Dealer Nightmare

Yesterday I took my Toyota tundra into the dealer because the check engine light came on. They had to keep it overnight. Called me this morning and said its ready to pick up – BUT my alarm has a short, and the truck would not start, so they had to push it into the bay for service. While in the bay they bypassed my alarm system. ???

Now my truck has no alarm. I had them show me what they did – cut four wires under the ignition and bypassed the alarm. I was in the process of making them put it back, but started thinking I did not want them ever to touch my truck again. Figured I could do a better job putting it back, probably a monkey could do a better job than these bozos.

So when I got it home, I pulled the cover off and they just shoved the four wires (WHITE/ Brown, GREEN/ Blue, WHITE/ Green, WHITE/ Blue) out of the way and ran the ignition / starter wires back to the switch. They said the “made it stock�. I cannot believe it.

BTW, the alarm is a Clifford IntelliGuard 600 installed in a 2002 Tundra. It was professionally installed over three years ago and has never been a problem. Why these guys were messing with my electronics to fix a stupid O2 sensor I will never understand. I have had this truck to a different dealer many times and they never had a problem with my alarm. Just moved in July to redneckville and I figure they have never seen an alarm before and did not know how to make that loud noise stop when they unlocked the door with the key (I did not arm the system when I left it with them, but somebody must have).

Any suggestions on how I should proceed to undo Goobers handiwork?

TIA

Okay, just download the schematic and can see what I need to do. The only thing I do not know is what is going to happen when I reconnect the control unit. I imagine I will have to enter my code into the valet switch. I also suppose the battery should be disconnected before I do anything.

Here is a picture:


Any advice is greatly appreciated.

They told me it was a bad O2 sensor that caused the check engine light to come on. The system does not have the remote start option setup, did not want it.

Everything was working great before they "fixed" it.

Close up of thier solution of not knowing how to turn off the alarm:

Hook ingn out greenand blue wire, ing in white and brown.Starter white and green key side starter,white and blue starter out, please next time  put the alarm into valet  then they wont cut tha wires,rember clifford when in valet even when they disconnect the battery it will stay in valet mode and give them no problems

ringojam wrote:

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Hook ingn out greenand blue wire, ing in white and brown.Starter white and green key side starter,white and blue starter out, please next time  put the alarm into valet  then they wont cut tha wires,rember clifford when in valet even when they disconnect the battery it will stay in valet mode and give them no problems

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Not trying to be a TURKEY.......   But Be sure you tell the Service Department to NOT Unhook ANY wires without you express permission.  A lot of Service departments know so little about aftermarket systems, that they will lay blame on it as soon as they see the Remote or wiring.   Unless they can prove to you that the Alarm was the cause, I would not offered to pay the bill or return to their Service Department until they hooked up what they unhooked...

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MO

Don't Learn from Others Mistakes
You Might Be the One That Knows.

Thanks guys. I guess I was the stupid one for not putting it in valet mode before going. It never even entered my mind. Lesson learned.

Never going there again, except maybe to speak to the owner about his boys and thier wire cutters.

Those sure are some nice butt connectors that they use to "fix a problem"

gh057] wrote:

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Those sure are some nice butt connectors that they use to "fix a problem"

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If you look that's how the install origionally was done too

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Shaughn Murley
Install Manager, Dealer Services
Visions Electronics
Red Deer, Alberta

Anything with a but connector is not a professional install imo.

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2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

Yeah, I noticed that. So much for professionally installed. Heh.

Obviously, I am far from an expert on this stuff. As you can tell, I was pretty hot when I first posted this. The truck is still in the same condition. No time to fiddle with it, maybe tomorrow. Besides, I learned a long time ago not to work of things like this when I'm mad.

So, what should I use for connectors to repair this thing? Is there any chance the alarm is messed up, and the dealer was right in saying there is a short somewhere? They did say the power was totally out, and nothing worked, so they had to bypass it. What are the odds if it going out at the dealers, when its been totally reliable for years?

I know it's imposable for any of you to know the answer, but do you think I should check the connections to the control unit or something? What should I do if, after reconnecting the wires, the truck has no power? In other words, what would you do?

My biggest fear is I'll hook it back up and the thing will catch fire or something. Feel free to make me feel stupid. Believe me, I already do and it can't get much worse.

Any moron can make a butt connector work properly.  At least 30% of our bussiness is fixing "experts" who don't know how to solder properly.  The point is, if you do not know what your doing, don't  do it.

well man the dealer will tell you anything to cover there ass, and yes there are master mechanics that don't know nothing about an alarm system and how it functions. It's rare when you meet one that has the ability to understand both mechanical and aftermarket. If you drove your truck to the dealer and they handed you a non operational vehicle back with nothing that works then you should raise hell and talk to the service manager or dealer manager so they could fix your truck the same way you drove it into there dealership.If you did not give them permission to withdraw the alarm then they have to pay for a new alarm, and repair your truck for free. 

Butt connecters are like T-taps...you need to know when and where to use them, it's really simple.

Come on guys...you know what I mean...I'll use butt connectors ALL DAY LONG, on a deck and 4. But leave me to an alarm and/or R/S    Nope.....!

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Take the alarm back to where you got it installed and ask them to give you a repair quote, then bring it to the dealer and make em pay up.

I can bet that they set off the alarm and the alarm disabled the started like it should, so instead of pressing "unlock" then went snip snip.

And ya, i can see using t-taps in a alarm, but only where you cannot get to the wire with strippers and a soldering gun.

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2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

That is exactly what I should do. I would love to walk in there and hand them a bill. Unfortunately, the shop that did the install is literally 1000 miles away. I have looked into finding a local shop to make the repair, but there is none. Nothing even close. Plenty of gun shops though. Lol.

I should have no trouble removing the butt joints and soldering the wires. What do you guys use for insulation? I don't think wrapping in electrical tape is appropriate. Should I use that heat shrink stuff?

Thanks for all the good advise.

Electrical tape is very appropriate when you solder, be shure its nice, tight and double wrap the high current wires. Heat shrink works great too.

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2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

The saga continues.

This morning I repaired the dealers hack job. Removed all butt joints and soldered the wires together. Before I started, with installation manual in hand and schematic in front of me, I triple checked everything to make very sure I was connecting everything correctly. I am positive I got it right, and the connections were good. Of this I am sure.

Reconnected the battery, put the key in the ignition and turn. Nothing. Absolutely dead. No power to anything. So I referred to the schematic again to see where the fuses are. Sure enough, a 20 amp and a 5 amp coming off the positive side the battery.

Open the hood, find the 20 amp fuse and pull it out. Yup, blown. Insert new fuse, hear the chip and think I'm back in business. Press the remote and the system arms like normal. Press it again and it disarms. Good to go.

Wrong! Key in ignition again, everything powers up, but the starter still dead. Also notice my windows will not go back up, the air conditioner is dead, wipers and turn signals not working. Also will not come out of park. Everything else is working (radio, door locks, lights, etc.).

I figure the 5 amp fuse is blown too. Start to look, cannot find it anywhere. I checked every fuse I could find, all good, except I can not find the 5 amp fuse as shown in the schematic.

As I'm elbow deep in wires under the dash, looking for the fuse, it starts to rain. Did I mention my windows are down? I scramble into the garage and find some jumper wires (clips on both ends), dig through heat shrink & tape I just installed, and jump the dang thing to get it out of the rain. I'm not having a good time.

Any ideas? Help a brother out here & let me know what I should do next. This is the worst experience.

Thanks for anything you've got.

Open the hood, find the 20 amp fuse and pull it out. Yup, blown. Insert new fuse, hear the chip and think I'm back in business. Press the remote and the system arms like normal. Press it again and it disarms. Good to go.

This fuse powered what? your alarm, or a factory curcuit. Does this thing have a starter disable relay on it for your alarm? This needs to be eliminated, put your starter wire back together (minus the relay)  Just a thought....what year is your truck?

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The truck is a 2002 Toyota Tundra. The fuse powered the alarm. See image below:

This thing does have an immobilization circuit. According to the system checklist & troubleshooting guide, this is working. The guide does not tell me how to get out of this mode. The dang thing is immobilized big time.

When "testing the chirps", the led flashed 7 times, telling me the dealer guy tried to start the truck while the system was armed. This triggered the immobilization curcuit, but now I cant get it back to normal.

Ugh!