tone generator on vehicle wiring

Is it OK/safe to use a tone generator (generator that takes a 9V battery and has 2 clips to connect to a wire and ground) to trace wires in a vehicle? For example I want to find the wire that activates the starter solenoid to install a remote starter. So I'd connect the generator to the + wire of the solenoid and then try to trace the wire back somewhere under the dash hopefully with the probe. Thanks.

Of course but why? It's physically much easier to simply test at the ignition switch.

As long as you stay away from airbag wiring and sensitive BCM/ECU wiring you shouldn't have a problem. However, I agree with Howie, why not just use a volt meter?Kevin Pierson

To be honest all DMMs have a continuity function (low ohms or "buzzer") so why bother. In fact the only time I've EVER used that technique was to verify speaker phase continuity..never been able to move my head around to tell if a speaker is out of phase. I'll bet Kevin's been using a continuity tester at home recently.

Not so much at home, but at work. Wire toners work great in an industrial setting where you have a wire in one control panel that goes to another panel with a large number of other wires the same size and color. The distance is typically too far for a DMM so you can set a toner up at one end and use a tracer at the other end. I've never used that particular tool in a car though, typically everything is close enough together and you're not actually tracing wires across long distances.Kevin Pierson