1998 Toyota Sienna, Crimestopper 2011

Hey guys....
I'll eventually be installing a Crimestopper 2011 alarm and remote starter into a friend's '98 Sienna. I haven't started yet...I'm just in the researching phase. I wanted to ask a few questions before I got started. Any hints would be great.

1. It already has an alarm (the remote says "Code Alarm"). She said it's an alarm (and not just KE) because she's heard the siren sound before. My question is: is this an aftermarket unit that I can probably just pull out, or is this the factory alarm? I doubt it's the factory because I think I've heard of Code Alarm before.

2. I've been reading the wiring diagrams on this site, as well as on Bulldog's site, and they mention the child locks. I'm a bit confused by this, and I've also never done something with these locks before. I would just like ALL of the doors to lock and unlock with one push of the button. Do I have to get around the child locks?

3. Are there any domelight issues I should know about? Such as the alarm tripping when you arm the car because the domelight is still lit?

4. I guess there's no "transponder" key for this car...but there's no other surprises that I need to know, right?

THANKS!

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Here's how to get around the Child Safety Locks:



Code Alarm is an aftermarket brand, so yes you can just pull it out and install your new equipment, No there's no need for a trasmod on this year/model...

never mind any of that..... if you want a reliable wire to tap into for your unlock do the following..... looking up from underneath the dash, towards the drivers side of the steering wheel column, you'll see an orange molex with about.....15 wires.  Amongst these wires you'll find LOCK - blue/white  UNLOCK - blue / YELLOW(should be located next to eachother) DOOR TRIGGER/INCLUDING REAR HATCH - RED / white..... running next to this loom eminating from the orange molex is the PK LTS - green  HORN - GREEN/ blck

What the heck does that have do with the child safety feature on this vehicle if it's engaged?

For Toyota child safety, you must use a relay, or u can try to bypass it with diodes but sometimes diodes aren't enough...Trust me.

1. Code-Alarm is a popular (and pretty good) aftermarket brand. If you're installing a combination remote starter/alarm unit, simply remove the old one.

Also, use the old alarm as a guide, and take notes while you're removing it. As long as it's been installed properly, someone else has already found door trigger, parking lights, ignition/starter wiring, and locks for you.

2. These so-called "child safety locks" are not so complex as they seem. All these diagrams with relays, diodes, and so forth are entirely unnecessary, and are a complete waste of time. Trust me, I do car alarm installs for three huge Toyota dealers, and I've researched the cars pretty thoroughly.


In this post here, I have detailed how the Toyota doorlocks work, in case you are curious.

But the bottom line is that if you connect to the correct lock/unlock wires in the car, they'll work 100% of the time with no fancy wiring required.

The wires you want to use will test as a ground when you turn the key in the door, NOT when operating the lock switch on the door panel. The colors are:

Lock: blue/white---in either kick panel, or in a thick harness to the left of the fuse box. Tests off either door key cylinder.

All doors unlock: blue / YELLOW---passenger kick panel, but may also be able to find it near the driver's fuse box. This will test only off the passenger key cylinder.

Two-step (maybe) unlock: This wire is blue, found in the driver's kick or in the harness to the left of the fuse box. It will test off the driver's door key cylinder.

This wire may perform in one of two ways, depending on how the van was built, and depending on whether it was equipped with factory keyless entry.
---A. One pulse unlocks driver's door only; second pulse unlocks all doors.
---B. One pulse does absolutely nothing; second pulse unlocks all doors.

If you turn the driver's door key REALLY slowly to the unlock position, watch closely to see if the driver's door jumps open electrically. If it does...and if your friend wants two-step unlock...and if your alarm supports it, then great. If none of the above applies, use the blue / YELLOW instead.

3. Some alarms are fussier than others about this. The alarm won't exactly false...but some alarms do send out reminder chirps to tell you you've left the domelight on, and it can get annoying. Try the RED / white coming out of the fuse box and see how it goes. If necessary, I can tell you where to get a door trigger source that beats all the domelight delay.

4. No, no transponder. I've done a whole bunch of Siennas, so I'll try to throw a few tips:

---For the brake wire, the brake switch itself isn't that easy to access. But you can get the GREEN / WHITE in one of the plugs at the fusebox, or in the driver's kick panel running to the rear of the car.

---For remote start, the BLACK / YELLOW and BLACK/ red ignition wires allow the engine to run and the climate controls to work. The blue accessory wire only serves to operate the radio, power mirrors, and so forth. I prefer that the radio remain off during remote start, so I leave the blue unpowered, but it is up to you.

---There is a source for tach INSIDE the car, which is better. It's easy to do, but hard for me to describe. But I will try.
   Above the driver's left foot, you'll see a thick wire harness, wrapped in black electrical tape, coming in from the engine compartment. Now feel with your hand....there is another 1/2" thick harness, wrapped in gray foam tape, that is going upward from the big harness. Pull it down and unwrap the tape.
     There are two light GREEN/ black wires in there; one of those is tach. There's also a RED / white door trigger wire in there that beats the delay. (By the way, this is the harness that goes up to the instrument cluster. You can remove the cluster for easier access, but it takes longer that way.)

---It's a little tricky to get wires underhood on that van. Just carefully note how the old system was done; maybe use the old wiring as a snake to pull your new stuff through.

---After you take the plastic dash down, you'll notice that the metal knee bolster behind it has a lot of sharp edges. If your wiring will be against or near the bolster, tape up the edges, or slip a little bit of plastic split loom over them, so your wires won't get chafed.

---Toyota dash panels are absurdly prone to getting gouged up. Be careful about throwing them around, banging tools against them, etcetera.

---You will have to disconnect and then reconnect the hood latch cable; it's not hard, but it can be frustrating if you haven't done it before. I do it in this order:

1. Pull hood release lever so it's up and out of your way.
2. Remove two screws you see there.
3. Remove rest of dash as usual.
4. From the backside, you'll see that the whole thing has a sort of U-shaped clip at the top; push the clip so the whole mechanism falls out the other side, with the cable still attached.
5. Now, again go to the side of the dash that the driver can see, and get the hood thing in your hand.
6. You'll see that the cable has a plastic sleeve, and it slips into the metal frame of the release mechanism....slide it away from where it sits.
7. Now the cable slips out of the handle with no effort, and you can put the dash panel out of the way.

Installation is the reverse.....just don't forget to push the cable out through the hole BEFORE you screw the dash into place, or you'll have to do it over.

Youngblood, padawan, and Chris, thank you SO much for your replies. I was so shocked to come back and find these posts....it really helps me a lot before I get started.

Yea, I guess my best bet is to pull the old alarm, but find out where it's connected first...then if that alarm worked fine, then I can hook it up in a similar fashion. Yea, she'd like to just have the unlock for all doors at one push (no progressive stuff).

So it sounds like I can get past the child locks, if I just find the correct wires. Just out of curiosity (since I've never had to work with Child locks before), if I didn't find the right wire....all that would happen would be that not all of the doors would open, correct? :-)

I'm excited that the tach is accessible in the car, I hate dragging that wire through the firewall. Hopefully there's already a wire going through for the siren, so I won't have to do that one either. :-)

I'm sure I'll have more questions when I actually do this, but I like to know as much as possible before I start. I really appreciate all the help and hints! THANKS AGAIN!

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Hey Chris,

With respect to #3, can you tell me where the other door trigger wire is that will beat the domelight delay?

And by the way, have you installed a Crimestopper 2011? I've heard it's decent. It's got the remote start built in, and there's no satellite of relays...the remote start part is built into the brain of the alarm.

Thanks!

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A: Donation!     Donate to the12volt.com      

Did you read the part I wrote about tach? Door trigger is in there; it's RED / white. There's also a WHITE/ red in there that is something else, so you'll have to look carefully.

I don't have much experience with Crimestopper, but I've seen a few. I haven't heard any complaints about them. I, too, prefer a unit with the relays built in. Saves a good bit of install time.

[QUOTE=Chris Luongo] Did you read the part I wrote about tach?QUOTE]

Oops, I read right over it.

Thanks for all of your help.

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listen if you are trying to install this in your vehicle and youve never done a remote start install. DONT DO IT GO TO A PROFESSIONAL lol

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haha...thanks for the response...it was really helpful. I've done remote starts before, but I'm not a pro like some people...so I like to research before I start.

Thanks everyone else for all of the help!

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youngblood wrote:

---

I think that's how most installers got their start... so I don't discourage what you're doing and commend you for it... and I don't believe I would have done it any different back in my day... ask questions first, dive in, sink or swim.  Pertains to most everything.  Good Luck...

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Thank you.

As for the door wires, I was going to shoot for the one's Chris was talking about (blue/white for lock, and blue / YELLOW for unlock). This way I'll have no problems with the child locks. And judging by what you're saying, these won't fall "asleep" like the blue wire might do.

Can I ask a (dumb) question. When you guys say the wire will test (-) when you turn the key, I should: Put the red lead of the meter to 12v+ and the black lead to the wire. The meter should rest at neutral? Then when I test the lock, the meter should jump down to a (-) number...not necessarily -12v.

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Hey, could I throw in a few more quick questions?

1. Here's a shot of the dash. I only see the one screw on the right (I haven't fully started yet). I know you spoke about removing the hood release, but are there other screws that I should see? Or do I just gently pop it out, like some other foreign cars?


2. The manual for the alarm/rs says that the WHITE wire from the large gauge wires is for the parking lights (+), but that I might need a relay if the polarity is different. If the parking lights are (+), though, does that mean that it's strong enough to handle the parking lights? I just ask because I usually have to use a relay for the p-lights.

3. For the door locks (that show negative from the diagram), I just use the simple "negative trigger doorlock wiring" diagram in them manual, right? No relays needed?

Thanks!


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1. A. One visible screw on the lower right of the dash. B. One hidden screw on the lower left of the dash. (It'll be exposed when you remove the driver's kick panel.) C. Remove the hood latch.

2. If the output is for positive parking lights, connect it directly to the green positive parking lights wire in the car.

3. Straight negative trigger; no relays required.

Excellent, thanks Chris!
I'll be working on it this weekend.
Man, are you as good with Maximas as you are with Siennas? No one wants to answer my poor questions over there

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What year Maxima? I've done many of the Infiniti I-35, which is the same car. I haven't tried a 2004 Maxima yet, though.

Hehe, it's a 95. I secretly put the link to that question in the last post...I guess it was too secret

Here's a link to it in case you're bored

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Hey....does anyone know what wire I would use for the rear defogger? She might have an extra AUX channel, so I might hook it up to that. Location would be good too :-)

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Ok, I'm a bit confused with the doorlock situation. While I was removing the old alarm, here's what they did (and it seems to work). Behind the fuse panel, there's a connector that's got a bunch of wires going into it. They have the lock wire from the alarm going to a light green wire in that harness. Then they have the unlock wire from the alarm going to a green wire (with a silver dot). But then....they have a diode going from a yellow wire (also in that harness) to that same green wire. See the picture below, that should make more sense.

Can I just mimic what they're doing? It unlocks and locks all of the doors every time. Although if this is wrong, that would be bad to mimic :)

Also, for the brake wire, I tested it, and it's showing ground without hitting the brake pedal. Isn't it supposed to show ground WHEN you hit the brake pedal?



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Ok, so I just tried connecting the door locks the way it was already connected, so I'll see how that goes (I coudln't test it yet).

The tach seems to be a problem. Here's a picture of what you were talking about for this wire....the large group of wires coming out from the engine bay into the dash, and then there's a smaller set above it. I pulled on it to bring it down, but it doesn't go very far at all. Any hints? I tried to take a picture of it. If the link doesn't work, you can paste the address.

https://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid83/pe2daebaf2ce6863c63e674cbad084f21/fad4fd60.jpg.orig.jpg

THANKS!

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Q: What's the best nation in the world?
A: Donation!     Donate to the12volt.com