Starter Relay On Stagea/r34/r33

[DaveB]

Hi all,

Looking for the starter relay on a Stagea (series 2 C34) or even an R34 or R33 should be close enough. I've pulled every relay in the car and the dang thing still cranks... the starter circuit is annoyingly separate from the ignition circuit.

Car is auto btw; also if someone has the location of the park/detent switch that would be fabulous also; I can't find that either and thus have no way of interrupting the starter motor cranking (want to immobilise it, but stupidly the ignition barrel circuit is on the switch side of the crank relay?!?! this means 30+ amps which is more than my immobiliser is capable of)

If someone prefers to PM me this info instead that's also fine...

thanks

DaveB

[Chris Rogers]

engine bay look there. or pull the cover on the shifter. from memory the shifter does a high current cut on that anyway. prove me wrong though.

[DaveB]

Thanks Chris. According to the fusebox in the engine bay though there isn't a starter relay? (the labels are in english). I also removed my tiptronic gearstick surround but I can't find anything there; when I unplug the main harness connector attached to the gearstick surround it still starts?!?! I guess it must be under the car?

Seriously the only way that I seem to be able to stop this thing starting, is to disconnect the solenoid start wire, which is pretty obvious to a thief (who can just short the starter anyway I suppose).

[QWK32]

or interrupt the ecu's main power or ign start signal. or the power to the ECCS relays, or the fuel pump relay signal. there are a few things you can interrupt on the car that will 'immobilise' it, some of them the car will crank but there is now way it will start.

[DaveB]

or interrupt the ecu's main power or ign start signal. or the power to the ECCS relays, or the fuel pump relay signal. there are a few things you can interrupt on the car that will 'immobilise' it, some of them the car will crank but there is now way it will start.

Thanks yeah, I will be going for some of these. I just hate it when I can still crank the motor though, 'cause I know that lots of times I am going to try to start the car and it's going to catch me out - ie. crank for a bit before I work out what's going on. It just wears out the ring gear and the starter motor.

[DaveB]

Just a note, the ECU does not seem to like it when you interrupt its main power (not battery power, the relay in the wiring diagram marked "engine control/ignition coil"). Strange since nothing should be happening until ignition is active anyway. Car wouldn't start (well at least it was immobilised )

Edited December 16, 2008 by DaveB

[Chris Rogers]

yep start messing wiwth any relay that box controls and it dont work good to see you sorted it.

[DaveB]

Thanks Chris.

Appears that it's ok as long as you immobilise the switched side of the relay; ie. not the coil connections. That adds impedance to the connections that the ECU sees and messes with it.

PS Finally got my immobiliser/alarm system working, with window lift kit and battery backup siren, gps & sms integration etc. etc. It's a really awesome system, and if it all keeps working, it should do fine. And at under $350 in parts including delivery (not counting the GPS module) it was a bargain.

However... the 40+ hours of my time... were not a bargain. If I ever have to do another one of these, I am getting a professional to do it, and if it's a 'messy' job I'll just try to tidy it up afterwards, rather than trying to keep it all tidy from the beginning. It's a lot of work. I just finished replacing the insides of my stagea AGAIN after having them out for the last 12 hours chasing a short in my parking light circuit. Not fun.

Edited December 21, 2008 by DaveB

[QWK32]

how do you think you will go with the insurance side of things? if you ever have to make a theft claim (god forbid), i thought you had to show that you had a professional do the install of the alarm immobiliser system, i might be wrong though. this is the only reason i haven't gone and installed one myself.

[DaveB]

I recommend getting it done professionally anyway unless you have at least a week to spare (just in case)... but as for the insurance companies it seems to be company specific. I contacted mine (Shannons) and they told me as long as they could see it working they didn't care if it had a certificate or not. Others may be different (and may give you a reduction of your premium for having a security system fitted too )