how to read connectors

i am hooking up a remote starter and it says something like white 18 pin connector, pin 7..... how do i know where pin 7 is????

How many rows of pins are on the connector?  What color is the wire you are looking for?  Find that color wire and check to see if it is 7 positions from one corner of the plug. 

On one or all of the corners there will be a very small number stamped on the connector. Its on the back of the connector(where the wires come out).

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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205

2011 civic. need to hook up for the

FACTORY ALARM DISARM

BROWN (-)

in DRIVERS KICK PANEL, DOOR Harness, (WHITE, 18-Pin Plug) Pin 7

but the thing is that there is two brown neg wires the same.....

its the 22 gauge brown wire. This wire is VERY thin and you can rip it in half easily with a pair of wire strippers.

test with a digital meter, red to constant 12v, black to brown wire. the meter will register ~12v when you unlock with the key in the driver key cylinder.

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Ted
2nd Year Tier 1 Medical School
Still installing as a hobby...pays for groceries
Compustar Expert

Test the wire by turning the key in the door. it should show ground only during unlocking. It may need to be tested from the pass. door cylinder.

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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205

plugs will have numbers on them as kenny suggested, but most connectors are read left to right (wire side) with the push clip pointing up. OBD is always read from the front view from my experiences.

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Ted
2nd Year Tier 1 Medical School
Still installing as a hobby...pays for groceries
Compustar Expert

i put a probe onto it and both browns showed both neg and on that 18 pin plug it only had 3 wires.

Can you see the back of the plug and the stamped pin numbers anywhere? Something doesn't sound right that it only had 3 wires coming from it. I though it was in a fairly "full" connector...

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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205

well i dont have the car with me  but i will check when he comes back. now does it go 12345 across or up and down

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18

That should be how it is numbered... looking at the back of the connector with the clip facing up. But look for the stamped numbers before you just start counting.

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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205

ok thanks

count empty pins as well, not just wires.

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Ted
2nd Year Tier 1 Medical School
Still installing as a hobby...pays for groceries
Compustar Expert

Unless you've got a magnifying glass, it's much easier to test than trying to read the numbers, especially on Japanese vehicles with nice open plugs.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

But howie... us youngins can see pretty well without a magnifying glass. Its just you old farts that need the extra cheater glasses... haha.

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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205

!!WRONG!!
Those of us short (near sited) in an earlier life never needed close up glasses. It's the ones with perfect vision who need reading glasses from late 40s on.
Trouble is at my age (presbyopia)* the eyeball changes shape and my vision now almost doesn't need glasses when I drive but I have middle distance specs for looking at the PC monitor. But then I can use my HTC Android to answer questions on this site!
*Funny how all the crap you learned at school comes back to haunt you.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

haha... I'm only busting on you.

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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205

OK, and I went straight into pompous educational mode. I'm terrible, give me someone's last name and I'll make a good guess to where their grandfather came from (harder in the US, more mixtures).

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

Hey, there is nothing wrong with giving out some education... haha.

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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205

On alot of the new kias the numbers are actually on the female side not the connector side

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If i Can't Install it    I Don't need it   Joe

That's the problem, there's no global standardisation.
Amp-Tycho, Molex and Kram in Denmark make most of them but it's Toyota or GM or Mercedes who decide the pin-outs.
Even with OBD II, the only standardisation is 12v+, 12v+ ign. and CAN Hi Lo in certain positions. VSS on Mits. and tach especially BMW and Toyota is in the same position but that may be coincidence.
We had this years ago with the ISO car audio plugs for Europe.
Except it was never standardised, Ford, all the Orientals including European built and BMW never followed it.
Worse, whilst Renault and Mercedes followed the pin convention, Ciroen/Peugeot, VW and Opel switched the constant and ACC wires.
Peugeot even turned the ACC into a mux data wire! When changing head units, you changed over the red and yellow and fed the red directly to ignition switch or fuse box! If you didn't you guaranteed DTC being thrown or no remote locking!
Audi have never used an ACC on their radio looms.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.