My cars had its almost annual alarm melt down

It's doing it's impression of a paperweight on the driveway at the moment. Can't disengage the alarm or immobiliser. Tried the obvious like replacing handset battery and use the other and set and no joy.

I've had it with this dogs dinner of a HUK fit alarm! Anybody had any adventures ripping out that hunk of junk and fitting something else?

 

easy enough job to rip it out then get a toad/clifford fitted

which bit has stopped working?

 

I had a similar problem with mine just the other week, I ended up getting the factory alarm ripped out and a new one fitted, you are lucky, mine happened at work.

I understand that there are only 2 wires that need rejoining to get the car working again, but it will leave it vulnerable.

 

The whole thing is just seized on solid. I can unlock it by hand or using the factory fit system but the POS Honda UK system stays locked on. Means if I trip a sensor by opening the doors for example off goes. Also means no way to start the car.

Just need to somehow get the car to somewhere that can do the work and get the POS Honda system off and something that actually works properly installed

 

Phone your insurance company they may have a deal with a mobile alarm fit company. If not get the yellow pages out and find a mobile fit company. Should be no problem to get someone out to sort it and for reasonable money too even for a thatcham Cat 1.

 

Hopefully found a mobile place just down the road.
Hadn't considered the insurance route

 

Found a guy to do the job. He's had a look at it this and worked out how to eliminate the immobilisers and alarm (the latter done with wire cutter and a bucket of water ). Managed to start the car so he knows he's on the right track. Jobs being done properly in the morning.

He's removing the piggy back alarm that turns it into a CAT1 (from a CAT2, the guy says he'd never seen so many immobiliser circuits on a car before. Has a total of 4, you'd normally have 2 for CAT1 I believe?) and thinks he should be able to set it up so the boot release works in an acceptable fashion rather than that shoddy system Honda UK use.

So what went wrong? Driver error in this case I'm forced to admit
I think what I must have done is turn the igntion off with the window still on the way up. Stopped it an inch or so from the seal. What with the torrential rain for a couple of days last week it got in and the cabin did get a little wet. It'd driven ok for a few days afterwards and everything felt like it'd dried out. Carpet under the seat was still wet and it's finally got into the alarm control unit and looks like it's fried it.

General comments from the fella were:
- Wiring is a thorough mess and he's never seen a manufacturers system put in in such a mess(not sure if that's from Honda UK or the number of times the dealer has been in attempting to fix)
- He's seen alarm systems mounted on the floor before and they're always a nightmare since all it takes is a spillage/water in the cabin and it's toast (seems a particularly bad idea in a convertable I'd have thought)
- He recognises the system from somewhere but can't remember where. Thinks it is definately a low budget thing. He says if he places it though he'll tell me.

Assuming the job goes ok will pass on details in case anyone else is interested

 

Sounds like you're on the road to getting it sorted. Do you know whether he's using the existing loom utilised in the original alarm, for the new one being fitted.?

Are you getting global closing fitted so it closes the windows when the alarm is activated.?

 

Feel for you and the problem you are having fluffyninja, my alarm has been playing up all this week. Should be getting it sorted very soon, this weekend with any luck. Fingers crossed for both of us...........cheers Maria.

 

Maria, might be a bit late now but get the battery checked out. A worn out battery can cause the alarm to act erratically. Might work and be cheaper than getting the alarm replaced.

P&B, essentially no. The alarm he's putting in is pretty much an replacement for the existing but actually properly done (rather than the HondaUK gash job).

The original one is in there (i.e. the factory fit CAT2) but the overlayed component that brings it up to CAT1 standard has been replaced. Includes having the sonics disconnected and replaced with Microwave (far more suitable for soft tops apparntly) so shouldn't have alarm going nuts each time the wind gets up.

The final real bug bear for me was the boot release system so that's been put on a seperate channel. No more shopping juggling for me now when I miss the 0.2 second slot I have to get the remote system to release

Suspect it wasn't the cheapest way of having things done but with the alarm properly fried didn't have much of an option.

Anyway, since the last one has caused me to breakdown on something like 6 previous occasions here's to much more reliable motoring