I need to improve the factory alarm on my car.

[micky]

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)

Thanks for any help.

 

[micky]

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 i

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.

nstead of trying to cluge
togethers something that may not work when you need it.

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. .

Secondly, if
you've bought another convertable, you're not going to stop them from
taking things from your car ..... now are you?

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.

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 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.

Good luck.

Thanks.

 

[micky]

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.

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,

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 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)

The car already has that. It's not enough as I say in my question 1).

<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..)

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.

 

[micky]

I forgot that I'd already written this. :-(

(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..)

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,

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.

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)

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.

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.

Good luck ! ...you probably need it

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.