Car Alarm Goes Off For No Reason

[Amy]

This is driving us nuts, and you DIS-ers seem to know lots of stuff, so I figured I'd ask here.

My boys share a car, a 2007 Saturn Ion. On Friday, while it was parked in the driveway, the car alarm went off for no reason. No big deal, they hit the button on the key fob and it stopped. 10 minutes later, it went off again. Then again about 15 min later. Nothing for a few hours, then it did it again. Same thing yesterday morning, and again once overnight, and then twice this morning.

DH checked all the door hinges/latches to be sure no dirt or anything was blocking them (thinking maybe there's a sensor that thought the door was open). We replaced the batteries in the key fobs. I figured if your smoke alarm chirps when the battery is getting low, maybe the same thing happened with your key battery. They followed the directions in the owners manual to disable the alarm - you know press this button 10 times, stand on your head, twirl around twice and press this other button. They're sure they did it right, but in a couple of hours the alarm went off again. (Maybe after you drive it and then lock it you un-do the disabling?)

Has this happened to any of you? Do you have any ideas what we can do to fix it? I'm worried - what happens if they're at work, park the car, and the alarm goes off while they're at work and don't hear it? Will the alarm stop after a certain length of time, or will it continue to go off until the main car battery dies? My oldest works 10-12 hours shifts at an amusement park and has to park in a far lot - I don't want him getting to the car at 11pm and finding a dead battery!

Obviously tomorrow my DH will call our mechanic and see what he says. But this is the weekend, and it's getting pretty annoying. And I'm sure the neighbors weren't too thrilled when the alarm went off in the middle of the night!

 

[sunnyday123]

This happened to a friend of mine. Car alarm would go off, she'd go out to check, nothing wrong. Set the alarm. Happend about three nights in a row, at various times, until she got annoyed and didn't set the alarm. Got up the next morning, and no car.

The office who took the stolen car report said theives will do that, waiting exactly for what she did to happen, so they can steal the car.

Of course, it could be some sort of malfunction. I'd take it to get checked out just in case.

 

[dislaney]

I have no idea why but my dh was driving home a few days ago and his car alarm went off when he was driving the car! We still haven't figured that one out.

Sorry I am no help for your car alarm issue but I hope it stops soon. I know it can drive you batty!

 

[ChristmasElf]

I have a Suburban and this was happening to us in the middle of the night last year for a week or so!
The car doesn't get driven that much and when I mentioned it to a friend that owns a car dealership, he told me to have DH disconnect the battery for about 15 minutes or so, it should stop as the computer in the car will re set itself.
He also said that we should drive the car at least 25 miles a week versus just letting it sit as the fluids won't settle (which apparently this isn't good either)


We tried what he said, and haven't had any problem since!

 

[Amy]

Well, DH disconnected the car battery. We'll see if that works. I hope so!

Thanks for your help! I'll let you know.......

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

My van alarm has been doing this. My DH thinks the sensor has gone bad. I just don't lock it anymore. If someone wants it, they can have it!

 

[Maridw]

Mine would do the same thing. We took it back to the dealer and they checked the sensor. There is a way to lower the sensitivity of the sensor. The dealer set it to the lowest setting and it still goes off at the slightest thing. If I was parked on the street, mine would go off if a car drove by fast enough to rock the vehicle.

I have turned mine off and never use it. Occasionally my knee will hit the button and turn it on. When this happens I have to reset it. Usually you have to have the key turned to the ON position to reset it. This could be the problem with why yours is not disabling. Mine does not say anywhere in the directions to have the key turned on.

 

[bumbershoot]

I have no idea why but my dh was driving home a few days ago and his car alarm went off when he was driving the car! We still haven't figured that one out.

Sounds familiar.

My mom and stepdad had a car (that I borrowed for 2 years at one point) that they bought used. When I was done with it but then was living with them for a year, we went on vacation from VA to upstate NY in December. It was a cold cold evening in Schenectady and suddenly the alarm decided to start going off, and it would not stop. We were driving. Thankfully we were at our destination for the evening and ultimately disconnecting the battery worked. In the morning we reconnected it and all was fine, never happened again.

Strangest thing? We'd had the car for upwards of 10 years...and as far as we knew...there was no car alarm.