Kill Switch - Success + Failure

[CaZ UniQ]

Good Day!

I decided to start a project to fully have the battery disconnected when the car is not in use, by a a simple switch.

- Mission

When I'm done for the weekend, and my car is gonna stand all week, close the car, switch on the alarm, then disconnect the car battery via a switch, so that there is no drain during the period its not in use.

Simple enough right? Well not exactly.

First issue I realized I'm going to have is that, if the kill switch is inside the car, how will I exit the car and arm the alarm, and then use the kill switch.
Now you may be asking if I'm going to use the kill switch, there is no use of arming the alarm cause the car will be dead anyway, and my idea around this was, if it happened that someone wanted to take my car and they somehow got it switch on, it would switch on with the alarm on "reminding the last state"

So that means the switch has to be outside the car...which is fine, I found a spot under the car that I can reach easy!

OKAY we set, that's the plan, time to get the items required!

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Preparing

So I needed to get a switch, but it needed to be IPX5 at least for wet conditions, so I found one like the below, but mine has only one switch, as ill only be cutting Negative from the battery



I then got about 3 Meters of 1AWG cable



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Installation

So I wired everything up

Under the car next to my skirting, was a nice flush spot, from the switch I have 1AWG cable from the switch to my car battery, and it sits between the Negative that goes onto the body of the car.

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Testing/ Does it work?

So I the car was completely dead, I then pressed the switch and the car got LIFE! SUSCESS!

Switched it again and everything went off, SORTED?

Nope Ford had something hidden that I didn't know was coming

I then closed everything, put the alarm on, doors locked. and pressed the switch AND THE ALARM GOES CRAZY!

At this moment I'm EXTREMLY confused, obviously Ford's alarm system out smarted me, but I remembered when I was doing the wiring I saw 2 wires running to negative which was not not included in my switch.
So I cut those as well and added it to the switch!

And you wont believe it, locked the car, armed the alarm!

Pressed the switch, THE ALARM GOES OFF!!!!!!!! How is this possible, and the only way this is possible is that the Ford alarm unit must have its own Battery somehow, as I removed everything from the Negative from the battery and the alarm still goes off.

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Conclusion

I can save the battery from battery drain with the kill switch if not using the car for long periods, but I cant do it with the alarm in an 'armed state'

For people that want to have this done, and not worried about the alarm state, then its a simple mission and worth the time.
.

For the people that want the alarm to stay on when the car is switched on again, we gonna need to do more digging on where the power for the alarm is

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[flbchbm]

Good luck on that, wow!

When the first snow arrives, I'm done driving the FiST for the season. I move the solar panel from the Mazda dash over to the FiST and then I put it back the rest of the year when I drive the FiST. I have a regulator installed on each car. The car shade gets positioned at the edge of the panel. Yes, I notice a big difference on each car's battery when starting. Back when I bought the panel, it was MUCH cheaper and I got the ole 20% off we don't see anymore.

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[Intuit]

The aftermarket alarm I had in my prior car would always default to an armed state, any time it lost power. So I learned to always keep the remote in one hand as I connected the battery negative with the other. Now since I'm right under the hood, I still got at least a split-second ear-full.

@flbchbm - That's a unique idea. During some parts of the year my car gets filled up maybe once or twice a month (sometimes less) and this has been hard on the battery. (sulfation) I've kind of resided to just replacing the battery more often but this might be worth testing.

 

[flbchbm]

The aftermarket alarm I had in my prior car would always default to an armed state, any time it lost power. So I learned to always keep the remote in one hand as I connected the battery negative with the other. Now since I'm right under the hood, I still got at least a split-second ear-full.

@flbchbm - That's a unique idea. During some parts of the year my car gets filled up maybe once or twice a month (sometimes less) and this has been hard on the battery. (sulfation) I've kind of resided to just replacing the battery more often but this might be worth testing.

I've already tested it... You'll be pleased, except for the current price on the panel. You could get the items elsewhere too. I bought HF bc they had the 20% off coupons. And they're 1.5 mi from me.

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