I just bought a "new" car which has a factory alarm. Unfortunately, I don't think it's as good as the aftermarket alarm I installed on the last two cars.
The car alarm is very important to me because I've had my car taken twice, and things stolen from a car I owned at least 5 times.
So maybe you can help me make it better. It's a 2000 Toyota Solara.
In reverse logical order:
1) It has no siren, just a horn or two that beeps for a half second every second, for a minute total. I don't think that is loud enough or long enough. I have a regular sirern and a PsychoSiren from prior cars' alarms, but I don't think adding either of them will help much if there is an interrruption every second. How would I power them continuously even though the factory alarm output goes on and off??
2) Using a key in the doors or trunk disarm the current alarm. For some reason, I think there was a little more protection when I had to turn off the alarm separately from opening with a key. Anyone feel the same way? Any way to do this while still piggy-backing on the factory alarm?
3) In my last 2 Chrysler Lebarons, lifiting the door handle turned on the courtesy lights, which also meant they set off the aftermarket car alarm. Which means they set off the alarm BEFORE they broke a window or cut the convertible top. I don't know how to duplicate this except by gluing an extension to the door handle, inside the door, and running a nylon string to a micro switch with a long arm, which I would glue or if I'm lucky, screw somewhere inide the door. Do you think I can glue these things so they will last for a few years without falling off? Or maybe you have a better idea? Because I'm not happy with all this gluing.
I would probaly use PC-7 epoxy paste for glue. And maybe 60?/90? second epoxee first, to hold the extension piece in place while the PC-7 hardens (for which I usually allow 24 hours)
RHC: Sir, given your troubles with cars, I suggest you might want to re-think the whole situation. Assuming you live where car theft and vandalism are common, the simplest solution (if it's possible and practical) is to find a better place to park. Given that's not practical, I can only suggest other options, most of which are common sense and I'm assuming you've probably thought of them already
1- Dont leave things in the car visible which might tempt low life to break a window to get in
2- Put a Club on your steering wheel and use if faithfully (won't stop broken windows, but might stop the thief thinking of driving off with your car....I didn't one night and lost a van myself)
3- Wire up an alarm which blows the car horn intermittently when the doors open (simple to do with $15 relays) and an on / off switch hidden in the trunk...saved me once but still lost a window
4- Try to find some decals which indicate the presence of an alarm (won't stop smash and grab, but might save an expensive window or two if it makes them hesitate..)
There are no easy solutions but every little thing may help. You cant stop a pro but luckily most theft is by joyriders or petty thieves stealing goods.
I second Roberts suggestions and can add two more. If you were happy with the aftermarket alarm in your last car, have another one installed in your new car instead of trying to cluge togethers something that may not work when you need it. Secondly, if you've bought another convertable, you're not going to stop them from taking things from your car ..... now are you? Just install a new alarm and use the "club" as Robert suggested or two of them. Once they see two "Clubs" they wont even bother to take the time to get past them.
By the way, this group is primarily about the installation of residential and commercial alarm systems. I don't think anyone here does car alarms.
I don't think any kind of alarm will stop a determined and experienced thief.
You should disconnect the coil and/or battery every time you park the car. You can do this by simply pulling the coil wire and taking it with you, or by installing a toggle switch either somewhere hidden inside the car or under the hood. That, and a big ole visible club on the steering wheel will provide a lot more theft deterrence than an alarm, though it might not stop a potential thief from breaking into your car.
Also, as someone else has posted, stop leaving stuff in your car, for gawd's sake!
I installed my own alarm in 3 of my cars, and if this car didn't have one, I'd be installing one myself. It will be much more work to install an alarm from scratch than to make a couple modifications to the one that is there.
As far as the door handles go, the previous two cars were set up to turn the courtesy lights on when a handle was lifted. Hooking switches to the door handles will be the same amount of work whether I'm putting in a new alarm or modifiying the one that's there.
I don't know if I could even find someone to modify my door handles inside the doors, and if I could, I'm sure it would be expensive. But as I posed question 3 above, I realized my question more or less defined the solution.
You don't know me, so it may not be surprising that you say this.
I know myself and it may take me a lot of time up front to plan things, but once I have a plan, I assure you it will work when I'm done.
If somehow anything does fail, I'll still have the alarm I have now. .
Maybe I am. If they try the door before cutting the top and the alarm goes off, they may well leave. The last time my car was broken into, in 1982, that's more or less what happened. The car was in a fenced- in lot, but one side was a garage with a window. He got in the lot through the garagre and the window, and the first time, he set off the siren, and my beeper, and left without doing any damage. A week later he came in through the roof, without setting off the alarm** and then cut through the lower boot into the trunk, and took my tools and iirc a few other things. .
But that lot had 6 foot bushes hiding him from anyone on t he street, and no one was on the street anyhow in the middle of the night. I don't live there anymore, and any place where someone would do that isn't a place I spend two nights in a row anymore.
**Now I've got a sonar attachment for the alarm too, which he would have set off if I'd had it then. I used it for a few years, but didn't use it in the last car because the risk is much less where I live now, and it was hard to adjust. If I made it so sensitive that just putting an arm into the car set it off, so could a wind. And like I said in another post, no one's bothered my car in 28 years.. I want to keep it that way.
I had in mind using parts normally used in residential and commercial alrams.
I didn't know this when I first posted but I'm probably going to use something like an ELK-960 or Altronix 6062. They work on both 24 and
12 volts, and are primarily used in residential and commercial alarms.
I know how to make it power the siren for say, 1 or 2 minutes after the facrory alarm horn stops, but what if I myself set off the alarm. The horn will stop when I push the remote or use the key to unlock the door or the ignitiion, but what stops my siren?
I guess iiuc I need to interrupt the 12 volts to the ELK-960, and nothing else will work. Right?
If so, I thought I'd put in a momentary interrupt button, some place where I could reach it quickly, even before I get in the car. (Because it would take longer to get in the car.)
My first thought was just inside the grill, where it woudln't be visible, but I didn't find a good place. Then I thought about inside the front left wheel well. I had a key switch for the alarm in my '73 Buick there, from 1980 to 87, and surprisingly, it never got too dirty to easily insert the key, which I used almost every time I parked. I had it in the forward part of the well, and I guess even in slush, the tire throws off most of the dirt before it gets to the
10 o'clock position.
...This spot isn't too good either. There's an inner fender and an inner fender liner. Plus it's jam-packed inside the engine compartment. Maybe I can move the fuse box that's there.
I'm going to use the alarm horn that is already t here as a trigger for a timer (Altronix 6062) to power the siren I'm adding. I may add a second timer to keep the siren from starting until say 20 seconds after the current alarm horn starts to blow.
But taht's not so. I've had no trouble in the 28 years I've been here, even though I often leave the car with the top down, both in front of my house and others and in shopping centerrs. .
The car already has that. It's not enough as I say in my question 1).
I have decals already. They are red and shaped like a stop sign, and go on each rear side window.
I appreciate your post, but what I needed were answers to my 3 questions.
I've decided not to worry about #2 anymore, and my other replies show what I'm going to do about 1 and 3.
(I've given up on question 2, and for question 3, in writing the question, I pretty much came up with the only feasible answer. so that's what I'll do. Unless someone has a better idea..)
I don't. For the last 28 years I've lived in a racially integrated milddle- to lower-middle-income working-class neighborhood and have parked outside every night. Sometimes I leave the convertible top down all night, for many many hours (total) in many shopping centers and on the street in front of my house, and many other places without anything ever being taken. without the glove box being rummaged or afaik the car being entered, even when it was unlocked or the top was down. .
But sometimes I go to places that seem to be not as nice. Those are the times I'm worried about.
Well, my car needs a key with a chip to start it. I've read that that's not foolproof, but I don't think anyone that skilled will be interesting in a 2000 model.
After more thought about how to piggyback a siren on their intermittent horn.I think I will use something like an ELK-960 timer, trigggered by the intermittent alarm horn, to start 10 or 20 seconds after the horn, and stop 2 or 3 minutes later. Or should I make it 5 minutes?
I still need a way to turn the siren off immedicately if I trip the alarm accidentally. The factory alarm fob won't do that, and all the factory circuitry is encased in the ECU, no alarm output but the pulsing 12v+. I don't know a way to take that and turn off the ELK-960. .... Oh, I need a momentary off switch to interrupt the 12+ to the timers.
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