I just brought a Clifford Avantguard 4 for my TLS. I will be installing it myself. While 90% is pretty straight forward..I have a few questions about the wiring concerning the negative triggering of the Headlamps and the factory alarm bypass for the Intellistart...ANY EXPERTS in this area with Clifford Experience that can pass me a little advice?

 

Wow can't believe I missed this post. Why would you want to install it yourself? Unless you are a Clifford Installer, you just voided your warranty.

I don't believe there is anyone here that has installed a Clifford alarm themselves. The Avantguard is some complicated sh!t. My IG9000 took the installer 8 hours to install and he's certified with Clifford and has been doing this stuff for a long long time.

 

I agree the installer that put mine in said they send them to class for this stuff. They have been around for 17yrs & own their shop. They are a high end shop that do custom installls also.

 

I won't go into my qualifications, nor my engineering degree or my education in electronics, practical experience in cars wiring, stereos and security systems. And I won't bore you about my FCC certificates nor my FAA aircraft technican licenses ..... Lets just say I know what I'm doing and leave it at that......

The store manager who sold it to me ( whom I have known for 15+years) said that I was probably the more qualified to install it than 99% of the alarm installers in town. (So much for the warranty) I'd run circles around most of these guys, not all, but most!......I have different standards ....aircraft standards..I've spent years....NOT days at some DEI/ Clifford course learning electrical circuits and systems.

I had a simple question about Acura's way of negative triggering most circuits and an alternate way to bypass the key transponder...

It's quite obvious that this forum is not the place to ask such technical questions. For I was looking for help..... not opinions!

 

Well I was going to give you the technical contact I have at Clifford/DEI, but after that comment....GOODBYE.

 

Good call NSX.... let me interject something. If you want to bypass your key transponder then you essentially muck up the whole system. The beauty of the key system is only you have it and the ECU knows if it is right. To get the remote start to work you have to send the ECU the same code which has been done with taking another key and another reciever and epoxying them together which in essence defeats the whole key systems prowess because there is an easier point of entry to the car without going the normal way. Kinda dumb if you ask me....

AdamR

 

You point with that was? I have my MSCS and my BSEE, and currently working on my MBA, does that make me a better installer? I installed part time when I was pre grad for beer money and cheap stereo equipment. By your vague questions I don't feel it would be safe for you to install your own alarm, especially intellistart. You need a immobilizer bypass, which I'll give you a little hint to, you'll need a spare key laying around. Well I take that back, I've seen one transponder bypass that actually learns the key code, but I can't remember where I saw it. I was clifford certified, as well as alpine, orion, and a few other notable names as well as an MECP master installer. The biggest thing I learned, if you don't know about it don't freaking touch it. I had one of my wise arse friends try and install remote start in his old 560sl, he had it in 1st gear so he could get into the dash guts, had almost all of the wires hooked up except the neutral safety switch, and the trigger wire. Well there's a real nice steel frame behind the dash on the 560's which made a real nice contact point for the trigger wire. His benz tried to start itself and ended up plawing underneath his yukon. $6100 worth of damage just because he was too anal to pay a few $100 to get it done right.

I'll say again, if you don't know what you're doing don't muck with it. If you question yourself during an install you never know it might be the wrong answer, and mucking with a remote start isn't all that easy, especially all of the BS with intellistart. Since you aren't Clifford Certified you can't call up tech support and ask them for help, Not to mention voiding your warranty.


Just thought I'd add, it chaps my arse when someone thinks they are above someone else because of their education or what they do for a living. Hello, McFly!! come back to earth. Because you can do one thing you assume that you know another. My god. Come over here and help me design some chip test systems. Currently I'm working on a 2ghz transceiver with an ungodly low -118db sensativity that I'm supposed to measure when the noise floor at -90db. Cmon man, you're the omnipotent one, you're supposed to help us.

 

All right guys I think we've brow beaten him enough. We're just trying to give you fair warning that it might not be worth the few hundred $$ you'd save if something goes wrong. The warranty issue would scare me away immediately. These things aren't cheap.

The only things I did to my IG9000 was:

1)Move the siren from the OEM strut bar to a spot underneath the diffuser on the right headlight.

My installer was an idiot. He drilled holes into my OEM strut bar and mounted the siren and pin switch there. UGH

2) Replaced the pin switch nad placed in one the plug holes in the front of the hood.
3) Replaced the red Clifford LED with a Varad Superblue LED. Still deciding where to permanently mount it.

 

Please don't.