TomCat39

I could use some help. I have the install guide for the cheapo Marksman alarm that does not appear to be professionally installed.

The first red flag is they used accessory slots of the fuse box and the power window relay slot of the fuse box for power.

I was wanting to know, where do the professional installers tie into constant 12V (battery) and then the Ignition Switched 12V. I'm pretty sure they don't just use spades or female spade connectors and plug into the fuse box. I'm pretty sure they hard wire into wires. I am just wondering which ones they usually go for.

The other one that seems a little off is the parking light relay output and input wires. The output they stuck onto another accessory slot of the fuse box, and I have not un-taped to follow the input to see where the hell they put that.

I'm not sure where the parking light relay is but any insights yall can provide so I can fix the alarm install and bury the alarm a bit deeper in the dash, would be very helpful.

I have attached the pdf to the alarm. The wires in question are the Yellow (Ignition Switched 12V), Red (Battery 12V), White (Parking Light Relay Output) and Red/White (Parking Light Relay Input).

The 15 amp fuse to the alarm was blown so I suspect the randomly plugged in **** popped the fuse. The alarm relay appears to be setup correctly yet the car still starts without issue. I suspect since the brain is powerless it's very much like it is straight unplugged. I'm also guessing my other cars with alarms that had the "anti-hijacking" depowering the brain did not work to decouple the relay.....

No clue really, just trying to use this cheapo piece of crap to learn how to properly install in these old cars. It's not something I've done or seen very much of. I might just upgrade the system once I know how it's all hooked in.

Please help.

TomCat39

I started tearing into the alarm and wiring. I found a pretty good write up on one variant of stealth install on the 5th gen that I like. Didn't seem like anyone was going to point me in any direction so google as usual was old dependable. This weekend I will be going to the salvage yard to pull some brown plugs so I can restore the stock harness and add an alarm connect in for the install. Once all loomed I guess it looks pretty stock to help support the stealth feature.

But enough about that, I finally got to do something kind of cool and my first real fabrication of any sort. Took way longer that I thought and gives me an idea of the time put in by professional fabricators. I was just making a bracket out of thick aluminum, I can only imagine the time and dedication to shape metal for body panels, or any other part that is custom made.

So lets get to the wave of photo's and my babbling.

Here we have the alarm that was just under the drop down plastic cover, screwed into the metal pipe that goes up and over the steering column. Everything was there, shock sensor, brain and relay.
Then there is the aliexpress "Dragon Gauge" that only worked for a whole 10 seconds before loosing reading and flashing a 10. From what I've read, almost everything should go to the ECU wires but they only pulled the D14 (o2 sensor) from the ECU. I suspect not using the same 5 volt, 12 volt and ground the ECU uses causes some conflicts and prevents the gauge from operating. For now I've just pulled it from the wiring until I can get proper information of what is supposed to go to what on the gauge. I'm not sure if 5 volt is supposed to be on the yellow wire or the red.






This is where the siren was installed, they tapped a couple of metal screws into the frame rail. I hate not using pre-existing holes and adding more. Plus, I want my siren on the firewall right next to the box that is pictured below and is VX specific. Haven't even looked up what the box is for yet but I'm sure I'll learn about it soon enough.






So I wanted to make a bracket to use the right side bolt of the box on the firewall to hold the siren. I'm not going to use the cheap ebay short ram and it's a nice thick aluminum. This should be pretty easy to manipulate but strong enough to work as a bracket. The siren isn't super light but isn't overly heavy. Does feel like it has a pretty hefty magnet in it by the weight. So I cut a piece out of the short ram and flattened it out.







I then marked and drilled the hole for the existing bolt in the firewall. Did a quick test fit to make sure I hit the mark and I did. I did have to get a slightly longer bolt of the same size to feel comfortable with the extra thickness with the bracket. Fortunately I've been keeping a crap ton of Honda bolts when I pull parts at the yard.






I then slapped it into the vice and cut it down to just a strip with the hacksaw. Cut through it like butter.






Put it into place so I could mark the screw holes of the siren. I then punched small holes in those locations and used the self tapping screws that was used on the frame rail for the siren. I was concerned about the screw being long and scratching up the firewall so I took the dremel and cut the shafts down.







Then I got to thinking about it. The plate is aluminum and with vibration, bumps etc, those tiny little screws with the tiny amount of threads holding that in place.... The siren will eventually fall off. I dug up some small nuts and bolts with washers and widened the holes a touch. The I created some space for the heads of the bolts to reside behind the bracket plate and in front of the firewall. Tightened all the bolts down and then installed completely.






Here is the completed relocation and the new custom bracket for the siren sitting right behind the brake booster vacuum line. This will provide a lot more of the siren wire in the cab for the alarm relocation. I quite like the end result.




Also discovered they broke the middle pin of the stock antenna so I get to see if I have skill at replacing the end that you plug into the radio. I have not had luck with after market 5th gen antennas. So far, every one I have tried is garbage and doesn't compare to the quality of the stock antenna. Should be fun.

deschlong

iTrader: (8)

I am thoroughly enjoying this read.

I was going to point you towards that stealth alarm install DIY. It's still a formidable task for the amateur wrencher. Still lots of jargon and ensuing head scratching.

Good thing you moved the siren because you'll need that spot for the cruise control actuator!!

tony_2018

nicely done on the alarm horn. I usually find a wire that has constant 12v to supply the alarm. Also have a battery backup tied in in case the hood is compromised.

the12volt.com . is a good source for radio and alarm installs

TomCat39

Thanks guys.

I didn't realize the spot would be needed but thinking back, yep, goes right there for the cruise control actuator unit... Totally forgot all about that. Dumb luck on my part but I'll take it.

Yeah, I found some decent understanding at 12volt.com. Like deschlong mentioned, it's not totally straight forward and you sometimes have to sit down and wrap your mind around it. I found the bit about 1 amp diodes to add multiple items to 1 trigger. I noticed every alarm I've had in these civics, they never hook in the hatch glass/tailgate. I noticed I can add that to the negative trigger door line right along with the front doors wire by using a 1 amp diode.

The write up I found also talked about unhooking the hood release in the cab and re-routing it through the engine bay so a potential thief can't just cut the fender liner for easy access to the bay. You then just hook it back up to the handle and yer good to go. I'll see just how easy that is maybe.

chrysler kid

Did the vx have power locks? The extra fuse slots are probably for trigger to aftermarket actuators

Usually I tap the main ignition wires under the steering column. Typically the door lock actuators run off of a triggered ground and the alarm output I run as the horn. Though ive only done a few primarily as remote start or secondary leyless brains. I find the alarm feature to be useless in most cases

tony_2018

I don't usually share installs on the web for the security reasons. You can read this guys alarm install into an eg

3 Stage VTEC D Series

nvm, looks like he took it down...

TomCat39

Thanks. I didn't see any additional wire running to the door and they taped off the lock wires of the alarm. The other clue is they just cut slits into the firewall rubber seals and ran wire through them. I didn't see any slits in the door wire harness rubbers.

Based on all that, I do not believe they added the actuators.

Yeah no worries Tony, I wasn't going to share mine or even the one I'm copying from. I was more trying to find out where power was normally pulled from as I have never seen it pulled from the accessory spots of the fuse box in "professional" installs.

Tonight I decided to attack the speedometer issue. It sometimes worked, sometimes not and would be bouncy etc. And as been my experience, the boards that tend to have problems have the pin protector goop on the back of the board.

So first thing is pulling the bezel out. As usual the ignorant try and pry the clock block off plate off which is not possible as it's screwed in the back. So a new bezel will be in order at some point. this one is gouge pretty badly.




The clips are missing from the tangs so the bezel came out really easy but isn't secured like it's supposed to be.




Almost all the vent foam is gone so I will likely get some 1/4" foam insulation from home depot and wrap them like I did when I did my heater core in my old CX. It seemed to work really well.



Seeing the little yellow plug in the wire harness is nice. I believe that is the plug the cruise control usually goes through and I've already pulled the cruise control pcb from another cluster in prep.




Pulled out the speedometer to get access to the board on the back. Notice the vacant area at the bottom middle left. I believe the cruise control pcb will slide right in there without issue. There is some black tape on the back of the cluster housing covering the plug hole for that location.



So here is the questionable speedo board. It has that pin goop on it as did my other board that had the same issue. Nothing physically appears to be wrong with anything on the board, but it sporadically works.






Here is the replacement board I pulled from a cluster out of the yard. Notice it doesn't have any goop on the back. I'm pretty sure this one will work fine. Seems later they stopped gooping them like in 95 maybe?





See the black tape at the bottom, that's the section the cruise control pcb will go. And I also noticed the two empty lamp sockets. Hoever the VX faceplate has those two spots fully blacked out. I might go plate with a face plate in the slavage yard and see if I can remove the black and slip one of the green lens just under the face plate. Or I might try and exacto knife the "cruise" part of the face plate out of the yard and epoxy it into the VX. Got some experimenting to do to see what will work best before I molest my VX faceplate.




My VX has 284,000 Kilometers on it. I'm pretty sure the mileage is accurate. But ya never know for sure.




This is how disgusting the alarm install was, to get to the green door trigger wire they just sliced the loom open (cutting open one wire in the process) t-tapped the wire and left it wide like you see it in the photo. I removed the t-tap and used liquid electical tape to re-insulate the door trigger wire. That's the black you see. I'll be sealing everything up and re-looming it before I'm done.




Here is my current under the dash mess I'm working at cleaning up.




And as usual, no one uses a friggin honda converter harness for the aftermarket stereo, instead they just hard wire it. I would like to find an OEM radio plug and fix this. The after market male radio plugs tend to use the new radio wire colors and I prefer to keep oem colors up to the male plug and let the adapter harness for the stereo to be where the new colors start. But if I can't find one, I'll just by the aftermarket replacement plug and live with it. This will the the 3rd hatch I've had to fix this issue on. Such is life.



And that's where I call it a night and drafted my list of things needed for the car.

Cheers and I hope you enjoy the read.

tony_2018

I have seen that done on some installs though, where the power source was a spade into the fusebox

DaX

iTrader: (1)

While you've got the speedo board out, can you tell me the two capacitor values and voltage ratings?

TomCat39

Okay thanks, this is the first time I've seen it tied into fuse panel and not hard wired. I guess it is more of a crap shoot of a lazy or serious install? No matter, my install should be a bit better.

Sure thing DaX, looks like 16V 1000 micro Farad.

DaX

iTrader: (1)

tony_2018

Yeah I try to put in a clean install but the posi-taps give it away anyways. My best defense is to have a 2-way remote and the horn and factory horn set up as well as a piezo horn inside where it puts out a loud high pitch sound in the area where the they think the alarm will be. Most thieves assume its near or around the fusebox cuz, well thats where most connections are terminated anyways. Some mechanics even think its around there as well so they go there to disable the alarm and most of the time forget to reconnect everything. Happened before, acura gave me a discount on services afterwards.

deschlong

iTrader: (8)

Recommend putting the OEM clock in there!

Sadly, no. The yellow connector is the SRS connector. Yes, even though your VX doesn't have SRS, this dashboard wiring was generic and has the SRS wiring in it (meaning, Honda didn't make a CDM-specific non-SRS VX dash harness.)
You're going to need to re-think your plan. That spot is for the SRS light. I mean, you could retrofit if that's what you mean but it if you're currently thinking everything will all slide together like butter without issue, this won't be the case. There will be some customizing. Reason being the cruise pcb occupies the same spot as the upshift light pcb (the white connector), and they use the same lamp spot on the front. So you will soon be faced with a decision: How do I keep the upshift light, and also have a cruise indicator light?

Black tape covers up where the SRS plugs in to the SRS pcb ....

TomCat39

Thanks for the huge amount of insight and expertise. I will need to think about this some but I still am thinking about using the SRS slot and doing a custom light. The plug is definitely going to be a challenge.

Thanks again!

tony_2018

WAit.....you have a home depot up there?

deschlong

iTrader: (8)

If you hunt through just about any 80s through late 90s Honda or Acura, they all use the same stock radio connector. Just have to get lucky but they're not TOO hard to find.

They invaded Canada in the mid-90s .... Lol, why so surprised?

tony_2018

I was watching matt risinger on youtube and he visited a store in swtzerland that supposedly similar to our home depot and lowes, way better. I thought Canada probably had their own somewhere. Man these Swiss build homes very interestingly.

deschlong

iTrader: (8)

We have others: RONA (major chain, recently bought out by Lowe's), Home Hardware (all stores indepedently owned and operated), and Canadian Tire, plus some minor players. We used to have "Beaver Lumber" which was AWESOME and with a name like that, quintessentially Canadian. Ahh, memories.

tony_2018

cool beans

TomCat39

Yeah, home depot Canada is still a touch different than home depot USA. Not all products cross the border or we have Canadian versions of the product.

Not sure if Ace Hardware is still around but there was that to go with Home Hardware, Lowes (USA prices the bastages) and Rona for the major chains. My city/town has a few individual players that offer lumber and other things.

Picked up my exhaust gasket and 2 oil pan drain plugs from Honda today after work. Parts guy didn't order the block drain plug washer/gasket I asked for 2 of, got confused with the exhaust gasket I guess. So Tuesday my wife should be able to pick up my valve cover gasket and 2 block drain plug washers.

Next Saturday I have to drive the hour to Langley to get 2 liters of GM SMFM as my local Chevy dealership doesn't carry it and would make me order a case of it to sell it to me.

Tomorrow I go to pick a part get my brown ignition plugs to build my add in harness for the alarm. I'm hoping to get lucky and find the radio plug. Lately my local salvage yard hasn't been keeping decent stock of 5th gens. They instead hang onto totally shredded corpses for extended periods that there isn't much if anything to pick over before adding a single car that gets shredded in days. And whats worse is no one seems to know how to take the car apart so rear seats are bent to ****, dashes are broken to hell etc.

If I don't get the basics of what I need, I'll be driving to Abbotsford to check out their selection in the Honda section. They seem to be the new goto spot for parts for the 5th and 6rth gens.

Tomorrow ought to be a fun day even though it's supposed to rain.

TomCat39

Sunday was a good salvage yard day. I found an OEM radio plug, pulled the brown ignition plugs male and female with wire to wire them together, an OEM antenna plug that goes into the radio, a decent quality valet button, a pristine bezel with clock and the surprise of all, the rear hatch window pull handle.

Monday I pulled the delete plug from the rear window, replaced the oil pan drain plug with a brand new OEM 17mm head plug and new aluminum washer. Also replaced the aluminum washer on both the fill plug and drain plug of the transaxle. I also replaced the exhaust a-pipe gasket and got the a-pipe and all related VX brackets installed. I also put the distributor back in and the DX air tube with my temporary velocity stack transition.

Tonight (Tuesday) I got my block drain plug aluminum washers (5 bucks each the robbers) and the valve cover gasket. I tightened up the drain plug and started adding fluids. Coolant added, almost 4 liters, 3.3 liters of oil. Need to get a new oil filter and need the transaxle fluid. Then I worked the rear hatch window handle. Yesterday I scraped the corroded portion off the metal stem and sprayed it with rust converter. Today I sprayed it with some rustoleum black paint and then I filed the receiving hole to handle the oblong post. The delete plugs only have a round threaded post while the handle has an oblong part that must pass through the metal back plate of the back window box. See the pictures below.



Delete plug removed




New window handle pulled from a 94 civic. Doesn't fit in quite yet.




Modified the round hole to be oblong to accept the extra on the handle the delete doesn't have.




A good close up of the added oblong post.




A good close up comparison of the oblong handle versus the round threaded post of the delete.




The finished install. To note, the handle fits loose in the back plate as it's not stock so the handle will twist as you are tightening. I grabbed the handle with padded channel locks to tight it up and keep it straight without damaging the plastic of the handle. I also used some permatex, the right stuff on the post that goes into the rubber seal to be sure the handle stays water free. The delete was pristine while the handle was corroded. Not sure why one leaks and the other does not but this way it's all good. I also cleaned the window with a razor blade and glass cleaner as well as cleaned the outside rubber seal with brake cleaner to make sure all surfaces were ready for a water tight seal.




Quite pleased to have the handle. I added it to my wife's DX as hers only had the wiper. My CX had both wiper and handle. Eventually I will add the rear wiper and washer (that's a project in itself methinks). But for now, happy to have a handle to grab instead of fingerprinting the window.

deschlong

iTrader: (8)

Gotta admit, I cracked a big smile when I saw this!!

FYI I was rooting around my Honda parts, and found my CDM D15Z1 timing belt cover that I pulled... What's important is that it still had the sticker on it and I knew this was discontinued. The idea was to make a replica.

TomCat39

Sometimes I miss the most obvious...... Mine still has the sticker and the replacement covers don't come with the stickers. And lastly, I have photoshop so I believe I could easily get a photo to send off to a sticker producer.......

Thank you once again!

tony_2018

Always cool when you find something so badass at the yard.