Mongoose M60 Problem

[89CAL]

Think I may be up for a new alarm but thought maybe its just something silly

Have a M60 alarm, have always had one in the car but had to replace the module a few years ago. Has worked fine ever since. All of a sudden the remote wouldnt unlock the car forst time, and now sometimes it wont unlock the car at all and i have to sit in the car putting the PIN in. After that the car runs fine, everything works as normal and usually the remote comes back to life next time i use it. So far i have replaced the battery which maybe helped a little bit, then replaced the remote with the other one that came in the kit which i thought had fixed it but it has still been playing up

At this point im fairly certain ill be up for replacing the module again. But maybe its just something simple. If anyone has any ideas i would love to hear them, hopefully its just something silly

[Chris Rogers]

could well be a power issue. when did you last change the car battery?

[89CAL]

Was about 3 years ago off the top of my head. Had been thinking the car seems to struggle to start lately when its been left a few days so i had thought of that. But thought surely when theres no drain on the battery it should be fine. Its done it after driving 15 mins and parking for about 5-10. So dont really know. Cant rule it out anyway. Might grab the multi meter out next time

[Chris Rogers]

those unit run PICs and a 7805. not the highest tech item. a spike and low voltage can wipe the memory. I would do a battery first. 3 yrs is probably getting to the end of life anyway.

[89CAL]

Sounds resonable I was recently thinking its probably time to get a good quality battery in the thing and it might be the problem if thats how the tech works. It was fine all weekend so i dont think its something as simple as fried internals etc

Thanks Chris, always have some good answers (y)

[Kinks]

those unit run PICs and a 7805. not the highest tech item. a spike and low voltage can wipe the memory. I would do a battery first. 3 yrs is probably getting to the end of life anyway.

Ugh.

I miss my autowatch.

[Chris Rogers]

part of hte reason I quit selling mongoose. they did this. second was ebay sales.

[89CAL]

Bit of a late update. I ended up changing the battery with a good quality AC Delco. The issue is still there sometimes but I am thinking it may be power related. I go out to work for 7 days and when I come back the battery is usually just flat enough that I will get possibly one chance to start the car, So not completely dead, but low enough to cause issues. Now I can get it going and drive the car charge the battery etc and I will get the above issue for a few days, then it will start to come good, and only play up sometimes. I think I have worked out the issue with the battery drain (the boot light switch was not working anymore, and even though I have swapped the boot light for LED it is probably enough to drain it after 7 days of being constantly on).

I have recently thought about just ditching it for a Viper alarm/immobilizer but am feeling pretty determined to fix the issue with the Mongoose So still looking for rough idea of what to look for? Bad earth (or poor earth placement)? Poor quality power feed? something else completely?

I'm going to have a good hard look myself but figured it couldn't hurt to ask the question while I'm playing with it. Will report back either way if I find something but probably wont know for sure until I've had success for a week or two

[Sinista32]

2% of M60's were lemons due to the receiver board (RF). I expect it's a lot more than 2% and you maybe one of the unlucky ones.

Mongoose distributors/installers have a service bulletin on this issue.

Personally, I'd ditch it !

Ps. They also drain the battery unless your driving almost daily. When I would leave mine for a week or more my battery was drained.

Edited January 14, 2017 by Sinista32
Update post

[89CAL]

So I had a bit of a look at the wiring for the alarm. Found the earth looking a bit dodgy (it was connected, I cut it and re terminated it properly):

I think it was just installed poorly. Those 2 wires are supposed to go to seperate earth points. I might have a look at the power source tomorrow

2 hours ago, Sinista32 said:

2% of M60's were lemons due to the receiver board (RF). I expect it's a lot more than 2% and you maybe one of the unlucky ones.

Mongoose distributors/installers have a service bulletin on this issue.

Personally, I'd ditch it !

Ps. They also drain the battery unless your driving almost daily. When I would leave mine for a week or more my battery was drained.

I think you may be right I'm afraid. My old unit was fine, I accidentally fried it one night messing around hooking the siren up (long story) so I just bought another unit the same and swapped the boards over. The new one was fine for a while and then this problem surfaced

Just didn't want to spend the money getting someone to install the Viper alarm, and I'm not sure if I could wire it myself. I am pretty good with wiring etc, but from the little info on the wiring for the Viper, it seems beyond me

[Sinista32]

Hope that's the issue. Bad connection/bad earth.

I haven't had an issue with not disarming/unlocking from about 5 meters. However I trickle charge the battery when not in use as that's my main issue. (flat battery)

[89CAL]

This is probably going to be my next step if I cant find a solution. Set up a trickle charger while I'm away. Will see if I get time to look at the power feed to the unit today.

Gave myself a bit of a scare yesterday when having a look at the earths. I fixed the above and then went to try it and once I turned the ignition on it would not turn off. Unplugged the unit and all. Was worried I had done some serious damage somewhere (worst fear was ECU) but decided to pull fuses. Ignition went out when I pulled one of the 'engine control' fuses, which is a bit weird, but with it left out everything works normally. When I was looking for what was draining the battery I had been pulling fuses with a multi meter set up to measure current and had ended up with most of the fuses out. Put everything back in and had a few missing so just put new ones in. Obviously put one in where it wasn't supposed to go. Would have thought engine control fuse was necessary but cant seem to trace where it goes from the fuse on the wiring diagram so will go with it for now

I don't suppose you would know how much of a pain it would be swapping the Viper alarm in if I decided to go down that route? Really want to do it myself but not sure if I could

This is the one I am looking at (3105VR):

[89CAL]

So I have decided after finding out the Viper Alarms are not Aus standard (with all black wires) that the easiest thing to do is just replace the unit. I really don't want to outlay the money to install a new style of alarm. Probably silly of me, but the Mongoose does what is needed (apart from the dodgy remote reception/fault with the current unit)

The main reason I am posting this is to ask if there are any difference in the plug for the old model and the new model M60? I have fried my alarm before and just replaced the circuit board without issue. I see there is one wire different between the new one and the old one (going off the Mongoose manauls on the website) but swapping one wire around is easy. Long shot but basically want to know if the plug on the board is the same?

[89CAL]

Update:

Have put in a new M60 unit in the car and seems perfect so far (as you would expect)
Unsure if I am going to do anything about the old unit. The new unit was straight plug in so I have all the new wiring etc so could effectively get it repaired and sell it

Anyway. Not much of a solution to my problem but obviously was an internal problem with the board