i want to replace the keyless entry system in my car

October 24, 2010 7:10 PM

how hard is it to replace the third party keyless entry module in my car if i never done it before?

i lost the fob to the 3rd party keyless entry system in my car. the range on it sucked and seeing how cheap new ones are i'm thinking about just replacing the whole thing.

how complicated are these things to install/replace ? i don't have the installation manual to the old keyless system. would i need a haynes manual to figure out which wire does what? i dont even know where the keyless module is located in the car. fyi: the most i've ever done with wiring stuff in my car is making those audio cable harness connections to my pioneer car stereo. oh and this is an 1998 accord sedan

posted by sammich to Technology (2 answers total)

It really depends on the car alarm, some will be insane, other are very simple. The more things the alarm did (horns, lights, ignition, trunk/hood sensors, movement etc) the more likely it is going to be very complicated. Also many third party alarms are designed to prevent easy removal so at the minimum it would be time consuming and you are certainly going to want the alarm manual for the model in your car.

Track down which model alarm you have and head over to 12volt & do a search there - they are nuts about this sort of thing.
posted by zenon at 9:19 AM on October 25, 2010

In my very limited experience they are usually placed on the drivers side near the firewall under the dash. Should look like a small black box, very roughly the size of a large deck of cards. I'd say figure out what brand and model and see if you can just get a new fob. Either way you'll probably need that info to disconnect it.
posted by Big_B at 9:49 AM on October 25, 2010