Mentat Ghola

A friend bought a 2000 civic, which must have had the alarm yanked right before the sale.
The tail light wiring harness was all messed up. I fixed it, but theres a problem. The fuse sporadicaly blows. Im pretty sure this is because of the alarm.
I can tell it was uninstalled badly, the antenna is hanging out by the rear-view mirror, the fron doors lock and unlock when you put the key in the on position, and out of it, respectively. The alarm LED light is ALWAYS on.
My guess is, that the alarm wiring they left behind is tripping the tail light circtuit. They got to hack into that circuit to make the lights blink when you arm/disarm, so Im thinking one of the wires left behind is making contact with ground, and shorting the circuit.
But, Ive never done an alarm install, so where do people usualy tap into the lighting circuit?
Where should I check for left-over wiring?

suspendedHatch

It all should be very obvious once you drop to driver's side lower dash cover. The parking light wire is red/black and they usually go to the driver's kick. First disconnect the battery negative. Then unplug the alarm brain and clip the alarm wires where they tap into your oem wires. Usually they use those retarded t taps that you can just rip off and cover the exposed wire with electric tape. ONLY USE electric tape. Stretch it tight and wrap it.

The only semi-difficult part will be removing the start kill relay. It will be on your black/white starter wire on the ignition harness. Cut and remove all wires and reconnect the cut black/white wire. If you're not comfortable with this, the 10 gauge can be difficult to solder. I suggest you get a 10 gauge non-insulated butt connector and then wrap it with electric tape. Use Channel Lock 909 crimpers or even bigger crimpers if you have access to them. All other wires will be tapped into and not cut.

suspendedHatch

On second thought; the tail light harness should not have been touched at all by the alarm installer. No installer would go all the way back there. What do you mean by "messed up"? Was it tapped into for some stupid lighting modification? Was the insulation burned off joining the wires? How did you fix it?

Get a multimeter and test the red/black and other wires for continuity to ground.

Haha I just remembered an installer that would go all the way to the taillight, all the way to each door pin etc. That guy had to go back to the sales floor. Those are the people that give Best Buy a bad name.

fcm

Sounds to me like the alarm is still in the car, [ign. controlled door locks, LED on solid at all times (valet mode)].

I have to agree with suspendedHatch, If rear park lights are not working it will be for some other reason other then where the alarms light flash output is connected, I would use the red.black at key-less entry module.

I also agree that it should be obvious what is aftermarket alarm wiring and how to remove it. 94

Mentat Ghola

When I say the lighting harness was hacked up, I mean for osme reason they were trying to use a harness from a different car, maybe different generation civic, cause those grey plugs that twist into the lights were all wrong, they just forced them in there, but they dont go there, they dont twist in. So I had to replace those and rewire it up. I have no idea why they did that, but I suspect its because the trunk was replaced due to backing up into a pole.

Youre right, the alarm is probably still there somewhere. Im gonna look down there tomorow or monday, and isolate any foreign wiring I find.

DCRB

damn i could have sworn i posted in here earlyer...

Mentat Ghola

the plot thickens. Seems like the alarm is working good. Got a remote, had it programmed, now hes got an alarm. BUT, I found some fog light wiring. Yet, there are no fog lights on the car. The red/white wire from the electrical plug from the lights on the steering wheel (you know what I mean?) is tapped, it goes down to a 15 amp fues, all improvised, into a plug which plugs into the fog light button, theres also a relay hanging out there. I unplugged the relay, everything works, so obviously its a non-operative system. From thre there is a blue/red wire going to the fuse block.
Is this a suspect? The fuse still pops sporadicaly, once every 2 dayse, sometimes more often. I still havent found where the alarm taps into the lighting circuit. What to do?

Mentat Ghola

One more thing, its important.
With the key out of the car, if you hit the brakes, the brake lights come one, the parking lights go on,e and the radio turns on. The car makes that beeping noise like when you live the lights on and take out the key. SO, the brake lights must be somewhere tapped into the parking light circuit. But where should I look?