300TD Remote Start / Keyless Entry experiences

[phidauex]

Hi,

I just finished installing a Crimestopper CS-2011 IV alarm/keyless entry/remote start system in my '82 300TD, and I thought I'd share my experiences...

I got the alarm from ebay user mandsenterprises, who took a long time to ship, but had good prices. He gets a lot of rave feedback, so I think my experience was a fluke, but its worth noting.

The alarm is Crimestopper's top of the line one-way alarm, but I mostly wanted the remote start and keyless entry features. This alarm is really well suited for diesels. It has a wire that you connect to your glowplug light, and it will sense the light, and wait till it goes out before starting. Or you can program it to wait 10, 20 or 30 seconds before starting, if you need extra glow time with your car. It has a tach sense wire, but I didn't use it, since it has a very good 'ultra smart' voltage sensor. It watches its battery supply voltage, and can tell from that whether the car is running yet or not. The stock setting works great on my car.

To get basic wiring info for tapping into, I looked up Mercedes 300 series on http://www.the12volt.com 's wiring info database. I think I had to search for '84 to find one that matched. But the wiring colors were correct.

Basically, you just go through the manual, and tap the wires into the appropriate places. I got 12V from the top of the main light switch, I got ground from a ground point under the dash. I stashed the brain behind the center console, up against the firewall. I put the siren under the hood, against the driver's fender.

I ignored some features, like dome light turn-on (which requires a relay), and the shock sensor, which I didn't care about. Just hook up every wire that provides a feature you want (or is required).

Keyless entry requires a door lock actuator installed in the driver's door. I bought one for 4$ from the same seller as the alarm. You drill a few holes in the door frame near the bottom, and screw the actuator to the door frame. Then you run its metal rod up through the mechanisms, and clamp it to the door lock shaft. Then the motor in the actuator just manually raises and lowers the door lock knob. That way, when the keyless entry activates, it pushes the knob up to unlock, and down to lock, and the rest of the locks follow because of the vacuum system. Its a pretty easy method.

However, I did have a problem. You need to use a pair of relays, wired up according to the manual, to work the aftermarket door lock actuator. You need SPDT relays, which turned out to be hard to find, most auto parts stores don't actually carry them, or if they do, they turn out to be SPST.

Then, after wiring it up, it wasn't working! I beat my head against the wall for quite a while before calling Crimestopper, where I learned that one of the lock/unlock wires, the red one, is supposed to provide a 12 volt constant source to the relays, but sometimes it goes out in the unit, and you need to just tap the line manually to a 12V source. This was my problem, and things now work great.

Remote starting works well. I have it set to crank the starter when the glow plug light goes out, and that works well on my car, but like I said, you can set it to wait a fixed amount of time before cranking. The car runs for a set amount of time, 12, 24 or 48 minutes, and then shuts off. It also shuts off if the alarm is triggered, or someone touches the brake pedal, so your car can't be just driven off. To drive, you start the car with the remote starter, disarm the alarm/unlock the doors, get in, put the key in and turn it to the 'run' position, and then go.

Interestingly, shutoff isn't a problem! When the time limit is reached, or I manually hit the starter button again to shut off the car, it shuts off just fine. Also, it has no trouble handing off control to the ignition switch. I did not install a vacuum changeover valve like others have suggested, but everything works as it should. Oh well!

Anyway.. I know that is totally random, but I wanted to share my experiences. If anyone has any questions about the install, or wants to try it but needs more info, let me know.

peace,
sam

[TheDon]

how much was this kit again??? id like to get my doors to lock and unlock and all that jazz you got

[phidauex]

I think I paid about 60ish for the alarm, then 4 for the door lock actuator, and then about 15 in relays and misc connectors. I used scotch-lok type wire taps for many of my connections. I know they aren't as 'professional', but they are easy to use, and will last a long time if carefully installed.

The crimestopper website is ugly and hard to use, but it outlines all the features in their units: http://www.crimestopper.com

Like I said, I've got the CS 2011 IV "Superrage", which seems to be their highest end one-way system. There are simpler ones that have less alarm features, or whatever, but the price difference isn't really that much. There are also fancier ones with paging and whatnot, but that was more than I was interested in.

The installation isn't technically difficult, but it can be a real pain in the butt. You are fishing wires through small places, getting dirty, taking off door panels, looking over the wiring diagram trying to find the wire, etc. Its just very time consuming. But, in the end, it can all work out.

peace,
sam

[carwithfarts]

how in the world does that thing sut off the car with out a vaccum valve???? that is amazing...i have no idea how that would even be possible on that car!!!

[Breckman99]

I too am intrigued. Under stock configuration the car wouldn't even be able to start without an electronic vacuum valve somewhere! The original is a mechanical built into the ignition switch!

[carwithfarts]

i have installed a verynice setup in my car....i replace all the vaccum actuators with electric...i have remote start, keyless entry, alarm, lcd remote etc...just a ton of features and a cool thing to have on a w123. i had to install and solenoid valve and relays to get the shut off to work properly.