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Removed Alarm System - June 18, 2008

While testing the TCU a couple of weeks ago, I found an alarm system wedged under my dash. Since I didn't have the remote for the system and wasn't even sure if it could still work, I decided to remove it. Also, removing the system would allow for some weight reduction and simplification of wiring under the dash.

1. I couldn't get to a lot of the wiring with the dash in place, so I decided to remove it. The first thing I did was to take off the glove compartment by removing the two 8 mm bolts at the bottom of the compartment.
   
2. Then, I took out the glove compartment bracket by removing the four 10 mm bolts and one 8 mm bolt that hold it in place.
   
3. I took out the plastic door sill covers.
4. I removed the passenger side kick panel next.
   
5. I moved over to the left side of the car and removed the foot rest.
   
6. Next, I took off the left side kick panel.
   
7. I removed the lower dash cover under the steering column exposing the mess of alarm system wiring.
   
8. Then, I loosened the two nuts and two bolts under the dash that hold the steering column up. This allowed me to drop the steering column lower to remove dashboard components more easily. The picture shows the two bolts, which are located closer to the steering wheel than the two nuts.
   
9. I removed the six screws that hold the two parts of the steering column cover in place and removed the cover.
   
10. I took out the center console trim, the center console, and the HVAC controls.
    
    
11. Next, I took out the vent covers on the top of the dashboard right under the windshield. They can be popped out by carefully prying up with a small flathead screwdriver.
    
    
12. I removed the three bolts under the vent covers that hold the top of the dashboard in place.
13. Then, I took out the gauge cluster trim followed by the gauge cluster. Three connectors must be unplugged from the back of the gauge cluster to remove it.
    
    
14. At this point, the dashboard can be removed. Dropping the steering column all the way down to the seat made it a lot easier to pull out the dash.
    
15. With the dash removed, I began taking out the alarm system. The easiest thing to remove was the control box that all of the wiring plugs into. Then, I took out the shock sensor, which was zip-tied to the steering column. The installer spliced into the car's wiring harness by simply splitting insulation and wrapping the alarm system wire around the harness wire. There was no actual soldering, which made the removal of the system very easy. The picture shows the wiring mess midway through removing the system.
    
16. With all of the wiring removed, the only thing left to do was solder together the ignition wire that was cut and routed through the alarm system. I soldered the white wire back together and then wrapped all of the ignition wires in electrical tape.
    
    
17. The last thing left to do was to remove the horn, which was mounted under the hood right by the clutch master cylinder.
    
    

The picture to the right shows all of the alarm system components that came out of the car. This probably saved only 3-4 lbs., but the wiring under the dash is a lot cleaner now. The horn was by far the heaviest piece weighing about 1-2 lbs.

I cleaned all of the dashboard pieces before putting them back in the car and also cleaned the vents as much as possible to keep dust to a minimum when using the HVAC functions.