/

Re: Car Alarms
 

I bought a K9 Mundial unit with Keyless of ebay for around 60. Got some door actuators and installed it all myself in the 1G. Worked great as a basic car alarm and keyless entry owned.

Re: Car Alarms
 

Viper 791XV, look it up, its bad ass, i had it hooked up to most of my cars that i really value. remote start, turbo timer, LCD remote, distance is good.
Got it for like $180 shipped on ebay.

Re: Car Alarms
 

I'm interested in one as well, lol, I'm scared to put my Shep Racing stickers on my cars window

Re: Car Alarms
 

Clifford (well any DEI system really, same as Viper) RSX Matrix 3.5 for sure. I have the older version of this in my car and I love it, insane range. No problems reaching the parking lot from inside a department store. It's a little spendy, but if you get the parts on eBay and install it yourself it's not bad.

Oh, it has remote start and turbo timer built in. Several options too, such as a trunk release for the pull cable ones like DSMs, automatically roll up the windows when you lock the car, proximity sensor if you want, so many things you can do with it.

http://www.clifford.com/matrix/responder/default.asp

Re: Car Alarms
 

How difficult was the install? I tried one years ago and got confused and gave up. Wouldn't mind trying again though. The instructions never seem to be very clear.

Re: Car Alarms
 

I tried most alarms including Compustar and I like DEI the most. DEI has the best shock sensor on the market and like honda they have accesories up the whazoo. They don't have an auto start for manuals but some models do come with turbo timers or ability to hook to timers. On 1G DSMs Alarms are not hard to install. You just need to know how to use a meter. Alarms are like performance parts either you pay now or you pay later.

Re: Car Alarms
 

It wasnt too bad. There are ALOT of wires but they are all color coded. Just have to find out what the stock colors are and tap into them. I did alot of wiring on that car though... hard wired logger (power), hard wired radar detector, stereo system etc... I hate wiring but Ill still do it. lol

Re: Car Alarms
 

Hmm... I've never installed a security system before. Not sure if that's something I'd want to do, or have a pro do. That Clifford one looks real nice. Whatever I get, I want it to have a pager on it to let me know if someone is messing with the car. This weekend I may go to like Best Buy, Ultimate, Circuit City, see what they all have. Not sure where else there is. I'll look around Ebay as well. Only thing is if I get one off ebay, not sure if a place like Best Buy would install it.

Re: Car Alarms
 

Yeah, security system installs aren't exactly a walk in the park. It's not fun. The viper that my brother was talking about is amazingly nice. I loved mine. Your best bet is picking one up on e-bay cause they're decently cheap there as compared to best buy (a real viper one), and taking it someplace to get installed. I think the install on mine at circuit city was like $100? I can't EXACTLY remember sice it was so long ago, and I didn't really shop around either so it could be cheaper somewhere else

Re: Car Alarms
 

Do they all just get tapped into the ecu harness (clip and solder)? When I did it years ago I was under the (hopefully mistaken) impression that the door lock wires had to go to the doors, etc... If so, it doesn't sound too bad. Just stretch the harness out and cut/solder the appropriate wires.

Re: Car Alarms
 

No, some of the wiring needs to be tied into the wiring for the locks themselves. You can either go into the door to do this, or you can find the wiring inside the cab and splice them in there. There's nothing on the ECU that will control the door locks

Re: Car Alarms
 

Most door locks can be found under the kick panel. The reason why the instructions aren't that clear is because each car is different. I used to have a job installing remote starts. After seeing some of the work that best buy has done I would only take it to one you trust or can watch over them. This last weekend my buddy was doing a car that best buy had done and best buy didn't even use soder on the wires. They just tapped them up.

DSMstyle- as far as the MS6 I would only take that to a reputable shop. It is a tricky one to do. The door lock wires are located in the passanger side kick panel.

Re: Car Alarms
 

OK, so I'm looking on ebay, and there are several ones for under 200 bucks that come with the pagers, but I have no idea if these are good, or what to even look for. So I start looking at Viper and Clifford, and it's just bits and pieces. This is dumb, I just want to buy a complete kit, I want it to be decent, and I have no clue if these cheaper ones are any good or what.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ALARM...QQcmdZViewItem

Re: Car Alarms
 

Just buy a DEI unit. Honestly the pager does not work that well. If some one wants your car they are going to get it. The main thing is you don't want false alarms. With DEI you press the button once it arms. You press it twice it disarms your shock sensor. Press it three times it disarms the door trigger. This comes in handy when you need to shut a sensor off because of false alarms. What I like the most out of DEI is the brain is small and can be hidden. Autopage has a brain the same size as our ECU. I go DEI hands down. I used to be an installer and alarms are not that bad

Re: Car Alarms
 

OK, DEI, but on ebay you look up that, and it shows you bits and pieces. I have no idea what any of this crap is. And there are a million different models. And I want a pager, that way I know if someone is messing with it. If I'm somewhere where I wouldn't hear the alarm, I'd like to know it went off so I can get out there asap.

Re: Car Alarms
 

Not true, I have one on my manual and it works great.

My pager works great, it's beeped and I've gone out to catch someone who dinged my door on several occasions. I'm pretty confident that if someone was breaking in, it would page me then too.

Try these, maybe you can find cheaper ones on ebay though, I just found the first few that looked like the nice 2 way paging ones:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Viper-791XV-Remo...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Viper...76981971QQrdZ1

The following one is used, but much cheaper. Also has a lot of nice extras like the trunk popper and the proximity sensor. Hell, it even has two remotes (identical to the one I have actually), although one is missing the battery cover. If I didn't already have this, I'd get it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Viper-remote-sta...QQcmdZViewItem

Re: Car Alarms
 

Except for the page feature would it be more effective to make a creative kill switch. If someone wants a car they can usually get it before you get there. A kill switch could really slow them down and hopefully it would be no worse than a scratch or broken window before they give up.

Re: Car Alarms
 

Hey Ass Hanson, thanks for the links. How do I know if these will work with a turbo timer, or have a built in turbo timer, or what?

Re: Car Alarms
 

Hey Craig, I have found a couple Compustar ones on there that look resonably priced. Are they pretty decent? Here's the 2 I'm looking at.

http://cgi.ebay.com/COMPUSTAR-2WFM-A...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/COMPUSTAR-2W900F...QQcmdZViewItem

They both seem to have what I'm looking for. But the 2nd one, you can see this big antenna in the picture. Where in the heck do they put that? I don't want that thing dangling on the outside of the car somewhere.

Re: Car Alarms
 

Wow, this is all very interesting. I thought to get a remotely good alarm you needed to be like $600-$800 deep in shit. Since they are <$200, I may have to invest in one. Theft isnt a big deal back home, but on something like that I would definately want to take extra precautions. I would definately get a remote though, nice feature to have.

Re: Car Alarms
 

I'm really considering that Compustar one. Looks to have everything I want, including a built in turbo timer. I will probably pick one of those 2 compustar ones I linked to. I like the 2nd one better, as it has better range, but I'm wondering where is that antenna going to be. I don't want random antennas poking out of places.

Re: Car Alarms
 

Thats what i have and works great for me, saved me a good couple of times:nod:

I mounted my antenna in the back drivers side window, you can barely see it. I mounted the little knock sensor on the upper corner of the winsheild (sp?).

Re: Car Alarms
 

My antenna is at the top of the windshield on the passenger side. I don't even notice it when I'm driving.

Re: Car Alarms
 

I had a compustar on my 240 and it worked great for about a year, then the siren stopped working, and a couple months later I had to disconect it cuz it was killing the battery overnight.