Tdevil55's 1997 Chevrolet Camaro

New alarm intstall!! /O.o\

Well, I decided to upgrade the alarm that I had in the Camaro. It was a long a tedious job, but in the end, it worked out. Started by taking out the old alarm which was a Code Alarm 4500 elite. I went with another Code Alarm because I knew them best and have dealt with them the most. The choice was a CA 611. This is a full security and remote start system. Got it a very good price of $79.00 off the shelf new. Code Alarm has a very good tech support site that you can access via internet with nothing more than registering with the site. With that you can find all need info to do a correct install. They have wire color charts and most tell you where to find the wire on the car also.

The install... Most of the wiring was easy enough and went fairly fast. Power, ground, sensors, and door triggers. Now came the lock/unlocks for the doors. As you may have read, I have power nothing, so lock and windows are manual. The owner before me had that had the 4500 installed had them put in actuators for the lock, SCORE! So that helped. But don’t count the chicken before they hatch. The locks were not locking. Bummer, I was missing something. These actuators were duel polarity, which means they have 2 wires coming off them, both will register negative and positive to open and close the locks. So what was I missing? Relays.... and not just any type, I needed the 5 prong type. Now, don’t just go into any car parts store and ask for relays. Cause they will send you over to the electronic isle and point you out to the relays, which are most of the time 4 prong relays. I finally got to Advanced Auto and had a relay that came with the alarm with me, and a GOOD store employ knew what I needed and helped me get the correct relay. So I was on my way to closer to finishing the alarm.

Finishing the security install... Ok, so I have my relays. I wire them up as the instructions say. I test them out to see that they are working correctly. Lock.. Ding! Unlock... Ding! All right, we are cooking with oil! Now I finish wiring the rest of the security in and set the shock sensor and antenna wires. It is now 2am and time to get some rest, I work tomorrow! I button up the car and call it a night. Next I will tackle the remote start! /O.o

The next adventure..... Ok, now time to deal with the remote start. As with any GM owner, we all know or have heard of the VATS system. Well, that what I have to get past first. Seems like a complicated issue when you first look at it. Most installers want a spare key to bypass your system, and if you don’t have an extra one like I do, then you have to get one from the dealer, which I know is not cheap. So the secondary way to bypass your VATS is to use resistors! Ah, the fun of Radio Shack comes into play. Not sure if anyone reading this works at one, but I’m sorry, my dealing with RS employees are not the best. It’s bad when you know more about what you’re asking them than they do. Anyway, to get the correct resistors to bypass your system, you need to have the correct OHMs that your key gives off. Search the internet for "VATS bypass" and you will find instructions on how to do this. Once you get the OHMs you need, you now need to get the correct resistors to mimic this amount. Best thing to do is take your meter with you to the electronics store and get the correct ones. So... after 2 trips to RS, and finally getting what I needed, and I installed the resistors for the bypass. I tested the bypass to see if it worked, BAMM!! The car was toast... just kidding, it worked like a charm. I love it when I get shit right. Anyway, now to finishing the remote start. Again, I have to get another relay to get this to work. Wired up all the easy wires to trace and find and then went to the hard one. The one that will be the worst nightmare I had to deal with. The TACH wire!!! This is the some of the most trouble I have had to locate this wire. I searched all over the internet to find the location of my Tach wire, which was a painful search also. Finally between my internet searches and reading my Haynes book, I located it. A white wire right behind the coil packs on the intake manifold. That is very painful place to get too. Well, got to the harness from the coil pack off, looked it over, and wtf, 2 white wires, I was not liking this. So, I shaved some of the plastic cover off the wires to test them, found which one I needed, and proceeded to finish the install, and test the remote start. Just so you know, read everything in the install manual before you think you’re done. Ok, buttoned everything up, and proceeded to test the remote start..... Noda! Nothing happened. Now I know I had everything that was listed on the alarm harness done correctly. Dumb founded, and beat, I called it a night again. I’ll do some more research to see what I missed tomorrow. Maybe a new day will open my eyes to what I missed.

The next day... Where was I going wrong, when was I missing. Remember when I said to read everything. Doh, I missed the part about the Tach programming. I have to do that or no remote start. So I go and do the Tach programming for the alarm. Will this work now, will I have a remote start. Damn, wtf was I missing. I researched, and researched. I call the help line and talk to a tech there. "Sir, did you install the neutral ground wire?" Huh, wtf is that! How did I miss that? I look in the book again, doh on me again, tiredness will make you miss things. One freaking wire that needed to be grounded. This thing already required 3 other wires to be grounded. Why can't it all work on one ground wire? Oh well, drop the panel and ground the wire. Remote start test.... VAROOMMMM!!!! ALL RIGHT!!! I am god!! Hehe, feels good when it all works out in the end.

So to recap....

New Alarm: $79.00

Additional parts to install: $20.00

Self install: $0.00, just time and sweat!

To see your hard work come together: Priceless!