lets play a little game if we can

Q: Let's say I've got a 2004 Pontiac GTO and a 2001 Ford Mustang base model convertible. For the GTO I just want to add a remote start, since it already has an alarm from the factory. What system and accessories would be required(specific parts)? For the Mustang I want an alarm with remote starter, and if you have any other suggestions that'd be cool. Also note that it only has one key. What do you suggest?C Renner's Auto Electronix

My service is cheap, quick, and good - pick any two

ckeeler wrote: Q:  i want something that sounds pretty good in my GMC Jimmy and is loud when i want it to be. i already have an aftermarket deck. my friends all tell me i should get a bandpass box because ill get more bang for my buck and i will be loud...... plus they say a bandpass box has "better" bass, what do you think? i know nothing about car audio, what do you suggest for me? i pretty much just need an enclosure of some sort, i dont know what kind, and an amp to match......i think.....i dont know, you tell me.

well thats what "friends" are for arent they ;) Depending on what kind of bass you are looking for a bandpass box may or may not be what you want. A bandpass box will sound great if you want SPL (that sound pressure level, or how hard do you want it to hit) for a certain band of frequencies. You will get hard bass in whatever range the box is tuned for, but anything outside of that range will sound faded and flat, just generally bad. a ported box will give you some hard hitting bass, more on the SPL side, and you will get better sounding bass across a wider band, but if your box isnt tuned properly (IE too low) you run the risk of unloading your subwoofer and bottoming it out. it's basically pushing air with no back pressure restricting it's movement. Personally I would go with a sealed box, stuffed with dampening material (polyfill). You will have a nice tight warm bass. It'll hit hard, and sound good. keeping the dampening material out of the box will make the bass louder, but it might seem a little more resonant, which may or may not be desirable depending on the kind of bass you want. we can get your system setup properly, and your bass is gonna sound great turned down, but turn it up and it will start beating your heart for you ;) (my knowledge of the ported boxes is a little rusty, I think I recalled most of the information properly, but it's been a while since I built a box.... I'm working on a couple now but they are sealed.... how'd I do?)

bigjohnny wrote: ckeeler wrote: Q:  i want something that sounds pretty good in my GMC Jimmy and is loud when i want it to be. i already have an aftermarket deck. my friends all tell me i should get a bandpass box because ill get more bang for my buck and i will be loud...... plus they say a bandpass box has "better" bass, what do you think? i know nothing about car audio, what do you suggest for me? i pretty much just need an enclosure of some sort, i dont know what kind, and an amp to match......i think.....i dont know, you tell me. well thats what "friends" are for arent they ;) Depending on what kind of bass you are looking for a bandpass box may or may not be what you want. A bandpass box will sound great if you want SPL (that sound pressure level, or how hard do you want it to hit) for a certain band of frequencies. You will get hard bass in whatever range the box is tuned for, but anything outside of that range will sound faded and flat, just generally bad. a ported box will give you some hard hitting bass, more on the SPL side, and you will get better sounding bass across a wider band, but if your box isnt tuned properly (IE too low) you run the risk of unloading your subwoofer and bottoming it out. it's basically pushing air with no back pressure restricting it's movement. Personally I would go with a sealed box, stuffed with dampening material (polyfill). You will have a nice tight warm bass. It'll hit hard, and sound good. keeping the dampening material out of the box will make the bass louder, but it might seem a little more resonant, which may or may not be desirable depending on the kind of bass you want. we can get your system setup properly, and your bass is gonna sound great turned down, but turn it up and it will start beating your heart for you ;) (my knowledge of the ported boxes is a little rusty, I think I recalled most of the information properly, but it's been a while since I built a box.... I'm working on a couple now but they are sealed.... how'd I do?)

i want something that sounds pretty good so i will go with your suggestion rather than my friends,thank you.

BTW, you did pretty good bigjohnny. my only suggestion is to read up a little more on ported boxes and when you want to use one. really any driver can be put in a ported enclosure but the real decideing factor concerning going sealed or ported really should be the characteristics of the driver and how it was designed to behave and sound.

chriswallace187 wrote: Q: Let's say I've got a 2004 Pontiac GTO and a 2001 Ford Mustang base model convertible. For the GTO I just want to add a remote start, since it already has an alarm from the factory. What system and accessories would be required(specific parts)? For the Mustang I want an alarm with remote starter, and if you have any other suggestions that'd be cool. Also note that it only has one key. What do you suggest?

Hey sorry man, I didnt see this here until just now as I went to navigate away from the page. I'm just heading out the door for work, So when I get home I will actually read this and answer it..... just trying to be unbiased, I don't want to have time to actually think on it all day ;)

chriswallace187 wrote: Q: Let's say I've got a 2004 Pontiac GTO and a 2001 Ford Mustang base model convertible. For the GTO I just want to add a remote start, since it already has an alarm from the factory. What system and accessories would be required(specific parts)? For the Mustang I want an alarm with remote starter, and if you have any other suggestions that'd be cool. Also note that it only has one key. What do you suggest?

well those GTOs are a bitch to put a remote start on. You need to bypass the factory system/BCM which requires another key or some extra work on your part IE unlock/disarm the factory system before the car will remote start. It would be better just to leave that as is. For your mustang we could install a genuine ford remote start system, or go with an aftermarket system which may require an immobilizer bypass, Maybe not.. Suggestions..? I would have to see the car, I'm a visual person, once I'd seen it, ideas would start flooding out of my head.

bigjohnny wrote: chriswallace187 wrote: Q: Let's say I've got a 2004 Pontiac GTO and a 2001 Ford Mustang base model convertible. For the GTO I just want to add a remote start, since it already has an alarm from the factory. What system and accessories would be required(specific parts)? For the Mustang I want an alarm with remote starter, and if you have any other suggestions that'd be cool. Also note that it only has one key. What do you suggest? well those GTOs are a bitch to put a remote start on. You need to bypass the factory system/BCM which requires another key or some extra work on your part IE unlock/disarm the factory system before the car will remote start. It would be better just to leave that as is. For your mustang we could install a genuine ford remote start system, or go with an aftermarket system which may require an immobilizer bypass, Maybe not.. Suggestions..? I would have to see the car, I'm a visual person, once I'd seen it, ideas would start flooding out of my head.

Hmm...you'd turn down the money for the GTO RS that quickly? Without saying you'd research it, and finding that it could be bypassed using a relay and a sacrificed key? The car is obscure, the main reason I asked about it. Bypass manufacturers don't tend to have tech info on the immobilizer, but some Interweb forums have addressed this specific car. As far as the Mustang - the key words were "convertible" and "only one key". A convertible with an alarm install should be a piece of cake to sell a proximity sensor in addition to the basic alarm. With only one key (and it certainly has an immobilizer - Ford's used them since '96 and they're on almost every 2000-up Ford car), you have to know your immobilizer bypasses very well. Specifically in this example, it's important that the Mustang used PATS Type 1 from '04-down (and Securilock from '05-present). Since you are familiar with bypassing this immobilizer, you could then tell your customer that the PKFM, or KEYOVERRIDEALL can be programmed to the vehicle without any additional work on his or her part. Your competitor down the street is going to just look up a general immobilizer guide which says "2 keys required" and insist that the customer needs to spend $75 at a dealer or a locksmith's for a 2nd key. Now if this customer's gotten quotes from both you and your competitor, who do you think he's going to buy from? A customer with only one key isn't the least bit of an uncommon scenario, especially if the car was purchased used(the person who traded it in and the dealer who resold it have no incentive to care that it has any more than the single key).C Renner's Auto Electronix

My service is cheap, quick, and good - pick any two

chriswallace187 wrote: bigjohnny wrote: chriswallace187 wrote: Q: Let's say I've got a 2004 Pontiac GTO and a 2001 Ford Mustang base model convertible. For the GTO I just want to add a remote start, since it already has an alarm from the factory. What system and accessories would be required(specific parts)? For the Mustang I want an alarm with remote starter, and if you have any other suggestions that'd be cool. Also note that it only has one key. What do you suggest? well those GTOs are a bitch to put a remote start on. You need to bypass the factory system/BCM which requires another key or some extra work on your part IE unlock/disarm the factory system before the car will remote start. It would be better just to leave that as is. For your mustang we could install a genuine ford remote start system, or go with an aftermarket system which may require an immobilizer bypass, Maybe not.. Suggestions..? I would have to see the car, I'm a visual person, once I'd seen it, ideas would start flooding out of my head. Hmm...you'd turn down the money for the GTO RS that quickly? Without saying you'd research it, and finding that it could be bypassed using a relay and a sacrificed key? The car is obscure, the main reason I asked about it. Bypass manufacturers don't tend to have tech info on the immobilizer, but some Interweb forums have addressed this specific car. As far as the Mustang - the key words were "convertible" and "only one key". A convertible with an alarm install should be a piece of cake to sell a proximity sensor in addition to the basic alarm. With only one key (and it certainly has an immobilizer - Ford's used them since '96 and they're on almost every 2000-up Ford car), you have to know your immobilizer bypasses very well. Specifically in this example, it's important that the Mustang used PATS Type 1 from '04-down (and Securilock from '05-present). Since you are familiar with bypassing this immobilizer, you could then tell your customer that the PKFM, or KEYOVERRIDEALL can be programmed to the vehicle without any additional work on his or her part. Your competitor down the street is going to just look up a general immobilizer guide which says "2 keys required" and insist that the customer needs to spend $75 at a dealer or a locksmith's for a 2nd key. Now if this customer's gotten quotes from both you and your competitor, who do you think he's going to buy from? A customer with only one key isn't the least bit of an uncommon scenario, especially if the car was purchased used(the person who traded it in and the dealer who resold it have no incentive to care that it has any more than the single key).

Ouch, big fail :) I knew that was a trick'ish question. I'm not entirely familiar with all that stuff or what can be done. If you were an actual customer in a shop yes I would be researching it more. But I would also have more resources available to research I think, between manuals, stuff like alldatadiy, and actual people I could call to talk to about it, would make it easier to get a solid answer. The newer cars use a ton of doodie that I'm need to brush up on for sure. I gotta be honest though, I have thus far NEVER seen a GTO in my city.... not a new one anyway.

chriswallace187 wrote: Specifically in this example, it's important that the Mustang used PATS Type 1 from '04-down (and Securilock from '05-present). Since you are familiar with bypassing this immobilizer, you could then tell your customer that the PKFM, or KEYOVERRIDEALL can be programmed to the vehicle without any additional work on his or her part.

I dont quite follow this, since I'm not familiar with these cars, I did like 5 mins of research to come up with that half assed answer, obviously I should have just passed on the question lol. That was a good one though..... it's like those math questions in high school they throw a bunch of facts at you, some are important, other are useless and you need to give answer figuring out if the question was a trick or not heh.

The '04-'06 GTO is obscure, since it has a unique immobilizer and only about 45,000 were imported to the U.S. over the 3 year period. Precisely why I threw it in, just as a challenge. LS1GTO.com and the forums at Directechs.com(if you can get to them, they're really anal about password protection there) have detailed posts on the GTO's immobilizer. On the matter of the Mustang's immobilizer, the main point I was trying to make was that it's beneficial to know how the manufacturer says that a key can be programmed for a particular vehicle, as well as to know what type of bypasses are available when doing remote start. Sometimes knowing that gives you an advantage in the one-key situation I've just mentioned, which isn't uncommon at all.C Renner's Auto Electronix

My service is cheap, quick, and good - pick any two

chriswallace187 wrote: On the matter of the Mustang's immobilizer, the main point I was trying to make was that it's beneficial to know how the manufacturer says that a key can be programmed for a particular vehicle, as well as to know what type of bypasses are available when doing remote start. Sometimes knowing that gives you an advantage in the one-key situation I've just mentioned, which isn't uncommon at all.

first, where can I find out about that kind of stuff? I need to know more about newer cars, but without actually owning or working on them (yet) they do all kinds of weird stuff now, gotta keep up with the times. secondly, i'm still kind of lost on the key thing. Why exactly does only having one key matter? why would someone actually NEED two keys for a remote start/alarm to work properly?