Miata Mailing List: June 1992, Message #30
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   From: (none)
Subject: Alarms
   Date: (none)

In message <9206090209.AA21008@thalidomide.lucid> Jamie Zawinski (Hey: I
knew him before he even had a driver's license!) writes:
}In message <9206090144.AA03730@thedeck.Eng.Sun.COM> Mark Koch wrote:
}>
}> Does the Mazda alarm just plug right in somewhere?  Or do I have to hack
}> the hell out of all my wiring like an aftermarket alarm?  
}
}It doesn't just "plug right in", but it wasn't too hard.  You have to rip
}up the rear carpet and run wires from the trunk to the dash; drill some holes
}[...] Then you have to drill another hole to install the Blinking Red Light,
}probably the most important part of the whole system [...]

I've gone the possibly risky but (so far) hassle-free route of just
installing a blinking LED.  In my neighborhood, no one listens to car
alarms, unless they're loud enough and go on for long enough, in which
case either (a) the cops will oblige you by towing your car to some
far-away lot and charge God know's how much for the service -- as
happened just a few weeks ago to a Passat parked on my block -- or (b) a
kind neighbor will vandalize your car as a protest -- just last night I
saw someone had broken an egg on the hood of a shiny new BMW which had
for hours been blurping obnoxiously outside the place I went to pick up
my Chinese take-out.

Radio Shack (okay, I admit I set foot inside the place) sells a
self-blinking LED for one or two bucks.  Apply your favorite voltage (I
gave it 3V from two AA batteries (Energizers -- still ticking after 14
months)), and mount in any convenient place.  Since I don't smoke, I
fashioned a little cover that fits inside the ash tray, and stuck the
whole works in that.  The cover I made from an old binder which has a
texture remarkably similar to the Miata black plastic interior.  Voila,
instant "alarm."

Zero hacking on your electrical system, and 98% the security of a real
alarm.  Call me cheap.