Maruti Alto gets a door-open warning lamp: DIY Installation process

I downloaded the door open symbol from Google Images and took a print of it with a black background.

BHPian Pannag recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

As from my last post I got good responses and encouragement to post my DIYs, here I will be starting, buckle up

1. Door Ajar warning in the instrument cluster

A few cars (especially old Altos) did not come with door-ajar warning lamps and were bad for Alto owners, so am I. This is why I did a DIY with simple hacks.

I first downloaded the door open symbol from Google Images and took a print of it with a black background. If your printer doesn’t have enough juice for black darken it with maybe a sketch pen or something. Here is the printout

Now you have to take out the instrument cluster assy out of the car dashboard. Be careful not to tamper with any couplers or wiring as these are very fragile. On Alto, if you see the assy backside, you will notice a lot of sockets left blank for T5-type bulbs on either side of the temperature gauge and Fuel Gauge. So you can choose any of them.

Then you need to remove the complete guage (be extremely careful) safely by unscrewing it from behind and it will come off loose from the cluster bracket.

Now you need to scratch the backside of the gauge gently to scrape away black film on a part which covers the socket you intended to use for door ajar. You should be able to see enough light passes through it:

Now affix the cropped printout to the cleared area on the gauge and test if you see light masked by the door open symbol. You can use any glue as long as it doesn't mess with print ink or paper.

Also, I used the pin on the instrument cluster PCB membrane that was blank so that it would look better and shouldn’t confuse technicians with more wiring.

2. Buzzer for lock system

If your Alto is equipped with a Central lock (particularly NCS 509) then you can also get a buzzer to make you aware of any door that is not latched properly when you hit 20-25 kmph. The idea is to use a circuit from the Valet switch lamp LED connected to the security module which blinks intermittently.

Mine has been working fine (maybe I will upload a video of it) and how it works is with this below circuit diagram)

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.