DEREKC

Guys,
Let me share this experience with you about buying and installing those no-brand fancy alarm.

Bought a 2K GS300 a month ago and wanted to install all the toys I see fit for my new baby. First choice would be an alarm system with remote start. I did lots of research and the fanciest ones out there (as of 9/03) seems to be those no-brand-name alarm with remote start and 2-way pager LCD remote that monitor everything about your car even you are half mile away. So, I compared and shopped and compared, and finally bought two (one for my GS300 and another for my wife's car) from some seller on ebay for $240 each plus the motion sensor and some DEI window modules.

They came finally. I spent some time reading. The documentation is lousy. The english is not at all english. The print is like 4 point print and I spent whole Saturday reading that 20 pages to get an idea of choices of wiring and programming. I debated about installing it myself or hire an installer. Decision made and I figured it is not worth my time to take a chance.

So I called some local shops and the first one wants $700+ to install. Couple wants $600+ and many didn't even want to touch it. Also many asked me to bring over to let them see the alarm first. I took it to two BEST BUY stores and they wanted $450 to install and that is just estimate. I then took it to three local ships and two said no and this one said $350.

I gave the job to the ship asking for $350. It is to install the no-brand alarm, the motion sensor and the windows rolling module. That was Tuesday and the job was supposed to be a 7 hour job. Today is Thursday and it has been three days. Everytime I called and they were still working on it - this and that and almost done... This afternoon they called and finally gave me the bad news. The brain might have been burned and remote start is not working at all. They asked me to drop off the second alarm so that they can troubleshoot. I dropped it off and looked at what they did. The installer seemed exhausted and he did try to locate the manufacturer tech support but it is no even to be found (I knew that when I spent my day reading the documentation and got fluctuated and tried to look them up.) Now that he is going to try the second brain tomorrow and let me cross my fingers it is something minor and he could get it to work without even using the 2nd brain. Let me also cross my fingers that the car's electrical is not damaged and if necessary I will spend my time under the dash over there to see if I can nail down the problem.

I will see... but at least for now I have advise for you guys. When you shop for alarm, find some brand name ones or find some local shops who sell and install one for you.

Don't tell me my lexus electrical is screwed up. Amen.

Derek

ikankoi

sorry to hear that, but hopefully thats not the case...
FYI theres a shop in lakewood offering me viper 550 esp w remote start for 400 bucks installed for 98 GS300... in case you wanna get a branded alarm you could use it as a price guide.. good luck

RMMGS4

iTrader: (5)

Derek,
I installed my no-name 2 way alarm bought on E-bay as well.

It has been working fine for several months now and I had no significant problems with the install.

On the other hand, I can tell you that I will NEVER install another alarm like this again. It is A LOT of work, if you do it right. I soldered all the connections. A lot of my wiring was run inside the factory loom or a new loom was run, tie wrapped and heat shrinked if possible. All four door panels and many interior panels had to be taken off and so much more.

Has the shop installer done 2-ways in GS's before? Notice I'm asking about the installer's credentials not the shop's. I wouldn't do the install for anyone even if they paid me $600. What do you think the alarm installer's cut is of what you paid and how much time have they spent so far ? You might wanna re-think if you want them to continue working on your car.


Good Luck


I did the alarm at the same time as my A/V system, so it's hard to tell how much time I spent doing just the alarm part.

BananaGS

did my alarm at home, took about 1 day, very slow, many breaks, a cursing, and napping.

From what I can tell, if the shop know what they are doing, should take them lesser than 3hrs to complete the job.

Anh

fireballs gs400

having so called professionals do something is a joke anymore. I got into a fight once with a guy about a alarm for my mustang, he told me he had a gun, and i told him i wanted to die. Very crazy chain of events. but anyway, jokers who take more than a day or so on something that shouldn't take that long are nuts.

BuyERTS

If you give the right person the right piece of equipment, they should have no problem doing the work in a timely and professional manner.

Choose the schlocky equipment and give it to the low-balling installer and you're asking for trouble...

retrodrive

lol, good to see that I am not the only one who likes to tear their Lexus apart like that

TTurboPimp

iTrader: (12)

I used to manage an install shop a few years back, and I can tell you that an alarm with remote start shouldn take a shop more than half a day to install(and thats being generous on the time). Then again, we werent installing no name alarms with bad instructions either. The experience that your having is the exact reason why most shops wont touch an install with equipment that was not purchased from them. If it was one of their pieces, they can just swap one out of their inventory to trouble shoot with. At any rate, good luck. You migt be better off buying a unit from the hsop that has your car now, maybe they will cut you a break on the labor time they already put into the car.

DEREKC

The shop gave up and I took the car back. They didn't charge me.
I spent this afternoon undo the wiring and start everything from the scratch.
Now I am stuck. I can't simpy to locate the tach wire. Many sources indicate that it is a BLACK/YELLOW wire on pin 16 of the 28 pin connector inside the ECU under the hood. Where is the ECU? I counted all the connector pins and none is 28 pin. I see a few black/yellow wire but not sure.

I have a 2000 GS300. Here is the ECU I believe. Can anyone enlighten me please?



After that I can continue my install....

Thanks,
Derek

bige320

Hi Derek,

I'm not sure if I can be of any help, but I'll try. I have installed two remote starting systems before, one on my Mazda and another on a friend's Integra. They were both Clifford IntelliStart4 systems. The instructions from the Clifford (for the purpose of checking for the tach wire) say when you locate a wire which you believe is the tach sensor, take a multimeter (negative test lead goes to vehicle ground) and probe that wire (postive test lead) with the multimeter in AC voltage mode. Start your engine, you should have a reading (mine was around 100-300), rev your engine a little bit, the reading should increase as your revs go up and stay relatively the same as your revs stay.

BTW, don't use a test light to check wires, because if you probe the wrong wires, it'll grounds out may set off the airbags. Use a multimeter to be safe.

The tach wire should be the Black/Yellow as you metioned, under the hood on the driver side. I got that info from: http://www.bulldogsecurity.com/New%2...gs34-99-00.htm

Good Luck.

meddle

My local audio shop is selling the DEI ( i think ) with remote start and paging for $499 installed.

DEREKC

I gave up using the tach wire for remote start. That BLACK/YELLOW wire (I found several inside the ECU) gave me 0.5VAC when idle and up to 0.9VAC when RPM is over 4k. The alarm just can't learn the tach signal at all and remote start thus will not work. Now I the voltage monitoring type in the remote start programming and it starts fine.
(I believe the installer at the shop didn't even wire to the BLACK/YELLOW wire correctly. Let alone a successful tach signal learning by the alarm and he didn't try the voltage monitoring type in programming the alarm remote start.)

Remote start part is done. Now I have complication with the door lock and unlock. This car arms the factory alarm when locking and disarms the factory alarm when unlocking and there is a "disarm no unlock" wire. I believe I don't want to arm the factory alarm at all (since if factory alarm is armed, I can't remote start. Secondly, I don't want both factory alarm and this add-on alarm to get triggered and sound both the horn and the siren.)
How can I lock the doors (all four) without arming the factory alarm? Sending a signal to the master door lock switch? Would that arm the factory alarm?
How can I unlock the driver's door only when pressing the unlock button once on my add-on alarm, and unlock ALL four doors when I pressing the unlock botton twice quickly? The master door lock switch? This alarm gives an pulse output on another wire for this "quickly pressing the unlock botton twice".

Also seeing some complication on trying to program a programmable channel to roll down all four windows and the sunroof. The factory alarm can do that by pressing the holding the unlock button and it will disarm, unlock and roll down all windows and sunroof. But how can this add-on alarm roll down without triggering the shock sensor?

This is fun. I am enjoying it.

Derek

bige320

Derek,

Check your remote start system unit for (a) wire(s) usually labeled as "factory alarm bypass." That wire is suppose to disarm the factory security system so you can remote start the car. I don't know about unlock and "two turn unlock" feature where double pressing "unlock" would unlock all doors.

If your alarm has an accessory or optional output wires, you can interface that wire to the factory security system to roll down the windows and open the moonroof. My only guess is you have to locate which wire from the factory system sends the signal for the opening commands to the windows and moonroof. If you can get the windows and roof to open, it probably wouldn't set off the shock/impact sensor of the alarm because of (low) sensitivity settings.

MrXerox

To the rescue....
http://www.bulldogsecurity.com/New%2...gs34-99-00.htm