I installed my car alarm, and i haven't nailed it down to when it does it, but the ground wire on the relay will start getting really hot and it actually melted into my starter wire! The magic smoke came out and i had to replace a fusable wire near the starter. What could be wrong?
Thanks
TJ

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Replies (8)

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ttocs on 04/22/2003 16:09:10
you have something hooked up wrong... It should not get warm, let alone hot... this is a good example of why I recommend alarms be put in by a pro, or have access to a pro. Luckily you do, me!

I am assuming you are talking about the starter kill relay? when is it getting hot? As soon as you hook it up? when you start the car? What kind of alarm is it?

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schlsux on 04/22/2003 19:07:01
woo hoo! i didn't know some of you guys actually do this for a living.

Anyway, yes starter kill relay. I'm pretty sure it was getting hot when the alarm was armed, then i put the key in the ignition and turned it. I was messing around with it when it happened. It melted into the starter wire and blew a fuseable wire near the starter.

The alarm is a clarion ungo MS850. I haven't gotten to mess around with it yet to narrow it down to when it does bc i dont want to mess it up again, but this is the best i have come up with so far. It is in an 87 celebrity.

Thanks a lot.

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schlsux on 04/23/2003 18:37:04
I was right about it, i did it again today, not to that extreme, but it did get warm with that scenerio. how can i tell which wire goes the starter silanoid? Ohm metter?
Thanks a lot
TJ

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ttocs on 04/24/2003 01:01:10
I am not real familiar with ungo. But, there are only two types of starter kills. The most common is a closed loop that usually uses a relay that is offboard of the brain unit. It is called closed loop as the starter wire is normally closed(connected), until the unit arms. The advantage is that if the alarm goes bad, the vehicle will still start. The other kind is an open loop. Clifford is one of the few that uses this. This keeps the starter wire open(not connected) until the alarm tells it to make the connection. The advantage here is that if a theif tries to kill power to the alarm, or disable the alarm in any way, it will still not start. Disadvatage is that if the alarm does not work, neither will the car.

I gave you a rundown as I need to know what system yours uses so we can start there. Is there an ofboard relay?

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schlsux on 04/24/2003 12:16:23
I believe it is an offboard relay. It is connected to the unit by 2 wires. When the alarm was not connected, the car would still start and run as long as the 5 prong part of the relay was plugged in.

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ttocs on 04/25/2003 03:25:28
wait wait wait.. "When the alarm was not connected, the car would still start and run as long as the 5 prong part of the relay was plugged in. "

Then it is definitly not hooked up correctly. Tell me what you have connected to where, especially the actual connection to the starter wire. It is important to have the keyside and motor side connections correct. I would start by checking those.

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schlsux on 04/25/2003 12:13:07
Everything is connected fine.The door locks are not hooked up bc their manual, and the aux. is not hooked up b\c i have nothing for it. I think you are right about the keyside not being hooked up right. But yea as long as the bottom part of the relay was pluged in the car would start no matter what, even when i had the power wire off of the battery. I will try to swap the 2 wires around, but if i test it with an ohm meeter, i should not get a reading from the keyside, but i should get one from the actual starter side, correct?

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ttocs on 04/27/2003 16:33:52
if your car is starting with the battery disconnected, we have bigger problems...

The keyside of the starter wire will show +12v, only when the starter is cranking. The starter wire is similar to a true ignition wire, but not the same. It has voltage on it only when you crank the key all the way forward, normally engauging the starter. But when you release the key and allow it to come back, it will not have any voltage. Most of the time the connections are made up in the steering colum, and the keyside is the wire that leads back up towards the key. Obviously then the starter side goes toward teh motor.

This is not the time to start switching wires and waiting to see what happens. You really need to be sure of what you are doing, or don't do it.

I did an alarm in a friends truck with a remote start, keyless, and paging unit. we have to bypass the passlock 2(factory imobilizer) to get the remote start to work. I had it in the garage, ready to go, but it was not what I expected. I told him that he would have to wait until I had the info I needed, and then we would finish. It took another day or two but now I have the info, and we are ready to finish it up. what I am saying is, know your limits. Know when you are unprepaired, and stop there.

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