After driving the firefly for a week or so, the amusement wore off, and I got back in the Miata. And, besides, the sun came out in force this week. So off came the hard top for more than just an pleasing hour or two. It's been off all week. I've been coming and going to work with the top down.
First thinks first, though...I washed the soft top and gave it some "sunscreen". I bought some UV protectant when I first put the soft top on two years ago, and reapplied it Tuesday morning before work. Since it is also meant for dashes and other vinyl/plastics, I just kept going with it. I now have a nice shiny black interior.
That wasn't all that noteworthy, so I didn't write about it until now.
Today, though...I replaced my non-operational alarm with a new one. (that's a bit more note worthy). It finally came in the mail, after being stuck there for the past couple of months, or however long it's been since I put her back on the road. It was annoying me that I had the hard top off and no working alarm, so I was relieved when the dang thing showed up Thursday.
I rather enjoyed putting it in. I like playing with wires and electricity.
Here's the old one and it's mess of wires when I dropped it down:
It was pretty ugly bit of wiring, and I was hoping to clean it up some while I was in there. I cut off all the crimped connections as I prefer soldering. In a number of places there were newer wires crimped to older install wires; I'm guessing this wasn't the first alarm that was on it.
After cutting out the old alarm:
The relays I left in place, since they were still operational and useful. Didn't need to re-invent the wheel here!
Spent a few minuets with my multimeter determining which wires did what, and what the relays do. This was an awful lot like diagnosing electrical issues. I had no wiring diagram for either the car or the old alarm, but it was easy peasy to figure out what each wire did. Hot at all times (the fused yellow wire), hot when ignition is on, hot when lights are turned on, a ground wire running up to a bolt under the dash, wires running to the siren, the blinking led, and a couple of more
interesting relays with multiple wires running this way and that, but only two to the alarm module.
Wiring diagrams? Who needs those?!
New module installed, with shorter wires, rather than having them folded back over themselves several times like the original:
Still pretty messy.
Tucked up and tied up:
OK, ok, ok...it still ain't that pretty. But it's still better than what I started with! Honest!
At least it isn't trying to fall out like some of it was before.
You can see the shock sensor in that last shot. It's turned right down. Not completely off, but low enough that if my cat sneezes on it, the car won't explode underneath him. Hopefully. If it gives me false alarms without good cause - ie a Harley driving past - I'll disable the evil thing, like I have done in the past.
I tested everything on it, of course, before buttoning it up. After the first test, I smartened up and pulled out the wire for the siren before continuing.
SKWAAAAK! BEEEP! Oops!
Everything worked, though I did have to make some adjustments for that pair of
interesting relays. The other relay - not so interesting - cuts off the ignition power if the alarm is armed and you try to start the car. I wouldn't normally bother, but since it was already there, why not?
I rigged it up so that the relay doesn't actually get +12v until the ignition is turned to the on or start position...so it actually requires the ignition turning on AND the alarm being turned on before that relay gets power. I thought this a better idea than having a relay stay on the whole time the car is turned off. That might be why she would drain the battery after a week without being run. (though I'm not sure since I didn't check how it was wired before I cut it). I felt like I used my head on this one.
I have a pretty blue LED blinking on my dash now. And I paid a couple of extra bucks to get some decent looking key fobs; those ebay alarms mostly come with gaudy chrome remotes that have too many buttons. This is what I chose:
Simple, clean and even OEM-esque.
I'm happy to have an alarm. But I'm
thrilled with it because of those two
interesting relays. I now have working power locks!!!
Ker-chunk!
(I knew there were actuators on the locks, as I have been inside the doors, and was reminded by the extra force required every time I locked or unlocked it).
Today
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