looking for a new alarm w/ window up/down

Hi everybody,

My name is Joe and it's my first time posting here. I have a peculiar problem, and I'm hoping someone can help me out here:

I have a 1997 Ford Ranger Splash, and back in 1997, it had a new Viper alarm installed. This was an AWESOME alarm and did just about everything. It was very sensitive, and you could set it off by lifting the door handle or leaning on it too hard.

I could also put the windows down and up with the remote. Whenever I would hit the lock button, the windows would go up. If I left the truck for more than 30 seconds, it would arm and put the windows up (but not lock). It was truly awesome.

(There was no remote start function because the truck is a 5 speed.)

I lost the remote about 3 years ago, and I want to either find a new remote or get a new alarm for Christmas. I have been looking online and I am WAY out of touch with what is new and state-of-the-art nowadays.

Can anyone suggest to me what type of alarm I should get if I want the following:

Lock/unlock
Sensitive if you hit it too hard
Door handle lift will set the alarm off
Be able to put my windows up and down.
Put the windows up automatically and arm when you hit the lock button
It will arm itself automatically after 30 seconds of inactivity, but not lock the truck if you forget to hit the button.

My truck has automatic windows on both sides. I figure it would probably just be easier to get a new alarm, so if anyone has any ideas, I would be very grateful.

Also, my big question is if I get a new alarm, will I have to uninstall my old one?

There are SO many alarms out there, I would really appreciate some direction here.

I live in the Northern VA, Washington DC area.

Thank you all

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Joe
1997 Ford Ranger Splash
1990 Ford F250 Diesel 4x4

A new remote would be much easier and cheaper if available. Under $50 versus over $200 for a new alarm. Assuming the system worked correctly when the previous remote was lost, I would imagine that this would be your preferred option.

What's newer these days versus 1997 is:

• 2-way alarms are available and much cheaper than in the past
• Manual-safe remote starts are more common
• Telematic options - add-on cellular modules enable control of the system via phone

Other than that, car alarms haven't changed incredibly much. The shock sensors are still the same as they had been.

Window control is easy since you obviously have a separate window roll-up module installed already.


As far as a replacement remote - do you know the model number of the Viper? I think they were using the black square 2 or 4 button remotes that early, but I'm not sure.

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C Renner's Auto Electronix
My service is cheap, quick, and good - pick any two

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your response.  My remote was a square shape, Black, with four gray square buttons, labeled I, II, III, and IV.  I know that it was installed at Circuit City, but the people at the store said it would be way too expensive to try and fine 2 more remotes, and even if I did, they said that they could not program them because they are so old.

Any thoughts?  Do you know what type of remote I am talking about?  Where could I find a replacement remote, and then after that, can I reprogram it myself?

Thank you!

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Joe
1997 Ford Ranger Splash
1990 Ford F250 Diesel 4x4

i know ur remote but i can't remeber off hand the model, as the guys at cc said it's pretty old, but the features ur looking for are basic and since the most part of it is already installed swapping shouldn't be that hard or too costly, a viper 350hv could give you all those features, you'd just have to remove the alarm part of it, the window modules remain, the wiring should be pretty much the same, and you'd just have to program it to suit ur needs. just a thought. Or  you could as chris said try and locate ur replacement remotes, if ur not sure what model u have, u can have a look under ur dash it should be there somewhere, on the control module will specify the model.

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COMMIT YOUR WAY TO JEHOVAH AND HE WILL ACT IN YOUR BEHALF. PSALMS 37:5

any new alarm will do and window rollup features are just addition units that can be bought from dei. if you want something real nice, a 2way pager is a good way of sseeing the status off your car and also, the autolock feature is just passive arming which is available on most if not all units.

Just for s**ts and giggles I went to Directed's Viper Replacement Remote Finder.
I made an assumption here that your alarm model is an 800ESP(the most common Viper model with the 4-button Roman numeral remote). The remote finder lists the 474V remote as a replacement.

Obviously this replacement remote has icons instead of numbers and a different shape; however I would say with 99.9% certainty that you could program it to your existing alarm(assuming that the alarm worked properly beforehand) and have it working again. As far as I can remember from when I was dealing with Viper a lot, they changed the remotes around 2001 but the brains were identical and operated on the same frequencies until they phased those models out.

That 474V is available on eBay for $25.31 shipped as I type this.

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C Renner's Auto Electronix
My service is cheap, quick, and good - pick any two