OEM Shock Sensor upgrade?

[tunersteve]

Anyone considered this?

Part # 0000-8F-H12

Price from OEM Mazda is $55.

I'm thinking about adding it to the car, since it'll drop my insurance an extra 5%, which is more than the cost of the part. Does anyone have experience with it or have install instructions?

 

[BoostedSpd6]

i know that it makes the alarm more sensitive, but how sensitive.. i mean ive seen some cars where all u have to do is walk by it and the alarm will go off.. right now someone would have to break the window or something for ours to go off.. so id like mine to be a bit more sensitive then that..

 

[tunersteve]

Well, you go from a passive alarm to an active one. You would trigger the alarm if the door was bumped hard enough or window broken. I also think its adjustable.

 

[BoostedSpd6]

Well, you go from a passive alarm to an active one. You would trigger the alarm if the door was bumped hard enough or window broken. I also think its adjustable.

may consider it.. it would have to wait until january, i already have a list of stuff i want to get in december.. first mod of the new year!!!

 

[tunersteve]

So...anyone out there done this?

 

[VRMS6]

Steve per our converstion offline Im ordering one for my VRMS6... hopefully have it in a few days n find time to install it soon after... will update when I do so....

 

[tunersteve]

Steve per our converstion offline Im ordering one for my VRMS6... hopefully have it in a few days n find time to install it soon after... will update when I do so....

Very cool Gil, looking forward to updates. The installation procedure seems very straightforward.

 

[pycmsp]

i think its the same one on the msp. it works ok and is adjustable. i got one in my tool box did not have time to install it yet ,its been there for about 3 years now.

 

[keymaster]

I actually just installed this today..pretty straightforward, except that one of the wires you are instructed to tap did not exist in the harness for my car. It was the ground wire; I found another wire coded the same way and tapped it (thinking that the ground wires will all be coded the same way), and the sensor appears to work (it goes off if I slap the windshield hard enough, which is the test in the instructions). However, now the security light on the dashboard is always illuminated at a low level (it still blinks when the security system is engaged), and the dome lights will flash from time to time in sync with the light...so I'm guessing something didn't go quite right, or the ground wire I tapped is causing an issue somewhere else as well.

I'm going to pull it tomorrow and see if the light goes out and the dome light starts behaving normally again...if it does I'll try plugging it back in again and see what happens. I'm hoping it's just the sensor causing a glitch when it is plugged in and not something else...there isn't any information in the manual for the security light being partially illuminated, so no idea what that might mean. If anyone has advice on this please let me know.

 

[keymaster]

Well, this morning the light had gone out...maybe it just took some time for the security system to reset to using the new sensor. I'll do a bit of testing on it to make sure it's still working today. I took some pictures, so if it's all working then I'll write it up when I get a chance.

 

[TX Speed 6]

I have one that came installed from the dealer, once you start to turn the dial up it gets pretty sensitive quick. I'm very happy w/ it because I can turn it up when I'm at home, but then turn it back down at work (co workers cars constantly set them off)

I don't remember the security light staying on and the dome lights def do not flash too. Hope its working right for you now.

 

[keymaster]

It's a bit quirky...sometimes the light is on, but barely illuminated, and sometimes not. I need to unplug it and see if everything goes back to normal, and then start looking at what it's doing. The wire I had to tap might have been a bad choice, the ground might be interfering with something else...maybe grounding to the chassis will clear it up. It would be nice if I had a wiring diagram, or knew what the partly illuminated security light meant.

Oh well, it's not any fun unless you have to figure something out.

 

[keymaster]

So, I think I figured out what it's doing. The security light is always lit, but at a very low level...I wasn't able to see it during the day. The blinking of the overhead lights corresponds with the door open light blinking on the dash. So, it looks like selecting the ground wire I did to tap into has caused a ground loop or something with the door accessory lighting. If I unplug the sensor, then everything goes back to normal, and the sensor still works...so, it's not doing any harm but it's not optimal.

When I get a chance, I'm going to try running a wire from the plug as instructed (where the wire was missing), and see if tapping that fixes the issue. I'll update this once I get a chance to do that.

 

[Da 6]

I did it a while back. I never got it to be sensitive enough. I had it a partial turn from where it wouldn't go off from the chirps of the horn when I locked the doors. Did anyone else get it to go off when you put the key in the drivers door and held it 3 seconds to the left or right?

 

[keymaster]

That was interesting.....

So, I ran a wire into the plug where the instructions indicate for the ground wire (and where I am missing a wire coming out of that plug). The sensor powered up just fine off of that; the LED lit up, and also the security light in the dashboard did the same thing where it was minimally lighted. But, when I locked the door the sensor didn't work! It seems that that line is not active when the door is closed for some reason. I put it back as it was, and it works still (with the extra "feature" of the dimly illuminated security light and occasionally flashing dome lights).

Da 6, that might have been your problem...if you never got it sensitive enough then it might have been powered down like I saw. The sensitivity test is to drop a tennis ball on the windshield, and the alarm goes off when I have it turned about 1/3 of the way around and do that.

I'm going to try running the ground wire to some metal and see if that changes things. I'm starting to think that the instructions aren't valid for the Mazdaspeed 6, or that the wire that it pointed me to for the accessory power isn't the right one (though it's the only orange one I see). The alarm works, I'd just like to get the wiring so that it doesn't do this strange glitching before I write it up.

 

[BacDoc]

I'm getting random alarm going off stuff. I'm not sure if big trucks going by my main road are triggering it or not but something is. Is there an adjustment or a way to turn it off?

 

[tunersteve]

I'm getting random alarm going off stuff. I'm not sure if big trucks going by my main road are triggering it or not but something is. Is there an adjustment or a way to turn it off?

I believe there's a pot switch under the dash on the module itself. Crawl under there and see, I think you turn it CCW to reduce sensitivity.

 

[keymaster]

What Steve said...if you have this sensor in the car, then it's a black box about two inches by an inch by a half inch, and probably zip tied to the cable bundle above the fuse box under the driver's side dash. There is an LED and a small white dial...the LED blinks when the sensor is activated.

Turn CCW to make it more sensitive, CW to make it less. To test it, lock the car and smack the windshield with your hand...if you smack hard enough the alarm should go off. The test in the installation instructions is to drop a tennis ball a meter onto the windshield; the sensor should be set so that this just sets it off. I backed off from that, cars driving by with a loud exhaust when parked on the street were setting it off.

I need to get back to this, just haven't had the time to take it all apart and run a ground wire to a point yet.