What Alarm System Is This?

[cozzak]

I'm trying to fix the wiring in my '90 325is to address these electrical issues:
1) Speedo, odo, economy in OBC - none of it works. Speed sensor has already been replaced and wiring under the car looks good. Also the speedo came alive for about 2 seconds one time when I was driving so I strongly suspect a wiring or grounding issue. All other SI lights work in the cluster.
2) Stereo has background static (aftermarket Pioneer unit). Static is constant and doesn't depend on what is on (AM/FM/CD). Stereo also drains the battery when is plugged in. I thought my starter was going but nope, just some weird stereo or alarm wiring.

I took the kick panel off under the steering wheel and found a big mess:



Before I start to rip wires out to splice things back, I want to try to understand wtf the wires are doing. Does anyone know what make/model alarm this is?

[reelizmpro]

Looks pretty generic and old school.

[cozzak]

Yeah so about 15 minutes after making this post and searching for other alarm write-ups I decided fuck it... and took all that mess of wiring out, it looks much cleaner!

It was interesting that they tapped into a red wire going to an orange connector. Who wires an alarm system to power from the airbag??

They also had a hidden switch under the ashtray that's next to the cigarette lighter! It doesn't look like the alarm was wired into the radio, but instead was wired into a red light and that hidden switch. So the radio and speedo issues likely didn't have anything to do with this alarm.

I am confused about the "Gurt-Zeitgerat Seatbelt Time Module" P/N 1 372 719. It's the black relay dangling in one of the pictures. It has a metal bracket on it like it's supposed to be clipped to something, but I could not find where it clips to. Does anyone have any clues about where it goes? A picture of intact under-dash wiring would be great. All I can find is pictures of messes like mine.

[george graves]

Luke will know! Hopefully he'll chime in. His first job was installing car alarms on dinosaurs, he's that oldschool.

I'm guessing it's early 90's with it's entire through hole design. Take a detailed pics of the relays and chips, there will be a date code on them. "XXYY" that will be week number and year.

[rcsoundn1]

A few companies were know to make a lot of them and sell them under various names. Looks old school as said, but is prob an unbranded model for a more reputible company. Both of my cars had these, and IMO, after installing alarms remote starts for years, I would never put 1 in my car, and take out every one I ever get in any car I own.

[StereoInstaller1]

Hofco or hofco clone is my guess, very few alarms had a pigtail harness, even back then.

[cozzak]

A few companies were know to make a lot of them and sell them under various names. Looks old school as said, but is prob an unbranded model for a more reputible company. Both of my cars had these, and IMO, after installing alarms remote starts for years, I would never put 1 in my car, and take out every one I ever get in any car I own.

I'm curious why you said at the end you would never put one in your car? What are the disadvantages of adding an alarm or a remote start? What about keyless entry?

[StereoInstaller1]

I won't own a car without keyless and remote start, but frankly, its all about the install skills, the modules themselves arent the issue

[george graves]

I won't own a car without keyless and remote start, but frankly, its all about the install skills, the modules themselves arent the issue

Install anything poorly, and it's going to have issues. Install a cheap module really well, and it's still going to have issue.

[StereoInstaller1]

Yeah, but all of them are cheap made in taiwan junk...a solid install is all you can do