alarm and sub

Hi there,

I'm getting quite desperate for advice after nearly a week of working on it. My car recently got broken in to and I realised how easy it actually is and how easy it can be stolen so I've decided to get an alarm and thought I could fit it myself.

The alarm I bought was a Portman alarm from Maplin if anyone has ever fitted on, here's the wiring guide: https://portman-usa.com/downloadpdf/AM570.pdf

Anyway, after spending nearly 10 hours of fitting the alarm, all seemed well and the alarm had power as did the sub, but I had missed the connections to the starter motor and ignition as it said optional. The next day, I moved the horn that came with it to under the bonnet as I put it in the boot but now it fails to have any power and won't turn on but unfortunately my sub, which I've had no issues with also isn't working and has no power.

I checked the power going in to the main alarm unit and it's showing a full 12V but the nothing on the unit shows any sign of life.

Hopefully someone can help and I'm not sure if you would need anymore information but I'll do my best to answer what I can.

FYI I don't know much about electronics, this is the most detailed electronics installation that I've done.

Thanks,
Nick

what year, make and model are you working with?

What is a sub, in regards to an alarm?

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Ideal - cmon dude, add to topics in a useful manner, not stuff that is obvious.
Story - Phzzzt! Hey, what happened?! ... Isn't it obvious?
Moral - Never dismiss the obvious.

ckeeler wrote:

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what year, make and model are you working with?

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It's a 1997 Ford Fiesta.

loneranger wrote:

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What is a sub, in regards to an alarm?

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Sorry, it's a subwoofer, it's stopped working during installing the alarm and i can't figure out why.

So, does just the siren not work? or is it the entire alarm as well as the sub?

did you connect the red 12v wire from the Portman to 12v in the ignition harness or direct to the battery?

ckeeler wrote:

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did you connect the red 12v wire from the Portman to 12v in the ignition harness or direct to the battery?

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It goes direct to the battery. It seems strange as it has power at the main alarm unit, yet there's nothing active on the alarm.

Yes, that seems strange. it is possible the black ground wire has come unattached, has that been checked yet?

Some questions:-  Have you checked your amplifier terminals for power ground (earth) and h/unit trigger wire? Throw the alarm away, it's a piece of junk probably comes out of the other end of the factory that makes DEI. If you want to persevere have you checked voltage across power and earth (ground) to alarm with a DMM?  N.B. fuse marked engine bay (test) will cut starter and ignition on this vehicle, I can give you all the colours but from what you say I don't think you should be attempting this.

I checked the h/unit trigger and it's fine, i'll check the ground as i did connect the ground of the alarm horn to the same connection as a temporary solution although I don't see how it should be an issue.

As for the alarm, I can't really afford to have one professionally fitted at the moment so I think I'll persist.

As far as I know, the only thing i did between the alarm having power and it not was moving the horn, I even disconnected the horn from the ground and had no issues with power.

I'll try a few things you said in the morning and see if I have any luck.

As far as I know, the connections I've made are OK, I used a resource from here: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp~TID~58946 to connect up the relay to the ignition/starter motor, although untested due to the no power issue.

Thank you for your responses, hopefully I'll get it sorted.

nickbabenko wrote:

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I checked the h/unit trigger and it's fine, i'll check the ground as i did connect the ground of the alarm horn to the same connection as a temporary solution although I don't see how it should be an issue.

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What same connection?

-------------
Ideal - cmon dude, add to topics in a useful manner, not stuff that is obvious.
Story - Phzzzt! Hey, what happened?! ... Isn't it obvious?
Moral - Never dismiss the obvious.

loneranger wrote:

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nickbabenko wrote:

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I checked the h/unit trigger and it's fine, i'll check the ground as i did connect the ground of the alarm horn to the same connection as a temporary solution although I don't see how it should be an issue.

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What same connection?

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The same ground connection.

Well Nick, my first thoughts are that of Howie in that I was leaning toward a bad unit. The fact that now your subwoofer stopped working at the same time though, makes me lean toward a possible bad ground connection. As far as that goes, your gonna just have to get in there and start testing and nobody is really gonna be able to help you much further until some testing is done. once we have some results and variables to go on we can give some more answers. Hopefully it all get sorted out for you, good luck.

After a play with the power, the alarm unit now has power, as the amps power cable is connected at the same place I assumed it would have fixed it, but I'll check the ground connection.

When i turned the ignition on, the alarm didn't go off and continued to go off whilst driving, which is a bit of an issue. If someone could help with the wire colours for the ignition and starter wires, at the moment, they're connected to a BLACK/ white cable for ignition and black for the starter motor but it didn't seem to work. I think that box of the instructions is fairly confusing and hard to understand so if someone could shed some light it would be greatly appreciated.

Once that's sorted I'll need to connect it up to the lights and from what I've read, the best place is the indicator connection by the steering wheel but again, I'll need help finding the cable to connect them to.

Gonna go have a play and see what I can get working. Thanks everyone for your help.

Think you are confusing ignition standoff with immobiliser, also you obviously aren't listening I told you earlier where the ignition cut was. The reason your alarm turns on when ignition is running is that you haven't connected the ignition stand off wire or properly grounded the alarm, why don't you show us a diagramme, then I might tell you where everything goes since I'm probably the only one on this site who's done Fiestas.

i remember the old 70's MK I's Howie. little pieces of junk too as i recall. the new MKVIII looks really nice though, and well have them here in the US market sometime between now and 2010.

howie ll wrote:

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Think you are confusing ignition standoff with immobiliser, also you obviously aren't listening I told you earlier where the ignition cut was. The reason your alarm turns on when ignition is running is that you haven't connected the ignition stand off wire or properly grounded the alarm, why don't you show us a diagramme, then I might tell you where everything goes since I'm probably the only one on this site who's done Fiestas.

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I don't really know much about car electronics, the fuses don't seem to be marked very well. I had a look at the key but no luck.

Here's the diagram: https://portman-usa.com/downloadpdf/AM570.pdf

I've tried to find the hazards connection by the steering wheel but no such luck.

Thanks for the help!

I shouldn't be answering this there is no way you will succeed at your present level of knowledge or skill, the diagramme is pretty straight forward, take the yellow from the alarm to the fuse box, TEST for a wire that goes live on ignition clue it's in the top row of fuses. If you remove this fuse the car won't start and that if you want is your immobiliser circuit, the lock wires (driver kickwell coming from door follow diagramme 2,)  door contacts are at interior  (dome)light use the NEG wire, take the trunk contact to your boot light, the wire that doesn't read 12v+  when you remove the bulb, your indicators are blue and blue/red in the vertical loom in the driver kickwell, use the 2N5404 diodes bars towards indicators as shown in the diagramme, don't use the driver door contact because it only does the driver's door. Below this loom is at least one good grounding bolt. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILTY FOR GIVING YOU THIS INFO CK I knew there'd be one smart arse who remembered the Mkl Fiesta being sold in the US in about 1980, the Irony was we brought them back to the UK, converted them to Right hand drive, and even with a bigger engine and A/C it was still cheaper than buying one here!

howie ll wrote:

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CK I knew there'd be one smart arse who remembered the Mkl Fiesta being sold in the US in about 1980, the Irony was we brought them back to the UK, converted them to Right hand drive, and even with a bigger engine and A/C it was still cheaper than buying one here!

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wow, i wonder how they pulled that off. i really am looking forward to seeing the MK VIII though. i looks like a top totch vehicle.