Car Alarm goes off for no reason

vaio

Strider590 wrote: »

........I cracked open the alarm siren on my Vectra and wired in a 4 pack of cheap AAA NI-MH batteries (<£5). This was cheaper than buying a new sealed battery pack and give the alarm 3x more backup juice (equating to around 45mins).

Allowing the car horn to be used instead of the siren is risky, because if the alarm does get set off, it'll drain the car battery in no time at all. If that happens over night, then it'll be a new battery job.

Also and perhaps worse........ If you had a fault accident and they found your alarm was disconnected, you might find yourself on your own with cancelled insurance, a car to fix, a 3rd party car to pay for, injury compensations and a nice fat fine in the post from the DVLA for having tax with no insurance.
The alarm and immobiliser are conditions of your insurance policy.

Sounds like scaremongering to me

Hope you notified your insurer of the modifications you've made to your alarm system? If not all those nasty consequences could end up in your lap

JustinR1979

Strider590 wrote: »

Also and perhaps worse........ If you had a fault accident and they found your alarm was disconnected, you might find yourself on your own with cancelled insurance, a car to fix, a 3rd party car to pay for, injury compensations and a nice fat fine in the post from the DVLA for having tax with no insurance.
The alarm and immobiliser are conditions of your insurance policy.

As a non functioning alarm wouldn't cause you to crash, it wouldn't be an issue.
I've read some shit in my time, but I think that goes to the top of the pile.

lovinituk

Strider590 wrote: »

Also and perhaps worse........ If you had a fault accident and they found your alarm was disconnected, you might find yourself on your own with cancelled insurance, a car to fix, a 3rd party car to pay for, injury compensations and a nice fat fine in the post from the DVLA for having tax with no insurance.
The alarm and immobiliser are conditions of your insurance policy.

As said above, what a pile of dung! On my insurance it says I have an alarm and that is what I have - a working alarm. It doesn't say anywhere what sound it has to make.

vaio

As with lots of scaremongering there is a hint of truth in it even if there are lots of really unlikely ifs.....

If the insurer discovered the disconnected alarm and
If the insurer wouldn't have offered cover without the alarm

then they might have grounds for voiding the policy which would mean they would be able to avoid the own damage claim and recover any third party costs from the (former) policyholder

All vanishingly unlikely and even if they tried they would need to get it past the FOS and their "treat the punter fairly" test. I'm even less sure about the fine for having tax with no insurance

Strider590

http://www.mib.org.uk/Motor+Insurance+Database/en/Continuous+Insurance+Enforcement/default.htm



And ya'll wanna just down my throat for offering some warning about removal of the alarm siren..... But if your insurer asked if your car had an alarm fitted, then they'd be within their rights to cancel your insurance if you removed it.

I don't agree with it, I don't like it, but that is how these bloodsuckers operate.....

facade

Back to the OP.

The alarm in our RAV4 goes off for no reason, (according to the neighbour, he must be a light sleeper as I never hear it and our house is miles closer)

I found that "double pressing" the plip causes a long flash of the lights, and disables the internal sensors, which cures the problem.

JustinR1979

Strider590 wrote: »

http://www.mib.org.uk/Motor+Insurance+Database/en/Continuous+Insurance+Enforcement/default.htm



And ya'll wanna just down my throat for offering some warning about removal of the alarm siren..... But if your insurer asked if your car had an alarm fitted, then they'd be within their rights to cancel your insurance if you removed it.

I don't agree with it, I don't like it, but that is how these bloodsuckers operate.....

Where on the link are we looking?

mrmot

Get it plugged into a diagnostic computer using VCDS and you should be able to read the last 5 alarm trigger sources which should tell you what has set it off.

Gloomendoom

mrmot wrote: »

Get it plugged into a diagnostic computer using VCDS and you should be able to read the last 5 alarm trigger sources which should tell you what has set it off.

This. My car had a similar problem. It nearly drove me bonkers. I ended up leaving it unlocked.

It turned out to be a moth.

Richard53

I was loading the car up the other day and left the tailgate open for a while. Later, my wife complained that the car alarm had been going off. I checked all the doors were properly shut, but it was still happening. I then had a brainwave, opened one door fully, and a bluebottle flew out. Problem solved.


Good to know these internal sensor things actually work