An alarm install can be complicated, but usally the most complicated part is learning the car you are installing it into. Our A2's are a piece of cake compared to some nightmares (such as old school cadillacs or old corvettes with digital dashes and tons of wires). I would say a first time install on an A2 with a bentley for wire descriptions should take about 4 hours. We were able to do Civics in Circuit City in 45-50min, only because every other car that wanted an alarm was a civic. The alarm in my GTI is a Viper 300 (nearly bottom of the line), wired with starter kill, interior door light trigger, hatch light trigger, shock sensor, and power door locks. Its easier to tap into existing pin switches rather than add your own, I think I tapped into the lead from the drivers side door switch (as the alarm was mounted 6 inches away). This covered both doors, and when a door was opened (regardless of the position of switch on the domelight) the alarm would go off. I also tapped the rear hatch pinswitch for the trunk light on the same circuit. What else. I don't have vacuum locks, I added the electric actuators when I installed the alarm so it was an easy hookup. I am not sure how the vacuum locks are hooked up to an alarm, but a relay should solve any problems. For the starter kill, I just spliced inline with the ground on the starter in the engine compartment. My alarm also disables the ignition automatically if it went off or the power was cut off and then put back on. Oh and be sure to attach the shock sensor to a harness under the dash with a wire tie, and not something fixed. You want as much movement as possible (and no, wind/rain/hail should not set off your alarm). =) Alarms look intimidating to install because of the amount of wires and splicing involved. If you go one wire at a time, you won't have a problem. Off the top of my head, the wires on most alarms are as follows: ground, constant 12v, switched 12v, ignition, parking lights, siren, starter kill input and output, and the positive and negative triggers. Triggers are used to hookup to pin switches, shock sensors, etc. An other feature people add are microwave sensors. They trigger the alarm when it senses movement like a hand reaching through the sunroof. Pretty cool, but I really don't need it on my car. I have theft insurance, so I bought my alarm as a deterent, nothing can prevent a theft. Well, nothing short of taking your ECU out and taking off your steering wheel. A friend of mine used to take his coil to distributor cap wire with him in bad neighborhoods.
HTH, Denis G. --- Steve Ingels <[email protected]> wrote: > How hard is an alarm install and what options do you > suggest? > > Steve > www.quickvws.com > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Denis Goldman" <[email protected]> > To: "A2-16V" <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2001 10:07 AM > Subject: Re: Any OnLine Auto Alarm Info > > > > I'm pretty sure that DEI owns both the Viper > brand > > and the Python brands (they are others as well). > They > > were always the most straightforward alarms to > install > > (I used to work in a Circuit City install bay). > > > > Denis G. > > > > > > --- Matthew Yip <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I'm partial to DEI's Python - I have one in both > the > > > BMW and the > > > pickup and have had excellent sucess with them. > > > Their website is > > > http://www.directed.com/ > > > > > > --- Mark Reda <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > I'm planning on getting an alarm for my car. > > > > Does anyone know any sites that rate Alarms or > > > have a good listing > > > > of > > > > many alarms? > > > > > > > > > ===== > > > Matthew Yip > > > http://www.geocities.com/mgyip/ > > > > > > '81 Rabbit diesel - '87 GTi 16v "General Li" - > '88 > > > M5 - '99 F350 psd > > > > > > > __________________________________________________ > > > Do You Yahoo!? > > > Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! > Mail > > > http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ > > > _____________ > > > List Sponsor: http://www.netsville.com > > > To remove yourself from this list, send mail to > > > [email protected] with 'unsubscribe > a2_16v' in > > > the body of your message > > > See us on the web at http://www.a2-16v.com > > > Visit the 16V Homepage at http://www.gti16v.org > > > > > > ===== > > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ > > Denis P. Goldman > > [email protected] * [email protected] > > http://go.to/denis-goldman > > > > __________________________________________________ > > Do You Yahoo!? > > Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail > > http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ > > _____________ > > List Sponsor: http://www.netsville.com > > To remove yourself from this list, send mail to > [email protected] > with 'unsubscribe a2_16v' in the body of your > message > > See us on the web at http://www.a2-16v.com > > Visit the 16V Homepage at http://www.gti16v.org > > > _____________ > List Sponsor: http://www.netsville.com > To remove yourself from this list, send mail to > [email protected] with 'unsubscribe a2_16v' in > the body of your message > See us on the web at http://www.a2-16v.com > Visit the 16V Homepage at http://www.gti16v.org ===== _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Denis P. Goldman [email protected] * [email protected] http://go.to/denis-goldman __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ _____________ List Sponsor: http://www.netsville.com To remove yourself from this list, send mail to [email protected] with 'unsubscribe a2_16v' in the body of your message See us on the web at http://www.a2-16v.com Visit the 16V Homepage at http://www.gti16v.org
