Randomness

I have no clue what the crap is going on, but it's really pissing me off. The hard starting, not starting I can almost deal with, since it's probably just a battery or starter or something. But now, the alarm (factory? don't know, I haven't installed an alarm, I haven't always owned this car) that was not working for a long time, is somehow back. Usually, I unlock my car by putting the key in the door, and I just lock it from the inside when I get out.

Today, when it wouldn't start, it finally started, and in doing so: ejected the CD, reset all the settings on the CD player/HU; and then when I parked in the garage and got out, the front corner lights started blinking (never happened before). For some reason, I tried locking the doors with the key, the all locked simultaneously, and the corners blinked. I unlocked them all with the key, and then the fricking alarm went off. Why did using the key not disable the alarm? WTH is wrong with this thing? I don't even know if I can drive the car, because I don't have the alarm keyless entry thing, because the alarm stopped working a long time ago . Now it's back. I DON"T WANT AN ALARM, ESPECIALLY NOT THIS ONE. My car isn't nice enough for an alarm, and if someone wants to steal it, an alarm won't stop them.

How can I uninstall the alarm, or permanently disable it, or something? And what happened to my car to make all these things happen? I'm totally lost here guys, I could really use some help.

Yota4runner

Open up your dash and look, see if you can find the control box for it and pull the wires.

As far as your other problem sounds like a batter gone bad, perhaps and alternator or a starter. I would lean towards something electrical considering its resetting your HU and such.

Randomness

Which wires sould I pull? I'll look for a box, but I don't really know what I'm looking for, visually?

Yota4runner

Mine is a rather large box, in the dash. Depending on the brand and what not it should be pretty visible. There should just be connectors I would imagine like a wiring harness. Just unclip them from the box, and tape the off. Effectiely shutting down the alarm. When I get a minute I'll take a picture of my control box for you to see.

dibble9012

be careful if you just unplug wires to an alarm, if it has an engine immobilizer, once you disconnect the plugs, the engine simply wont even try to turn over. That is how it was for my stock alarm, I forgot to plug all the wires back in after I installed my remote start, and the truck wouldnt even try to start up

ASU4runner

check all of your grounds.. I had similar problems recently and it was just a ground wire that had come loose. Common grounds are found on the firewall and on the front quarter panel mounting bolts under the hood. Hope you find the problem.

Randomness

Is there any way to know if it has an engine immobilizer? Thanks for the help guys, keep it coming. I'm going to try and check things out, I wish I had some earplugs...

Randomness

Okay, here's some pics of the alarm. It's not factory...







So I unplugged the black box thing in the last pic, and the alarm no longer goes off. Good. Only problem is now the car won't start. Bad. Is the siren looking thing in the second picture, is that the thing that makes the noise? Can I just disconnect it? I looked on the manufacturers website, for a wiring diagram, but the page for this model is down And the morons don't have contact info for the company.

Can anyone tell me how to get my rig running again? I gotta go to work in the morning! Help!

dibble9012

well for the engine immobilizer, there should be some really heavy gauge wire going to the ignition from the alarm. It could either be soldered, or hopefully, its just a t harness or something like that. If there is an extra harness at the ignition, unplug it, unplug the OEM harness from the other harness, then connect the OEM one to the ignition. Hope this helps you out. Can you get some pics of the ignition area? Ok, i just thought of something else, it looks like theres some heavier than normal gauge wire coming off of the horn, maybe, ive never heard of this before, but just maybe if the alarm is tripped, it cuts off the positive circuit to the car? I know it sounds far fetched, but i just dont see the need for that heavy gauge wire going to the horn. That could also explain why everything in your car is reset after the alarm goes off. Could you get some closer pics of the horn area/battery area?

Randomness

Could those circled connectors be some kind of kill switch or something? The color on their wires matches the wires coming out of the alarm black box. I don't know if this helps, but with the alarm unplugged, when I try and start it, it just clicks a lot really fast. Does this tell anyone what exactly it's disabling?

ChaseHeadrick

those wires are for the door locks. the blue connector by the round relay in your fuse box is for the parking lights, and if i remember correctly the other blue connector on the black/yellow wire is for the dome light (anyone else?)

try this: since you don't want the alarm anyway, cut all the wires going to the harness for the alarm, except the red and black ones. plug the alarm back in. then try to start your car. probably didnt work. then just try reconnecting wires individually (reconnect one wire, try to start it, if it doesn't work dissconnect the wire and try a different one). if you get to a wire and the car starts, trace that wire back to where ever it goes (probably up by your key?) and then shoot some pics and repost. hope that helps.

kujayhawk

Randomness,
Looking at the pics, the alarm seems to be an Avital, which is made by Clifford electronics (they are almost the same things but the cliffords usually had more options). I used to have a Clifford alarm and they have a toggle switch which you can put the alarm into "Valet" mode. When it is in this mode the alarm doesn't go off and the starter kill or immobilizer is not functional. To enter this mode, put your key and turn it to the "on" position and then flip the switch to the up or down for 2-3 seconds (can't remember which way it is but try one way and then the other if it doesn't work). It should beep and then that means your in valet mode. If you have an LED that is hooked up to the alarm it will be glow constantly to let you know you are in valet mode. If you can get into this mode your problems should be solved with the alarm.

I agree with Yota4runner about the bad battery or charging system causing your HU problems. My Clifford alarm would go crazy when my battery was going bad. Somehow, the sirens would sound when I was trying to start my car and then the inside lights would flash weakly. When I replaced my battery everything went back to normal. Good luck