Car Security Systems, Diy Installation - Feedback

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Get off your high horses guys, I tried to input but sorry I'm not a professional like you guys. (it's not like I'm trying to steal your customers or anything so relax).

Like all professional, never have I seen anyone mount an alarm module, they're always wedge up somewhere looking like arse. Not to mention they rattle and squeak when they hit bumps or when you give the stereo a hit.

I don't do this shit for a living, so I don't care what you guys think. I do it to help my friends and myself.

• They are happy, I am happy.
  
• My jobs are neat, they like it, I like it, everyone is happy.
  
• They prefer to pay me than a professional alarm installer so it's their choice.
  

I don't put a gun to their heads, it's their choice.

I don't mind constructive criticism, but all I get from you two are condescending remarks. Good job, great community/forum spirit.

[xntrq]

Pros: do it for a living.

Experienced: may just be as good as you are, but just maybe doesn't want to do it for a living.

I used to be in I.T, no qualifications. In the end it comes down to experience and the attitude towards the job being done.

[Carbon 34]

We dont condone dangerous installs or broadcasting to the world the locations etc of alarms , we will point out without predujuce obvious concerns of safety but we have no way of testing the skill set of everyone on a forum before giving advice , so a blanket statement is sometimes best ??

we do like to help open minded people and pretty sure nobody would go off on you or anyone else

Unless it was seriously dangerous or slander / slay someone for a noobie question !

And DIY is fine if you can do it safely go for it thats how a lot of us started off !!

If you and your friends are happy with your work maybe you should seek 12v employment if you enjoy it ??

So put your guns away mate were all friendly around here

[Chris Rogers]

farkin lol! 22 yrs into this and i still see people sayingnthey can do a better job than me. if you can - go for it.

those in brisyy that know me know full and welll the only way a carvis goung to move is on a flatbed.

my facebook page shows a few sjit jobs i have cleaned up from other shops. one of the cars WAS stolen with the alarm left intact and functioning!

heatshrink. i like people that use this stuff. makes my job a LOT easier to see where things have been fk'd with.

leon,

doing fine, building a new shop and workingnsillynhours to do it.

troy, yep list would be good. i know most of my national customers would like this.

[The Max]

My diode protected L.E.D Test light has never caused an issue of any kind Carbon. Sorry, I now realise that I have to be very specific in everything I say. I don't use 5 dollar test lights bud. lol

The diode protection in your LED is to protect the LED itself, not the vehicle's electronics. Otherwise, the LED is not the same as a conventional light bulb type of test light so it won't draw more current across a circuit causing any kind of damage to the vehicle's electronics anyway but you don't need me to tell you that.

That said though, don't you prefer to use a proper multimeter instead of a test light? I realise it may seem excessive if you're only looking for a 12V feed but what if you're looking for a variety of voltages which can only be identified using a multimeter in the very least?

Maybe it's just the electronics engineer in me saying that but I'm always happy to see it from someone else's perspective if they're prepared to give it.

Edited September 1, 2012 by The Max

[The Max]

Pros: do it for a living.

Experienced: may just be as good as you are, but just maybe doesn't want to do it for a living.

I used to be in I.T, no qualifications. In the end it comes down to experience and the attitude towards the job being done.

I agree on all counts. I put a lot of love in what I do with my own vehicles as well as others' (and my glue-heatshrinked connections live inside the OEM conduits, heheh). I have my techniques for shrinking the heatshrink without scorching any adjoining wires or components in tight spaces. At the end of the day, for as many wrong ways to install, there are as many right ways too. I've done my share of audio, security and engine management systems but there is no way I'd do it for a living. I'm sure the pros here can tell a number of stories about some "pros" in the business who ruin it for the real pros such as themselves.

Besides which, working on broadcast systems pays a lot better for me and brings with it a lot of travel. It helps me afford to buy my V36 but it also keeps me away from it for a while.

Man I miss that thing.

[Chris Rogers]

The diode protection in your LED is to protect the LED itself, not the vehicle's electronics. Otherwise, the LED is not the same as a conventional light bulb type of test light so it won't draw more current across a circuit causing any kind of damage to the vehicle's electronics anyway but you don't need me to tell you that.

That said though, don't you prefer to use a proper multimeter instead of a test light? I realise it may seem excessive if you're only looking for a 12V feed but what if you're looking for a variety of voltages which can only be identified using a multimeter in the very least?

Maybe it's just the electronics engineer in me saying that but I'm always happy to see it from someone else's perspective if they're prepared to give it.

never grew up with test lights. bought a fluke 70 in 1989 then a fluke 78 in 2000. I hav seen first hand what a solid test light will do to vehicle electronics. grounding a 'yellow ' harness with one produces som interesting results. same thing with engine related electronics. have seen speedo senders knocked out with these things. i have a shop facebook page with a few interesting pictures of alarm installs as well ( see sig.)

[danielr34]

Having done well over 4000 vehicles in my career in this industry I have never blown an airbag or damaged any vehicles components as a result of my test equipment. Over the last few years I rarely use any test equipment for majority of vehicles because all correct connection points are embedded in my memory. Just ask half of Sydney auto electricians and car audio stores, who constantly call me asking for help over the phone when they are stuck on an install. This is all I do 6 days a week.

[Carbon 34]

I can honestly say when I started doing installs for a shop the owner was so cheap we reused off cuts and soldered them together .dodgy as hell !! The guy had a dozen shops in one town doing that !!! And the worse return policy ever

we never had repeat biz !! Or good rep even

It was horrible

Then moving to a high volume shop and working 14 hr days at least . It was insane but enjoyed it

No cheap skates lol but you learned how to fast and accurate The best you could , days flew by!!

Money rolled in too lol

Making the jump to super high end , no expense spared installs. working on the most exclusive cars ever produced , you learn do it so perfect it was art even in a harness , the owner had OCD and would shred your install if it didnt exceed perfection in everyway . But we had cars for weeks . Months and even a year , sounds slow but the car would be stripped inside , we never did " just an alarm" it was always the full tilt system 10k sales would be a min , a few exceed 100k yes you read that right !! most of the cost was labour , it was prob the most amazing place to work never boring and never lame cars , i bet only a dozen times it was a simple install that took

Just a day or two , but the learning experience to be padantic and always do it right , every zip tie was lined up , flush cut , wires taped and soldered , flux cleaned , heat shrink on audio wires colour matched , wires spun into a mesh to cancel noise and looked perfect, spray glue and gaffer taped to floor pans so they could never be a hazard or wear into the floor carpets , custom molds of dash parts , colour matched plastics and materials, fiberglass work galore , tearing apart devices and remote wiring into clusters of radar detection etc, crazy alarms that could do anything and that was before all the smart crap , even use factory tape !! The cloth kind or whatever the car used to hide any wires from even mechanics at dealerships

Who will always blame every car problem on the alarm or stereo install strangely enough !!

sadly the owner closed shop his son was killed in columbine school shooting , weird cause I remember his young son helping around the shop

( Rip young daniel )

And more experiences with my own company

But its not volume its about doing it right everytime and zero failures due to your handy work , when a client can bring in his car that had install 8 years before and know exactly how its laid out behind the panel and wants it removed for his next car , even though you didnt install it the shops high standards it looks like your work , no suprises or rats nests , funny but at that shop equipment failure rates dropped to about zero

Because nothing was slammed in !! for a quick buck , of course alarms required readjusting sensors as they settled but we used that time

To upsell the customer or cross sell into home theatre custom installs because the workmanship was flawless always !! , and that shop never had customers cars stolen and many would have been on the "gone in 60sec "list

Cant say the same about the other shops cars still got stolen and stripped or audio , wheels ( they didnt torch cars back then !)

I would say it was because you had no more then 2 hours for alarm no matter what car, truck, big rig, tractor it was installed in , some cars took 45 min others took forever , tractors suck , steel thick as hell and not designed for custom audio setups or alarms and different voltages

aircraft , boats you name it

but like chris , i had a test light but it never left my toolbox except to charge a capacitor up

Fluke multimeter all the way ( rant ,speaking of that hope the bastard who stole my fluke 78 off the workbench rots even after 20+ years lol )

except special transistor testors and O scopes , RTA always a fluke with special test leads set

Nowdays a good meter doesnt cost a grand so no excuse these days to skimp , a good meter will be used for life

And like chris I have never fried anything !!

So for the DIY installers , if your going to do it , do it right and be padantic about it , be proud of your work , cause swinging around like a monkey under a dash for hours on end , on your knees , or feet wrapped around a headrest while your head is jammed under a dash in a sports car isnt for the faint hearted

I would be happy to share my skills with the younger generation if they found interest ???

No takers ?

I would hate to see the skills and DIY "give anything a go " attitude be lost on us older people who wont live forever

to "just pay someone " generation I see these days ?

you can never have to much knowledge its one thing you can take with you anywhere , so absorb as much as you can

My sunday preaching lol long winded old fart haha

Edited September 2, 2012 by Carbon 34

[r32_rookie]

I am about to give it a go, never done it before but I have a great deal of patience... Thanks for the speech Troy. If I have any problems I may ask

[Tw1ch]

Im about to soon i studied electrotechnology and also a qualified cabler. So i have a understanding on how to prep and do things right its just finding what's what thats gonna be annoying... ill jump on here if i get shatted on

[xntrq]

I recently wrote off this car and sort of stripped everything apart. It's actually not too hard and I could DIY it.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

I recently wrote off this car and sort of stripped everything apart. It's actually not too hard and I could DIY it.

of course man, auto sparkies just put us down so we can take it to them so they can make money... It's not rocket science.

[Booki]

Not to hijack this thread, but...

Do you think this wiring in my engine bay is aftermarket?

It looks like its ment to be part of the cars alarm system, but funnily enough the lights never worked, flashed or anything with the alarm system.

Just wanting to confirm IF the wiring pictured here in my engine bay, is indeed NOT factory.

Looks like a additional power cable has been run to the positive terminal to power something. Along with just a mess of cable loom wiring in the engine bay.

And the right hand side of my engine bay

[Chris Rogers]

looks like a light harnees to me.

[Booki]

Not factory?

Referring to the big bunches of black cable loom everywhere.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Booki

[Booki]

looks like a light harnees to me.

After having a better look at it, you are correct.

Looks to be the wiring for the Series 3 Xenon headlights in my Series 1 GTR.

Any thoughts on how to neaten up this spaghetti of wires?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

cut it up, insert some heatshrinks, solder, heat up the shrinks done

[The Max]

Definitely cut and shorten.

Ideally, get your hands on the same connectors on that harness brand new and go for a cut and reterminate. That way, you'll have no joints along the line which are a weak point regardless.

Otherwise, if you must to a cut and join of the wires instead, be sure to use crimp terminals in an engine bay as heat can soften solder and result in broken connections later if the wiring is already stressed to some degree.

If you don't want to use crimps, then at least use glue heatshrink for each wire and be sure to be generous with the cable ties in spots which will take the strain off the wires.

[jiffo]

But before you do any of that, shove some bungs in those open intercooler pipes or your engine's going to be eating bits of wire offcuts.