Possible reason why neighbor's car alarm is intermittently going off in the dark?

[Jillpie]

It's so bizarre. Since about 9:00 pm, his alarm is beeping and parking lights are going off. Just when I think it is over, it starts up. I've been looking over there, and all his lights are off, as if he's gone to bed?? What could cause this, and would you do anything about it? It's not a piercing loud noise, it's almost like a bird chirping, goes off every hour or so. Weird!

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

Small critter that's crawled in the engine block and keeps moving around?

Short circuit?

To be honest, though, I might go check.

 

[SandrA9810]

My grandmother's old Capris Classic used to do that. Even when she didn't set the alarm, it would set on its own after a few minutes. She resorted to sleeping with the alarm key and turning it off when it went off. Never did figure out what made it so sensitive.

 

[superme80]

DH got a new to us car that has a super sensitive alarm. The former owners didn't live in the best neighborhood and it had been broken into before.

 

[Jillpie]

Well...it stopped. For now. I'll ask him about it next time I see him, real nice guy. Hopefully that'll be the end of it for the night!

 

[TheoDawg]

Like I do quite often, they fell asleep with the remote in their pocket. Or the obvious reason is to annoy their neighbor.

 

[powellrj]

Sounds like it might be some kind of a short.

 

[jlima]

Possibly the car battery is nearly kaput? I know for the alarm system in the house before we lived here, there's a motorcycle battery that powered the alarm system if the power went out, but when the battery's useful life is over the alarm system would beep. Maybe the same for a car?

 

[lizabu]

My van used to do that. No one would touch it or anything. I took the fuse for the horn out so at least it wouldn't honk. This gave me a little time to get it to the mechanic to fix.

 

[MissManda]

Something similar happened with one of my neighbors not long ago. Her car alarm kept going off one night. She would turn it off and a few minutes later it would go off again. this went on for almost 2 hours. Eventually the police showed up and once they did, the alarm stopped. My guess is they pulled the fuse. Also, a few months ago the same car horn (not the alarm) just randomly decided to start honking. Half the guys in the neighborhood were out there trying to get it to stop. I think her car has some sort of short in the system. Could be the same for your neighbor.

 

[HM]

One of my coworkers has a car that does that occasionally. Car folks can figure out why it's happening. It goes off at work or it goes off at home (middle of the night, like you OP, too). It's as annoying for the owners as it is for the people living around them, believe me.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

The alarm on my new car was so sensitive, that just a car driving down the street causing that little gust of wind would set it off. After 3 days of it going off everytime the mailman stopped to deliver mail (and every car/truck/whatever driving by), we took it back to the dealer and had them reset the sensitivity.

 

[PeterPanic]

Could be a lot of non-technical reasons. Are the young kids around? They can accidentally hit the "panic" button on the key chain. Or be in a pocket that is coming in contact with a surface that accidentally pushes the button. I set mine off once when I just put my hand in my pocket. I was in a restaurant and I could hear this horn blowing and made a sarcastic comment about people and there stupid car alarms, when I happened to look out the window and to my embarrassment was greeted by my own car noisily blaring away, lights flashing, etc.

I live in an apartment complex and I know that sometimes that happens and the car owner can't even hear it. So it blares away until it times out.

 

[Dee & Greg]

My old 2002 Saab 9-5 had this problem... in the Saab, the security alarm has it's own power source (A lithium battery) that is separate from the car battery. That way if anyone tries to dismantle the car alarm by disconnecting the car battery, it won't work.
Unfortunatly as my car got older, the power source started dying.. with 145,000 miles on it, I wasn't going to invest the $500 for the replacement litium battery... it had to die a slow and embarassing death.
Turning the key wouldn't shut it off.. starting it wouldn't shut it off...
We referred to the car as Christine (from the horror movie!)

 

[DebbieB]

I had a neighbor who had a truck with an alarm. Every morning someone would go up the street with a loud muffler that would set off the alarm! It was ridiculous!

 

[Scrappy_Tink]

Was it a windy night? I've seen problems like this when it's extremely windy...also when battery is close to dying (like the fire alarms in your house)

 

[Maridw]

The alarm on my new car was so sensitive, that just a car driving down the street causing that little gust of wind would set it off. After 3 days of it going off everytime the mailman stopped to deliver mail (and every car/truck/whatever driving by), we took it back to the dealer and had them reset the sensitivity.

We had a Toyota Rav4 that was the same way. Took it to the dealer and they tried to set it so it wasn't so sensitive. Still had problems occasionally, a big truck would drive by and it would go off. The back door at work would slam just right and it would go off. I actually had to set it so that it was off all the time, but because of where the on/off button was located, I would hit it accidentally and would turn it on. Unfortunately lost that car in an accident. Miss my Rav

 

[HockeyMomNH]

I read somewhere recently that they recommend the elderly keep their alarm with them. If something happens in the house they can set off the alarm outside so that someone will come and investigate. Sort of a low cost house alarm system.

If there was a car going off in the neighborhood I would probably call the non-emergency line and ask for someone to at least check on the house. Most likely if the car is there there is someone inside. I would wonder why they can't hear it.

 

[PeterPanic]

I read somewhere recently that they recommend the elderly keep their alarm with them. If something happens in the house they can set off the alarm outside so that someone will come and investigate. Sort of a low cost house alarm system.

If there was a car going off in the neighborhood I would probably call the non-emergency line and ask for someone to at least check on the house. Most likely if the car is there there is someone inside. I would wonder why they can't hear it.

That makes you and possibly two other people that would do that. Today having one of those is an absolute waste of money. There is no single automotive extra that is so universally ignored then a car alarm. We all listen, occasionally glance toward the offending vehicle and continue on with whatever we were doing. It's mostly because there are probably 1000X more false alarms then real ones.

 

[LiveYourLife]

I feel your pain, OP. Our neighbor's car alarm goes off in reaction to the smallest things. And it's not a regular car alarm, it's the one with the different noise sequences: BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BOMP-BOMP-BOMP-BOMP-WOOOOOOH-WOOOOOOH-WOOOOOOH-BEEBOO-BEEBOO-BEEBOO-WHUP-WHUP-WHUP!!!

Lather, rinse, repeat. So annoying.