alarms: adding LED to OEM alarm -or- DIY aftermarket alarm recommendations?

Andrew:

Go aftermarket! The factory units are junk, and more importantly all installed EXACTLY THE SAME WAY. Very convenient for a car thief. Learn how one works, and you got them all nailed.

A good name-brand aftermarket unit INSTALLED should run under $150 for basic security. Add remote start and it should go 200-250. I wouldn't reccomend you try and install yourself unless you are very knowledgeable in automobile electronics. I doubt you would save much cash regardless.

I don't know about on the Forester, but I installed the OEM alarm on my 2003 OBW, and it activates a red "Alarm" LED on the instrument cluster that is prewired from the factory. I wish the LED were a bit more visible, though; it's kind of at the bottom of the instrument cluster, between the speedometer and the tach. I wouldn't mind adding another, more visible, LED to the system, if anyone knows of a way to do so.

Brian W.

Okay, so, you cognoscenti out there -- Is there an 'alarm' indicator on the instrument panel of the Forester and can I take the signal that goes to the instrument cluster and reroute it to an LED on, say, the top of the dashboard?

I've read a lot of posts from people who have modded the leds in the panel, so is this possible? Is that led accessible? Can you tap it to add another led?

Andrew

why would you bother?

Because instead of a hard-to-see light in the instrument panel, I'd like to have a light at the top of the dashboard that will be visible from wherever you stand outside the car. I think that is part of the deterence value of the alarm. Plus, sounds like a cool project.

Why don't you just wire up a 12v flashing LED to come on when the ignition is off, without modding the alarm. My previous car had an unused contact on the ignition switch that would supply 12v only when the ignition was off so I used that. I don't have a Forester wiring diagram, but something similar must be possible.

I don't want to do that because I don't want to be sitting in my car looking at a bright, flashing led all the time when the car is off. It also seems more elegant to have it directly wired to the panel alarm led.

So, no one here has done any led mods that can help me figure this out?