car alarms

I'm clueless. I don't want to go to a shop and got sold crap because I don't know much. Any advices? Ideas? Recommendation for shops in Brooklyn NY?

I have a 2000 Jeep Cherokee that I want to protect. I care about engine cut off the most. I have a basic 100 bucks alarm that covers door sensor and that's about it.

Matt

You could just install a discrete kill switch somewhere and buy $3 worth of components for a bogus flashing red LED.

...or get an actual car alarm.

There are a lot of different alarms out there that offer a variety of different features. How much are you looking to spend will help you narrow down your choices. A lot of the decent car alarms today include starter disable. The single most important thing that all alarms should have is to have an open circuit design when it's armed. Meaning when they cut your battery and your alarm is obviously dead, all of the things hooked up to your alarm is dead as well. So, if they hook up a another battery they will just re-arm the alarm. A good alarm will return to its last state before it lost its power.

400 is my max.

The commercial alarms usually employ a starter cutoff instead of a fuel or ignition cutoff for safety reasons, since failure of a starter cutoff system just means you're stuck where you are. Problem is that it's too easy to bypass.
With a fuel or ignition cutoff, it'd be much harder to locate and bypass, but it'd be riskier if not done properly.
Lot of the stereo and alarm places seem to do quick 'n dirty wiring, with cut and tape connections or Scotchlok, which I wouldn't consider reliable enough. Solder and heatshrink connections would be, but would take too much time for them. That may be why they only offer starter disabling.
You could wire in a mechanical kill switch, which would be more reliable, but the tradeoff is that it wouldn't be as convenient as one integrated into your alarm system, and wouldn't be the passive type alarm insurance companies require if you get discounts on your comp premium for that kind of stuff.
Back when I worried about the car more, I had a paging alarm which I liked, because it would let me know if the alarm triggered, while I was out of earshot of the alarmbut still wasn't too far from the car. People have different views about wanting to know if their car is getting broken into; I'm of the camp that wants to know now, not after the fact.. I haven't seen them on the market any more though; guess they've fallen out of favor.
Hidden kill, sticking with the standard noisemaker, and maybe pager; that'd do it for me.

They're still there, even with LCD remotes these days: link

Doesn't that 2000 Cherokee have Sentry key? I guess if it's just Cherokee, as opposed to Grand Cherokee, it might be an option.

Is the head of your key a Pentagon, or Round?

I've had an Intelliguard 700IQ series alarm for 7 years now and haven't had any problems with it. Clifford doesn't make the 700IQ series anymore. They call it the 750IQ series now with G5 technology. They currently offer 750 and 850IQ models. Each with different options and features, but they all have the basic and most important protection features for your car. Here's a link to the series. clifford 750IQ This is definately money well spent for me.

Scotchlock splices would be much preferrable to the electrical tape that was used in the 1990 Integra I used to own.

Shortly after I bought the car, a tremendous bundle of alarm components and associated wiring fell out from under the dash. Almost all the connections were just wires twisted together wire nut style and wrapped with electrical tape - only there was no wire nut. Having no use for a 10-year old car alarm, I just shoved it back up into the dash and kept doing that. In hindsight, there was probably a loose connection in that bundle of wires that was responsible for the ignition problems I was having shortly before I parked the car for 6 months and then sold it for cash to a "we buy cars running or not" guy.

I soldered and shrinked all of the conections that I made modifiyingmy old grand am car

No failures

very complex 3 amp stereo

a alarm that knows if you try to open a door or the gas cap flap.

a very kool pre hid headlight system I can turn on all eight filiments.
3 added acessory fuse blocks

Why I did not do this to a kooler v8 powered car I will never know

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Saaby said:
They're still there, even with LCD remotes these days: link


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That's seems like a pretty nice setup- too bad I don't have anything I'd need it for right now. The old Page Alert I had worked off the 27MHz band; wonder if this is anything different.

I hope that isn't the ubiquitous dopey multi-tone alarm sound that so many cars had at one time. It would be one thing if they made it user-selectable, instead of cycling through them all, in exactly the same sequence. If they did, you could pick one to distinguish it from your neighbors, for instance. As it is, they all sound alike- annoying.

Saaby, do you have one of those alarms? If so, how's it working out?