I'm stupid and poor and need help.
 

Heya folks. I'm not good at the whole car thing simply becasue i haven't had a lot of exp. in their fixing. I have a 94 Max GXE.

Original Problem:
My secruity system is freaking out. Whenever my security light is flashing (which is all the time, whether driving or not) my alarm is set to go off and will at random. The fix here strangely is to not have the doors locked. If they are locked when the security light is on the alarm can go off whenever (while driving, while parked, while on, while off, and there is not a specific time frame for this. Occasionally it is immediate and occasionally an eight hour wait.)

Now, i can't unhook the horn, i use it way to much.

Original 'Fix': Found a green and white wire with dots down it coming out of the alarm control unit box locate below and to the left of the steering column. Bared the wire in a certian segement nearer to the connection into the control unit box thingy and soddered bell wire (coudn't find any 20 or 14 guage wire so i picked up 'bell wire') to it, wrapped it up in electrical tape, and attmepted to ground it out. I had NO idea where to ground this thing, and figured any metal underneath there might work, so i wrapped it around a screw that directly connects to the metal that is below the fuse box. I'm assuming that's the big mistake, if not one of MANY. By the way, it worked in sorting out/disablign the security system.

Secondary Probelm: Upon 'finishing' the jerry rigged job and immediately after i started my car and begun to pull away, the clock, dome light, inside lights, and other lighted instruments just glowed VERY brightly. In addition a few lights came on on my dash, the check engine, ABS, battery light, etc. So a few explitives came out of my mouth. I pulled back in, turned it off. Sighed. Started it again and it worked fine. It continued workign fine for a couple of days. Then came tonight...

The car upon starting went all funky like described above. The new catch, the igntion wouldn't let the key free. After dinking with it for a moment or two the car compeletly lost all battery power. A minute later it just came back and was fine again. Then it screwd up again a minute later in the same way. And now i can't get the key out without taking off that little ring and pressing on the red manuel key release in there. The battery light is DIMMLY on too. So now the car is parked in the Pizza Hut parking lot pending towing to my apt. tomorrow morning. What are some options here for me to try without taking it to a mechanic yet? I really can't afford to take it somewhere, nor can i afford to destroy it through my own incompetance. I'm a fast learner if i just have direction. : ) ALSO: the security light has turned on again.

Any input would be appreciative. This is my only form of transportation. : (

Thanks so much, and if ya have ideas feel free to post em up here and/or e-mail me at kevin.kane@coxhealth.com

THANKS AGAIN FOR ANY/ALL HELP. I hate it when Max has issues.

Side note: The original problem with the security system malfunctioning was directly related to sideswiping a Semi. Something which i'd like to report the Max limping away from and the Semi being compeltely incapacitated. The MAX took out the Semi! Whaoo. ode to our cars! And the Original 'fix' was to disable the alarm system.

-Kevin

waaaaaaaaaaat?

I had a similar problem, except none of the random alarm stuff. Like, if I were to lock the car, and the windows were rolled down, then someone came and opened up a door lock reaching inside the window the alarm would sound, I would shut it off by unlocking the door with the key.

I would then attempt to start the car normally, but I'd get nothing except for the battery power attempting to run interior electronics, then the key would get stuck etc. It then acted like the battery was drained. I would fiddle around with stuff and let it sit for a while, then immediately it would let me have the key and start up normally with no battery issues.

It always did confuse me, but now my alarm system doesn't work all together.

Sorry I didn't help much answering your question, but perhaps after someone reads both of our posts they may have some kind of insight to the situation.

i can't imagine why it would hold they key. That's mechanical. Something has to be getting hot. Have you tried undoing the wiring u did to the anti-theft?

I'd just get an aftermarket alarm, as the stock one sucks.
Or you could repeat the procedure which you described above. :ugh:

i Actually have an aftermarket alarm too....a viper system. I had to take a fuse or two one day last year as broke my remote when my alarm was going off in a parkign lot. So, it was silenced, and i can' afford to get a new remote quite yet.

No i haven't tried undoing it yet as it was dark. i'm hoping to get it towed this morning and work on it tonight after work.

So yeah...

Any ideas?

I need to disable the factory/any other alarm systems. No one i have called about it has said that they would look at it because, they were not the ones who installed it in the first place. [rolls eyes]

I'm assuming once i undo the oringial 'fix' the other problems will be okay. It's just that that would bring me back to not being able to lock my doors without unhooking my battery every time i leave it sitting somewhere.

best thread title ever.

Look closely where the alarm system box is. There are TWO boxes under there. One is for the alarm system, the other one is your timer control unit. When I tried to do that jerry rig for the alarm system, the only green and white wire with spots I found was in the timer control wiring, not what you want to mess with. Remove that piece of bell wire, then tape up the area of the alarm wiring that you bared, and do a GOOD job of taping it up. Now just unplug the wiring harness from the alarm system (the factory one, NOT the aftermarket one). That WILL stop the factory alarm from causing you problems.

As for the Viper alarm, I had one of them too. Thing freaked out on me one night, and shut my car off. I had all my lights and stuff, dash lights came on with key, but when I turned the key there was just a relay click, no solenoid noise, no starter. I wound up leaving it where it was for the night, and then having it towed to the garage. It took my mechanic three days messing with it before he finally tore the alarm system out, and it has worked fine ever since.

I'm not saying that is your problem, but it is something to be aware of. Check the voltage in your battery. If it is low, charge the battery up, then see if you can start the car. If it does start, then check voltage with it running, or have a garage / parts store test for you to be sure the charging system is doing it's job.

The key thing is steering lock, fiddle with the wheel and it will unlock the key.

Good luck with the alarm, not sure I can help there... mine has an aftermarket alarm that was installed by the first owner.

I'm too lazy to read the whole thread right now.
Just unplug the harness from the anti-theft box and drive happy. No more alarm problems

Apparently I'm stupid too.
Just bought a '94 that needed a new tranny (it was burned up pretty bad, had to gun it to engage and couldn't get third or forth gear). So, I get another tranny & install it. It engages nicely but I still don't have third or forth gear.
Does this thing have a lockout somewhere? No blown fuses...
I NEED HELP!

could be a bad TCU

:sprint:

that is how the stock alarm should work. imagine the same situation but the windows are up and someone is breaking them in order to unlock the door and steal your stuff. as for the other stuff thats weird but i agree, just unplug the harness, thats what i did when mine went bad.

Haha!

I just noticed this post from him...:grinno:

+1 that is how the stock alarm works..

I know that's how the stock alarm works... I'm saying the stuff it did afterwards was probably alarm related and it must have effed up somewhere in the process. Ever since my alarm hasn't worked...

I have had the problem where the ignition switch would play tugwar with me for the key. Dont know why but it stopped after fixing my wiring. I didnt read the whole thing cuz I also got lazy but from what I read and if I comprehended correctly...you got a short. There shouldn't be any bare wire (I believe thats what you said...) Take the whole dash apart and trace wire by wire, its fun :cool:

More fun now
 

Okay, so the new problem is that.... i can't get the car out of park. And i'm really trying here. What needs to happen here?

My long post above is about how after a wreck some funky things started happening. Then i tried to fix it, and it worked for a week, and everything went down hill. Now the car bugs out gettin way to much power (in that occasinally the lights glow really bright, the dash gets bright, etc. Also occsionally the battery seems to cut out as the clock and interior lights go dead....but only for a second). Now to top it off, the car won't go out of park.

Any ideas? Help.

: )

I can't afford to take this sucker to a mechanic....plus i don't know any honest ones here in Springfield Mo....so if anyone has anything to say on that... : )

Also though, i can't afford to have my car blow up. : (

Anyway, let me konw if ya'll can think of anything. it's been going on a week now that i hacven't been able to use it....which is getting troublesome as i have no extra car.

Thanks much!

kane8288@hotmail.com if ya have a great idea or know someone who might. : ) I'm about to call cartalk for heavens sake. ha.

Thanks again.

-Kev

Too much power? Check the actual power with a voltmeter, should be in the low 14V range when the car is running.

Battery cutting out? Clean the battery terminals, perhaps grounds as well.

Not shifting out of P? Press down on the shift release, little red thing on the bottom of the shifter.

new developments....at least this morning.
 

So now, the car turns over and runs fine....the only problem is there's now no power coming to the interior of the car. The car runs and idles fine it sounds like. But the dash lights and interior lights are dead. The tachometer and other guages are as if the car is not on. No readings.

The battery is less than a year old.

--About to go clean the battery cables--

--no voltmeter--

--Could this be an alternator issue?--

Let ya know how the cleaning helps.

Sounds like you may have blown a fusible link or two..


http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=402238

yeah just live with the shift release button for a while until EVERYTHING ELSE important is fixed, then use the FSM's AT section to do the component test for this shift lock. Mine turned out to be a bad controller (green box in RH kick panel) but sometimes it's wiring, sometimes it's the actuator solenoid itself.

The cleaning of the cables didn't do a thing, besides clean the cables...

I check the fusabe links, and they all appear fine. Which kinda sucks, i wish that had been the issue. I'm never lucky lol.

Alright, so any ideas on what to check next?

What's a TCU?

I'm going to check where the ground cable off the battery connects with the frame/block just to see if theres an issue there.

I'm totally stumped here.

Thanks for the help so far guys, feel free to keep it coming.


ALSO - the shift relese thingy doesn't work/isn't there. There's an inverted wedge thing which used to have a red strip atop which was the release but now there is just a gaping hole in the top of the wedge. No lever or anything. Don't know how that happened. But i guess i shouldn't be driving the car anywhere if my guages/lights/etc. don't work. : )

Did you press the shift lock button while you were holding the brake pedal down? Cuz iirc you're supposed to.

Well yes and no.

Yes my ffoot was on brake...

No because there is no button there...its currently broken. As in broken off.

This thread might help you with figuring out the shift lock issue.:gotme:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=379422

sounds like your car needs some exploratory surgery.

:sprint: on that, if you dont have a button then thats more than likely your problem. Start by fixing that and work your way deeper