If someone could PLEASE help me I would be sooo grateful!!! I have a 2004 Mazda 3S, purchsed new, and had an Alarm Mate installed in it (not factory installed). Now my alarm (don’t know what sets it off) turns on while I’m driving (embarrassing), other times it ticks, ticks, ticks when I turn the car off. It has ticked for as long as 2 weeks. I run the car a bit after I get home to keep the battery from dying. I don’t have the diagram of installation. Is there any way I can get to the main brain of this thing and disarm it instead of having to go to a mechanic who’ll charge me an arm and a leg to dismantle my dash and try to find it that way. I am now unemployed and am willing to get dirty and do it myself!
Please help!
Usually,this after market alarms are installed under the dash on the driver side and can me found pretty easily. Note a I used the word “usually” very liberally.
What you will be looking for is a small black box that is “usually” tied to the wiring with a plastic tie wrap. The people who install these don’t have the time to do a job like the manufactures do so it will be very visible.
This is why I don’t recommend aftermarket alarm systems. There should be a fuse somewhere in the alarm wiring. Pull the fuse to disable the alarm.
You shouldn’t have to remove the dash at all. I doubt that was done by the installers. You should be able to see the electronic bits by crawling around and looking under the dash. They may even be under the hood, which would make them easier to get at.
Now you have to hope that disabling the alarm won’t disable the starter.
Yes you can remove the brain and return the car to pre-alarm status. With the alarms I installed if the power to the brain was removed the starter would still crank if the brain itself was removed the starter would not crank.
Perhaps the starter inhibit feature is not part of the brain and is made up by a group of relays (this is rather old technique). Typically the starter inhibit is made by opening the crank circut(cutting the wire) and running one end into the brain and the output from the brain connects to the other end of the wire you just cut.
Some installers do get much to involved with module location and hiding the wires (I dislike dealing with wires spun up by a drill motor) The question is, do you want to make module access easy for all (including theives) or hide it deeply?
Running your car for a few extra minutes will not mitigate a parasitic draw condition,your draw must still be low enough for it not to matter.