1998 Cadillac Catera, Remote Start

I have recently purchased a 1998 Cadillac Catera and have interest in installing a remote start\keyless entry alarm system. I have been on Ebay for about three or four days looking at the "great" deals they have on remote start LCD\Pager alarms.

My first question is how great of a deal are these alarms? Are they all made by the same company and just packaged with a different name? Also how hard is it to install this type of alarm on this type of car? The car requires a transponder key, how hard is it to get around this with the remote start option? And last but not least, does anyone have the diagrams for this year vehicle?

I have experience with installing amps, speakers, head units, etc... But I have never installed a alarm and would like to know how difficult it is before I get into it. Any help would really be appreciated, Thanks in advance.

Fares Amari

1. Watch out what you buy over the internet and make sure that you are receiving full technical support and warranty from them if anything goes wrong with your installation. The price is not always the first thing you look at. Make sure that the system has enough features to integrate into the Cadiallac ( transponder bypass wire, tach learning, dome light supervision, etc )

2. Most of the cheaper version 2 ways are generic brands that suppliers get from the same manufacturer but put their name on it. Some brands that come to mind is Vampire, FM2007, Commando rage II.

3. The bypass is simple but you need a spare key to bypass pass-key III immobilizer.

4. Here is the wiring diagram:

|              12V|red                 |+  |ignition harness            |
|          STARTER|BLACK/ red           |+  |ignition harness            |
|         IGNITION|brown               |+  |ignition harness            |
|        ACCESSORY|brown               |+  |ignition harness            |
|       POWER LOCK|BLACK/ brown         |-  |24 pin plug, pin A8 @ BCM *1|
|     POWER UNLOCK|BLACK/ purple        |-  |24 pin plug, pin A6 @ BCM *1|
|       LOCK MOTOR|BLACK / YELLOW        |   |door lock relays behind BCM |
|     UNLOCK MOTOR|BLACK/ red           |   |door lock relays behind BCM |
|    DISARM DEFEAT|BLACK/ red           |   |door lock relays behind BCM |
| PARKING LIGHTS +|gray/green          |   |parking light relay *2      |
| PARKING LIGHTS -|brn/wht & RED / wht *3|   |32 pin plug @ BCM *1        |
|       HEADLIGHTS|BROWN / red           |-  |headlight switch            |
|     DOOR TRIGGER|gray                |-  |24 pin plug, pin B2 @ BCM *1|
| DOME SUPERVISION|use door trigger    |   |                            |
|  TRUNK/HATCH PIN|BROWN / white         |-  |32 pin plug, pin D7 @ BCM *1|
|TRNK/HTCH RELEASE|BLACK/ red *8        |5wi|relay behind BCM            |
|  FCTRY ALARM ARM|arms with lock *4   |   |                            |
|FCTRY ALRM DISARM|BROWN / purple        |-  |24 pin plug, pin A3 @ BCM *1|
|       TACHOMETER|green               |   |instrument cluster or ECM*5 |
|      SPEED SENSE|blue/red            |   |theft deterrent module *6   |
|       BRAKE WIRE|BLACK / YELLOW        |+  |brake pedal switch          |
|     HORN TRIGGER|BROWN / white         |-  |32 pin plug, pin C4 @ BCM *1|
|           WIPERS|yellow (L), white(H)|+  |steering column             |
|  LF WINDOW UP/DN|not recommended *7  |   |                            |
|  RF WINDOW UP/DN|not recommended *7  |   |                            |
|  LR WINDOW UP/DN|not recommended *7  |   |                            |
|  RR WINDOW UP/DN|not recommended *7  |   |                            |
| SUN RF OPN/CLOSE|blue - purple       |   |                            |
|        RADIO 12V|red                 |+  |radio                       |
|     RADIO GROUND|black               |-  |radio                       |
|     RADIO SWITCH|                    |   |                            |
| RADIO ILLUMINATE|gray/green          |+  |radio                       |
|    POWER ANTENNA|RED / white           |+  |radio                       |
|       LF SPEAKER|blue - brn/blu      |   |radio                       |
|       RF SPEAKER|yellow - brn/yel    |   |radio                       |
|       LR SPEAKER|green - brn/grn     |   |radio                       |
|       RR SPEAKER|white - brn/wht     |   |radio                       |

Notes:
Note:  This vehicle is equipped with the pass-key III immobilizer.  *1 The BCM (Body Control Module) is in the passenger kick panel.  *2 The parking light relay is to the right of the steering column. Do not use gray/black, gray/red, or gray/green in the kick panel, even though they also test as parking light wire.  *3 The BROWN / white wire is in pin C12, and the RED / white wire is in pin D9.  *4 The factory alarm will arm if it sees an open door trigger when locking.  *5 The ECM is in front of the driver strut tower, in ECM housing. The tach wire is in pin 80. Can also use the ignition coil wires for tach. They are gray/black, BLACK / YELLOW, and BLACK/ red (they are heavier gauge wires) at the ECM.  *6 The theft deterrent module is mounted to the ignition key cylinder.  *7 Each power window motor is controlled by a module.  The module and the window motor are built together as one piece, not allowing access to the motor wires.  *8 The fuel door release is also a BLACK/ red wire at the relay behind the BCM, wire it as a 5 wire system.

Hey Jeff thanks alot for the input. I really appreciate it.

I am not too sure what I am going to do about buying and alarm system but I think after reading some of the posts on the forum page I am ready to take a stab at it.

You guys talk about alot of important issues when it comes to where to put the brain, horn, how to hide the wires, etc... I really like the idea that one of the guys put up on the post "I put the brain behind the glove compartment." That sounds like a very good spot for all alarm installs. Around here, you will be lucky if your car is still in the drive way when you get home after your install.

Thanks again for everything and I will let you know how I did with the install whenever I chose which one to go with.

BTW... Do you have one in mind or sell a alarm that you would reccommend?

Fares

No problemo.... just sent you an email. What do you think ??