Alarm system, DIY?

Hey guys, I know some of you here are professional car alarm installers, and some avg. joes that did it themselves... My question is, how feasible is it for someone that has basic knowledge of electronics to install an alarm system? I went to Car Toys last week, and they wanted nearly $1500 to install my alarm system! I guess where I wanted the brain and some other stuff, was too much modification and fabbing... I think it is a ridiculous price! Cliffors retails the alarm system I want at $600. If I can get it for that much, I would rather just have the hassle of installing it myself!

Installing the system is not that bad.... the catch is if something happens down the road, you won't get warranty because it wasn't installed by an authorized dealer. The price is outrageous IMO, but it also depends on where your located. A fully loaded with every available option* system from our shop will only run you about $ 1200 Cdn.

* tilt, impact, perimeter & glass breakage sensors

* Window up & down modules

* back up siren & back up battery

* trunk release, door locks & remote start

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

Where are you located? Check the installer database here and contact an installer that will give you a lifetime warranty on the parts and install. That (IMO) would be first thing to do besides a DIY project, becuase if its your first time and the car is anything besides a walk in the park, your better off paying a little $$ out. $1500 is crazy! how did you explain it to car toys?? Good Luck!

Well, if I had enough money right now, I would be able to get quit a nice discount since I know one of those guys personally, but hes leaving in less than a week! So, it won't work out for me really well...

I told them I wanted the Clifford Matrix RSX 10.5x. They would'nt do the 3.5 cause I have a MT, and they won't do remote start on MT. On the clifford site the 10.5 retails at $460 I believe. I wanted tilt, prox, omni, the works for the sensors. And I wanted a couple piezzo sirens, one for the cab and one at the battery in the engine compartment. I wanted a backup battery for the siren, and I wanted the alarms brain in a specific spot. A vehicle is double walled with sheetmetal to make the skeleton. One layer for the inside, and then you have another layer on the outside. Which is the sheetmetal body you see on the outside. With my truck, on the back of the ext cab, if you take the side panels off on the inside, and then take off the factory speaker mounting, you can easily mount a brain inside the gap there. Just bolt it in and voila! I did'nt see what was so hard about that...

The $1500, price quote also included the deck install. But he said its about $50-60 for the install, and then I told him I wanted it in another place than the factory mount spot. Which means the guy has to cut and fab up some stuff... Which this should be his only biggest challenge... I dunno, if I had the tools I think I could do it very easily.

I checked the 12volt installers, yesterday, and the guys name is Steve Waters. I gave his number a call but he did'nt answer. So I suppose I'll call him tomorrow since everyone has to work. Damn 4th of July! I have to work! Its no fair!

Odd thing is, my buddy got his alarm installed at Car Toys, and I bet anything it was the Matrix RSX 3.5. He said it totaled him at almost $900... What the hell..

I'm almost wondering if I should buy the 3.5 or the 10.5 off of e-bay. They are around $200! Oh yeaa! Then the sensors and whatnot will still put me at alot cheaper price!

EDIT: Well I just looked up this Steve guys address. My buddy who had the alarm install at Car Toys knows the guy personally. The guy works at this place called Snows Auto. When I saw his name, it sounded familiar. Now it all makes sense! I sure hope he forgot about me, because my buddy got his sound system installed one day at the guys place. Buddy came back from there and told me that the guy did'nt like me for some reason. I guess it was cause I brought in an 18" peavey loudspeaker! At the time I had really no knowledge of subwoofers or speakers for that matter. And I guess I made him an emberassment at the store when I brought it in... OH WELL... so I'm screwed! Whats new... :(

they probably charged you that kinda price so you wouldn't do it!.

done that a few times when cars come in that are either peices and falling apart or i know the person is going to go behind it and mess something up trying to do more stuff.

just make it so expensive they go somewhere else.. and if not they pay so much i feel better going in and fixing little things all the time they're going to want done

Just on a side note.

i have a base i charge here.

anytime i need diode isolating or resistor's for door locks, factory alarm and such i charge 15$ per feature, so if you had 4 diode-isolated - trigger chevy door locks i'd charge you 15$ extra for hooking those up.

then i charge a 15install+12relay charge for any EXTRA relays (minus relay packs, relay door lock systems like dei 451m)

so if you come in with a relay isolated parking light system that will cost an additional 27$

Just keeps it even for everyone

I bought a used black widow BW-X5 used for 60 bucks. I needed an additional hood pin for the rear of my chevy blazers glass, additional 10$. It has one shock sensor and relies on the door pins/hood/rear pin to set the alarm off.

for 70 dollars i have got a system that will insure my stereo which is worth approximately 1500 dollars for just the parts, safe from thieving ten year old punks hows parents don't spank them when they misbehave.

My philosophy is, if the thief is a proffesional one it doesnt matter if i spend 15,000 dollars on an installed alarm, they are going to get the stereo even if it means throwing ten layers of blankets over the whole vehicle to keep the sound from alerting you or other people and making one of those blanket layers one that keeps fm radio waves to your pager from working.

The point is, why spend that much cash on an alarm of that quaility when it can still be defeated, especially on an old mazda truck that nobody would steal anyways, when you can do it for 70 bucks yourself and keep out the majority of the thieves.

Hehe, well, good news though. My little insider will hook me up with a deal with the alarm system once I get the money. Turns out he will be ther for a while. I'll get a price quote, but it definitely will probable be around $1,000. Which is relieving, haha!

Car Toys wants EVERYONES business, but if you talk to the wrong guy, he won't care how much your droppin' into the car.

Dak, haha, no way, when you have backups, to all the backups, I would find it hard to defeat it. The goal of the alarm system is to only buy YOU time to bust the thief, and/or just make him panic so he decudes to run instead. Hearing 3 sirens go off, and the damn vehicle flashing is going to attract attention, and would only make him panic, imo. I sure as hell would be!

And when you cant get to either batteries to disable the system, you can't disable it, and you can't make away with anything, because it takes TIME to make way with stuff.

I pay for time, when I have time, its all in my favor. And I have yet to hear about anything technological that can diable an alarm except a scrambler. And those are rarely an avg thiefs tools.

Trust me, it does'nt matter. In actuality, I have heard of quit a bit of mazda trucks being stolen. We do have air ride setups, sound systems, good lookin' lowrider truck. Trust me, people try to take anything that has money in it, when they know if they just risk it all, they can make way with a few thousand dollars that they did'nt do much for.

Thats why, I feel it is IMPORTANT to keep security optimal. But hey, thats just me! :)

captainzab wrote:

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dang bazzgazm, thats expensive for little stuff
so if your doing a car and the guy doesnt want to pay you those extra stuff, you just dont hook up door trigger at all? and when you say relay, do you mean things like trunk pop?
man, i do quality installs and i just have one flat rate, like if they need diode isolate id do it, and if they got electric trunk release i would just add that extra relay and not charge. Keep it the same price as if it was a regular car.
Because people dont even know what you are talking about when you say "relay" or "diode isolate"

Nice find dakkh, but are you giving this to hex0rz? lol

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reason its so much is that we work for a "big box "shop, and thats how things end up working out. How much would you charge to do a alarm/remote start (viper 791xv for example) on 05 dodge ram pickup or a 91 honda civic.....your saying you would charge the same set amount? eh...most people understand things when you explain how they work and why. Some cars only need what comes in the box, while other cars need over $100+ in extra parts not including labor................................

I'm just gonna say. I don't tell them "hey, you need to diode isolate this, and it does this.. and this is why, and this is how, and this is what we use"

diodes cost money, relays cost money... and more importantly, your time costs money.

if you spend 4 hours on a car, you need to justify 4 hours worth of work.

if you spend 1 hour on it, then you can stick to your basic alarm install.

it's just a matter of how much time it takes for me to do something, prepping and installing and hunting wires that's not considered by the company "basic" labor.

I do not tell the people like i stated earlier. it's sowed into the minds of everyone here to look for keys and words and whenever you have to do that to add it to the total cost.

say its a 05 saturn with remote start unit say 130 then add  install cost 110 add bypass 55 add 35 install it

then comes extras like locks ,trunk  add like 20-30 more for each thats for auto and if r/s alarm combo add 260 unit then add 150 for the install then extras

if its a manual allbove prices  40 to bypass clutch switch  then pay will more for the manual units.30-40more .

so for this i would use 3 relays 2 diodes  so if u give 3 relays away =$5 relay  1.50 for diode its a business.