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Clifford Alarm stopped chirping/ not working correctly? Read on! (How-to guide)


Pabs
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Hey All,

 

If you have a Clifford Alarm that is a few years old, or perhaps a Clifford alarm that no longer chirps

when you lock/unlock the car (with the setting switched on) READ-ON!

 

 

Information

 

Clifford very cleverly (yeah, right!) designed their alarms so that they use a backup battery so continue to

provide power to the system even when the cables are cut. This is a good idea, but can lead into issues as the

alarms age, because batteries don't last forever!

 

 

The problem

 

Within the siren unit itself, Clifford placed a Nicad backup battery. As you probably know, Nicads

suffer from the "memory effect" whereby if left on charge, or not fully cycled properly, no longer hold their

charge. Here's the clever bit: (and you can check your manual for proof) To alert the owner of a failed backup

battery, Clifford decided to set the alarm to NOT CHIRP when you lock/unlock the car when the battery was dead.

Nice warning, huh? Some people wouldn't even notice!

 

The solution

 

To fix this, we need to replace the backup battery. These batteries contain 6 cells, each cell is 1/2 the length

of a standard AA battery. The total voltage of the battery is 7.2V. A suitable battery pack replacement can be

purchased from ebay for around £13 delivered, or probably from Maplins, or even custom made for less. The standard Nicad is 350mah, replacements of 550mah are a good idea as they will last longer.

 

Here is a photo of the culprit (new ebay Ni-mh battery on the left, old ni-cad on right):

 

image

 

And here's what you need to do!

 

1. Unlock the vehicle and place the alarm into Valet mode (the indicator LED will turn on constantly). Disconnect

the main battery from the car by removing the negative lead, obviously making sure you know all of your stereo

codes etc.

 

2. Locate the Clifford Siren, usually within the engine bay of the vehicle.

 

3. Remove the siren from the bracket, which can usually be done by loosening both bolts (1 either side of the

siren housing) and pulling the siren down and out. Alternatively, undo 1 bolt completely (catch those bolts and

nuts!!) and the unscrew the bracket from the car.

 

4. With the siren out of the engine bay, carefully pull as much cable slack as possible to enable you to move

the siren for easier access.

 

5. Using a posi-driver, remove the two long screws entering the rear of the siren housing. This will enable the

speaker at the front to drop out of the case. Be careful not to drop it and put strain on the cables.

 

6. On the side of the siren case, you will find the cable entry point. Undo the 4 posi-drive screws from the

bracket, and carefully prise it away from the housing, as it will most likely be glued in place.

 

7. With the cable bracket removed, the cable should be free to move in and out of the case. Feed some of the

cable slack INTO the housing, and this will enable you to remove the alarm PCB (circuit board) out from the

front, where the speaker used to be.

 

8. Keep feeding slack through as necessary to get the PCB well clear of the alarm. You should now have something

like this:

 

image

 

9. The battery is the big bit sat on top of the PCB. To remove this, cut both cable ties, ensuring that when

the battery is free you retain the plastic sheet that the battery is sitting on.

 

10. You now have 2 options - 1 is to un-solder the red and black cables from the PCB that connect to the battery

, or you can cut both cables somewhere between the two, and then strip/resolder the new battery to these. I

opted for the latter because the PCB is heavily populated with components near to the solder joints and I didn't

want to damage anything.

 

 

11. With the old battery out, it's time to put the new one in! Strip all wire ends (2 on battery and if you

chose the latter in #10 the 2 fly-leads on the PCB) and "tin" them so that they are ready to be joined. Don't

forget the heatshrink material to insulate the joins afterwards.

 

 

12. With the new battery soldered on, place the plastic sheet you threw away in step #9 (lol) under the battery

and then onto the PCB as it was before. Use 2 cable ties to resecure the battery to the PCB.

 

13. Feed the PCB back into the siren housing, ensuring it slots into the PCB guides in the sides. As you slide

it in, pull through the slack in the cable so as not to trap it.

 

14. When all slack is removed from the case, and PCB held in nicely, reattach the cable bracket using the 4

screws to clamp it in place on the side of the unit.

 

15. Slot the siren speaker back into the front of the case, and reattach using the 2 long screws.

 

16. Replace the alarm into the bracket, and tighten the bolts as necessary.

 

17. Reattach your main battery to the car, and assuming you put it into Valet mode as in step #1, the alarm will

return to valet mode. If you didn't, find your car keys and turn the alarm off!

 

18. Test your alarm! You should find that the chirps on lock/unlock are now present, and the proximity sensor

chirps work again too!

 

Enjoy :)

 

 

P.S - any Clifford retailer will try to sell you a new siren at the cost of approx £90 - the above solution

is much cheaper, and only takes around 15mins to do!

Edited by Pabs (see edit history)
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Thanks mate!!! Was just about to make a post asking why mine has just stopped chirping. Had it plugged in to my cliffnet wizard this afternoon and couldn't figure it out. Do you have a link to them on ebay? I want to make sure I get the right ones.

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http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370049039066

 

That's the one I bought. Steveo-evo is the seller, but hasn't relisted any at the moment.

 

As mentioned - I'm sure you could get the battery pack from maplins or similar, but as I didn't know what the battery looked like, let alone anything else, I bought from him. Hopefully the info above will save people a few quid.

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Damn wish i had known this. My alarm didn't give me the chirps but it was because i thought they were turned off. The alarm started going nuts so i ended up changing the whole thing over for a new one! Argghhh.

 

Oh well, you live and you learn :)

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Yeh - it bugged me because I even had the Clifford software and cable - and I made sure the settings were set to LOUD or even QUIET, but neither made a noise.

 

I first found out the issue because I disconnected my battery and reconnected it after taking the dash out - the chirps started working again, but only for a day or two.

 

This is because the Nicads get the "memory effect" and by disconnecting the battery you drain the backup battery, and upon reconnection you effectively charge it again. But it doesn't hold it's charge so eventually stops making the noise.

 

How the hell Clifford thought that turning off the chirps would WARN you that the battery was flat I don't know - would have been better to make MORE noise! I suppose this wasn't possible with a flat battery though.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just had an update from Steveo -

 

 

Hi m8,

 

Got some kits in stock now, limited availability though.

 

The original batteries are Ni-cads 350mAh These new kits are Nickel-metal-Hydride with 550mAh which basically means they are loads better.

They will last twice as long as the Ni-cads and sound the siren for much longer when the vehicle battery is disconnected under attack.

 

Here's a quick link to buy:-

 

NiMH Repair Kit

 

Don't forget to let me have your full name & address :o)

 

Steve

 

So I have ordered one :D

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If anyone else has a problem in the future, this guy is also a source:

 

From: Graeme Simpson [mailto:[email protected]]

Sent: 24 June 2008 09:27

To: Rob

Subject: RE: Clifford

 

Hi Rob,

 

Yep still do the batteries with fitting instructions for the Clifford Alarms, they are £14.50 incl recorded delivery postage.

 

If you want one you can paypal to: [email protected]

 

We are currently on holiday down the south of England but will be home on Saturday and can send one out straight away.

 

 

Graeme

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Nice writeup. I thought mine had gone, but it turned out the siren was right next to the turbos, so after some vigorous driving the heat from the turbos was stopping the siren working for about a day and a ahlf, and then magically work again :)

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Just as an update/feedback on this to anyone doing it in the future.

 

Done the battery swap last night, was extremely easy took about 15 mins. When I tested it it still didn't beep on arming/disarming, so stripped it down and tested connections with multimeter and was connected fine. Assumed that the batteries needed some time to charge so just left it for the night and tested this morning but still no chirping. Drove the 3 miles to work and upon locking the car the alarm chirped nice and loud! So can only assume that the car needed to be started and turned off for the alarm to be reset and start chirping again.

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Just as an update/feedback on this to anyone doing it in the future.

 

Done the battery swap last night, was extremely easy took about 15 mins. When I tested it it still didn't beep on arming/disarming, so stripped it down and tested connections with multimeter and was connected fine. Assumed that the batteries needed some time to charge so just left it for the night and tested this morning but still no chirping. Drove the 3 miles to work and upon locking the car the alarm chirped nice and loud! So can only assume that the car needed to be started and turned off for the alarm to be reset and start chirping again.

 

 

Interesting - I never needed to do this myself. I did check my battery with a multimeter when I received it and it was fully charged, and once it was soldered into place I checked the voltage across the solder connections on the board to make sure the connections were good. Mine worked straight away - but it's good to know what you did just in case it's not the same for everyone!

 

Glad it's working now though! I've switched the chirping to the "quiet" version, so it doesn't make me jump out of my skin every time I arm/disarm :D

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Just as an update/feedback on this to anyone doing it in the future.

 

Done the battery swap last night, was extremely easy took about 15 mins. When I tested it it still didn't beep on arming/disarming, so stripped it down and tested connections with multimeter and was connected fine. Assumed that the batteries needed some time to charge so just left it for the night and tested this morning but still no chirping. Drove the 3 miles to work and upon locking the car the alarm chirped nice and loud! So can only assume that the car needed to be started and turned off for the alarm to be reset and start chirping again.

 

Result! Don't supose you know how to disable the auto locking on a Clifford? I just know that sooner or later I'm going to lock myself out :(

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Result! Don't supose you know how to disable the auto locking on a Clifford? I just know that sooner or later I'm going to lock myself out :(

 

Been there and done that. I'm not sure on the combination but if you go to www.clifford.com you can download the usermanual for the alarm you have. All the combo's are in there :)

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Result! Don't supose you know how to disable the auto locking on a Clifford? I just know that sooner or later I'm going to lock myself out :(

 

If you know where the control unit is we could hook it up to my cliffnet wizzard?

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Could you bring it to the meet on Tues? I will have a hunt for the control unit.

Many thanks :)

 

It will most likely be behind your stereo (PITA).

 

What does your fob look like?

 

Is it like this http://www.btinternet.com/~madmole/images/Alarm.1.jpg

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