well im not a wis with alarms or anything but my friend wants to install one in his 2004 tacoma. its a 4cyl auto prerunner. from what he told me he wants the one that pages him and has a lcd screen. whats a good one to get and how hard are they to install?
I'd use a Matrix 12.5.
How hard is it to install an alrm is an awfully loaded question. There are many factors involved, experience though is the number one factor, then getting a hold of a proper wiring diagram, any use of relays and although I doubt that vehicle will need any, diode isolation.
Get it professionally installed, so if there are ever any problems you can just take it back to the shop-but expect to pay $450-500 installed. Well worth it.
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Also check out Compustar alarms. They are a little more expensive, but they have better range and quite a few features.
Alarms can be very difficult if you have never done it before. Luckily the Toyota isn't too hard to do as most of the wires can be found at the fuse box. You will have to diode isolate the door triggers, and to test for lock/unlock you have to use the key in the door cylindar. Beyond that the install should be pretty simple. Just keep in mind that the harder it is for a thief to find the alarm or it's wiring, the more secure the vehicle will be.
yeah well it doesnt have a factory keyless entry so that i half the reason were putting an alarm in in the first place. its an after market power door locks. so the tacomas arnt that hard to do? what are some helpful tips when installing an alarm? thanks guys
The number one thing you want to do is test every wire to be sure you are using the right wire. Don't just assume you have the correct vehicle wire as the vehicle wiring information can be wrong.
The second thing is to hide everything, including your wires. You want to make it where if a thief looked under the dash, they couldn't find any of your wires or the brain. This will prevent them from being able to circumvent the alarm system. The most expensive alarm systems are useless if they are easily and quickly disabled due to poor installation.
I would also suggest bench-preping the alarm. This will save you some time and clean up the install. What you want to do is cut off any wires you aren't going to be using, and combine any wires that will be going to similar places in the vehicle into their own harnesses.
And finally I recommend you reading the information available on the left hand bar on this site. If you run into any problems or don't understand something, a quick search on this site should answer your question.
Good luck!
so what are some good componies to look into besides the ones mentioned above? also the relay concept is a little shakey on me as far as where you need them and for what. i understand how to wire a relay but why use one if your taping into the wire that gives the signal? is it for the alarms brain to recognize something? i know this sounds bad and i probably shouldnt be doing an alarm but i am quite competent when it comes to assembling and wiring and the like
You shouldn't need to worry about relays with that vehicle, except on some alarms if you plan on doing a starter kill. There are several common uses of relays in alarm systems. The first is to convert a small signal into a large signal. Sometimes the current supply from the alarm for door triggers won't be enough to trigger the factory system. So you can use it as a trigger to send a larger current to the factory wiring. You can also use it to change the state of a trigger. Some vehicles require a negative trigger for the parking lights instead of the positive trigger the alarm provides. And finally like in a starter disable you can use a signal to open a circuit. Check out the "Car Security" links to the left for more information.