yayfortrees

I have a great story that I wanted to share with others. Hopefully somebody will have more knowledge about the topic, and can teach me a thing or two.

It all started in February, 2006. I had just bought my new to me, 1990 Extra-cab DLX. It's only a 22RE; 2WD. It had been lifted by PO, and I could tell it has had a hard life. Finally, it had a new home, where it would be cared for.

I was very happy with the truck for the first couple of days, but then one night leaving a friends house it wouldn't crank over. A quick bumpstart and I was good to go, I figured I would look at it the next day.

And so it started; probably the slowest diagnosis in the history of automobiles. I checked everything you would think to check, the relay, the starter motor itself, the clutch switch. Nothing was making any sense. After a couple of days, I even replaced the starter to rule it out. Nothing different.

This continued for a couple of weeks, sometimes, it would start up just fine, and other times it wouldn't even crank over.

Then one day it finally came to me. (I was actually in the shower at the time.) When I was checking the clutch switch, I had the door open, and it would start. When I would push the clutch in like normal, the door was usually closed, and it wouldn't start. It was starting just fine before I changed the dome light switch to 'Door'. It had been set to 'Off'.

I went out as soon as I got dressed, and sure enough, that was it! With the dome light set to 'Off' or 'On', the truck would start up no problem. With the dome light set to 'Door', the truck will ONLY start IF the driver side door is OPEN!

With the switch set to 'Door' (or 'secure mode') , and the door shut, I can hold the key to start, and of course nothing. As soon as I open the door, it will crank over and fire up. It's hilarious!

In looking into this more, I found an old alarm installed. I have no idea if it can still be activated or not, but I noticed that when I change the dome light switch from 'Door' to 'Off', I could hear a small relay click, apparently coming from the old alarm system.

Now, what I DON'T know is whether or not the alarm is supposed to be this way. I don't see that being a very effective method of protecting a vehicle. If somebody was trying to steal that truck, say they are hotwiring it, if the door is open, they're on their way!

I just wanted to share this with others on here. Who knows, somebody else might have this problem someday in the future. Anybody ever hear of or see something like this? Is this the way it is supposed to work, or did the person that installed this system screw up big time?

I hope you found this entertaining and educational!

91_TOYOTA_4x4

lmfao thats awesome hahahaha good story i like how you thought of it while in the shower lol dont you hate that, you try and figure it out for hours then when you are doing something else it pops into your mind hahaha

awdjunkies

Hahaha def. entertaining... Story of my LIFE!!! Everything happens while I a taking a shower and my wife always asks why I take longer showers than she does. lmao!!
Thanks for posting this.

kyles

I agree... sometimes car alarms are very funny and sometimes disturbing but safe....