DarrylH

Well, I have a '90 Canadian-spec (airbag) coupe, no mods to radio or anything else, and my glovebox alarm doesn't work either. The rest of the alarm system works fine, so I don't care, but the PDF version of the workshop manuals have a "troubleshooting" section for the alarm, if anyone's interested. As usual, it seems you need a "special tool"...

darth

Jason

I do have a sunroof and I'll check if the 30amp fuse in #13 is in.

DarryIH

Interesting, I think it's like 4 for 4 MY1990's have no glovebox alarm - I'm wondering if this is due to the service buletin at that time and a lot of lazy mechanics who just cut the second switch lead instead of putting in the extra rubber washer to avoid alarms going off!!?

Bill
90C2

DarrylH

Don't you love the "Unfavorable assembly tolerances in the glove compartment door/lamp switch" line? But given the less than stellar quality of some of these small bits in these cars, I'm betting the practical mechanic, as Mr Streather says, just thought "Nah, too much work. Just cut the wire and nobody'll ever miss it!" I'd sure never have known about it if you hadn't started chasing it down.

Adrian

I think you will find the alarm troubleshooting section in the manuals is primarily for the 1991 and up microprocessor system. The image on page D90-1 is clearly of the old 928 alarm version.
Using the connector pin outs, Connector II pin 16 is the glove compartment contact.
Cabriolets have the extra switch under the rear parcel shelf is they do not have rear seats fitted.
One possible scenario is "Lazy mechanics". Another is that when the fault was discovered it was deemed okay to disable the glove compartment contact until a fix was found for certain markets.
Another maybe that during the airbag installation (which at the time was an option) the glove compartment contact switch had to be changed.
The original 1990 models for the Candian market were delivered without airbags. Canadian models are essentially USA spec cars.
Who knows? But according to the paperwork the glove compartment contact is hooked up and should work. Mine does by the way and mine is an 89 model and the switch modification has been carried out.
Ciao,
Adrian.

darth

Hi All

I removed the glove compartment door and the inside wall to gain better access to the wires behind the dash. There were a couple of wires which were cut off but connecting them to the glove compartment switch didn't work. There were 2 others with connecters and it turns out one of them was the wire that was disconnected. It was on the left hand side of the glove compartment very close to the glove box switch. Now I can say all the electrical problems are fixed - seatbelt/airbag light reset and out, alarm - radio green wire wasn't terminated by PO causing alarm to trigger from time to time, glovebox alarm - I even found the there's a light in the cigarette lighter that was burnt out.

Thanks for all your your responses and help especially Adrian.
Bill
90C2

Adrian

Dear Bill,
Glad to see you have been able to fix it.
One less Coupe in the poll results now (just kidding)
Ciao,
Adrian.

autosound

Im presuming you just want to ceck if your alarm is working if so all you gotta do is open the drivers door click the lock shut with a screw driver hold the door switch in with your finger set the alarm wait for it to set and release the door switch alarm should go off.

darth

Adrian

Touche!

Now I'm wondering what those two wires which were obviously cut. One was a brown wire with a black stripe and the other was black. They were coming out of a large blue connector just above the connector where the hammer plugs into.

Bill
90C2

Adrian

Dear Bill,
I do not know 100% because I was not there, but based on my experience with 964s and especially the repairing of problems, I would suggest there was a problem (or thought to be a problem) with the glove box contact and the alarm and it was disabled. Clearly done by somebody who could read a wiring diagram.
Ciao,
Adrian.

MSA