After doing some research on this board and at some of the "How-To" sites, I am leaning very hard towards installing the factory alarm in my '04 MCS. Now I learned that the 04 models have all of the wiring installed so today, after I took delivery of my car, I went on a search to find all of the wire harness locations. I was only able to find 2: the location for the radar sensor in the headliner, and the location for the siren (at least what looked like a harness covered in electrical tape). But I could not find the others, at least the ones that were easy to get to, in particular the harness for the tilt sensor which is installed just forward of the driver's side tail light.

Can anyone give some insight? I know I can order the parts at a pretty good price but usually install instructions don't come with OEM parts. TIA!

 

Instructions will come with the alarm kit, but check out the pics in my alarm install page - they may help.

Click the link in my sig and then click "MINI Alarm Install".

 

Thanks!

That is exactly what I was looking for. I will take another look tomorrow since I know what to look for now.

BTW, do you know how much user programability is there is with the factory alarm? I know it must be programmed by the dealer, but are there any options for the alarm that we can have the dealer program?

 

No programmable options that I know of. The only thing you have any control over is when you arm it with the remote, hitting the lock button a second time will disable the tilt sensor. This is handy if you want to arm it while on a ferry.

And one more thing - it doesn't "chirp" when you arm/disarm it, unless a door or hatch is open then it will chirp to warn you of this.