Is this an alarm?

Completely randomly in frequency of times it happens, hot or cold engine, engine on or off, for 10 minutes or 5 seconds. It goes WEEEE-OOO WEEEEE-OOO WEEEEE-OOOOO ZRRRRT ZRRRRT BUZZBLIP BUZZBLIP WEEEEE-OOOO WEEEE-OOOO.

I have a Viper 550 alarm system on the vehicle and have researched, but I cannot see any fuses that I need to pull, or any lights/sensors that would cause it to go off. (Dome light, door latch sensor) It is coming from the engine bay, middle to bottom, literally right in front of the driver side door. It's somewhere in that corner. Is it a gauge alarm or the security sensor? Key fob has failed to turn sound off.

Opening and closing the the passenger side door and locking it got it to turn off, but it happened again 2 times after that. Once for like 2 minutes, the second time for like 5 seconds, 3 minutes apart, then went at least 6 minutes without going off and did not stay to see if it would happen again.

What does it mean if it is happening when the engine is off?

My guess is a proximity sensor is either set too sensitive or is decided to be wonky....

Bob.

It's unlikely anyone will know what to tell you about a custom installed aftermarket alarm on your car...

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Originally Posted by futurevr4man

It's unlikely anyone will know what to tell you about a custom installed aftermarket alarm on your car...

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A viper 550ESP would have come with a multi-tone siren that sounds like this when going off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdsuUlEP57g

To attempt to troubleshoot something like this online, quite a bit of information is needed:

1) Does the sound match that of the siren in the youtube link, and is it loud?
2) Aside from when the system may be faulting, does it work via the remote?
3) If it does work, are you making sure to hit the disarm button once to silence the alarm and then again to actually disarm the alarm?
4) Do you know what extras may have been installed with the unit like Piezo sirens, proximity sensors, limit switches, pin switches, etc?
5) Since it is a 550, does the remote start function work?
6) Do your dome lights and hood pin function properly with the doors open or hood up?
7) Does the remote look like this?
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/318h1ep-kJL.jpg

If you are trying to disarm an aftermarket alarm with a factory keyless entry key fob it will not work.

If you just want to pull a fuse to disable the system you just need to find the alarm unit and remove the fuse on the red wire. Since the 550 was a remote start unit you would need to make sure you remove the fuse from the small red wire going to the alarm and not from one of the big red wires going the remote start relays.

95GTO you are correct I do have that key fob, and that alarm matches the one I have, while it not the exact alarm I am trying to resolve, the vehicle does have the 550 viper alarm going off when I have the battery hooked up. I am trying to solve a not as loud alarm that will go off at completely random times for random lengths of time. The car also tried to start itself without any clutch or key in the ignition so I am at a total loss of what it could be at this stage of troubleshooting it.



I cannot turn off the alarm (550) with that key fob or find where the fuse would be. One key fob does function with locking and unlocking, the other key fob does not work at all with a brand new battery in it.

So to clarify, when the battery is connected to the vehicle i have these 3 things:

I have the engine randomly trying to start itself,
Random alarm going off for random amounts of time randomly
Viper 550 alarm going off.

4) Do you know what extras may have been installed with the unit like Piezo sirens, proximity sensors, limit switches, pin switches, etc? I only know what is on my garage page, and the receipts for the stuff on the garage page.
5) Since it is a 550, does the remote start function work? I have no idea what or where this function is.
6) Do your dome lights and hood pin function properly with the doors open or hood up? I do not understand this question.

Keeping the battery unplugged is the only safe way I know the vehicle won't blow up for the time being now.

My opinion... rip the whole damn thing out. Aftermarket alarms and aftermarket remote starts end up being nothing but problems, hence like you are experiencing.

Look for a valet button..a red or black small button about 1/4" in diameter either mounted someplace under the dash or just wire tied..on some models the valet is built into the antenna(if its a long range 2 way model)

Turn on the key to igniton, press valet for 5 sec and this should turn off the alarm..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EmeraldRegice

95GTO you are correct I do have that key fob, and that alarm matches the one I have, while it not the exact alarm I am trying to resolve, the vehicle does have the 550 viper alarm going off when I have the battery hooked up. I am trying to solve a not as loud alarm that will go off at completely random times for random lengths of time. The car also tried to start itself without any clutch or key in the ignition so I am at a total loss of what it could be at this stage of troubleshooting it.



I cannot turn off the alarm (550) with that key fob or find where the fuse would be. One key fob does function with locking and unlocking, the other key fob does not work at all with a brand new battery in it.

So to clarify, when the battery is connected to the vehicle i have these 3 things:

I have the engine randomly trying to start itself,
Random alarm going off for random amounts of time randomly
Viper 550 alarm going off.

4) Do you know what extras may have been installed with the unit like Piezo sirens, proximity sensors, limit switches, pin switches, etc? I only know what is on my garage page, and the receipts for the stuff on the garage page.
5) Since it is a 550, does the remote start function work? I have no idea what or where this function is.
6) Do your dome lights and hood pin function properly with the doors open or hood up? I do not understand this question.

Keeping the battery unplugged is the only safe way I know the vehicle won't blow up for the time being now.

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So if I understand your post you have two different alarms on this car, a Viper 550 and something else??

It is common for alarm systems to immediately go off when they are first powered up after a battery is disconnected, and alarm/remote start systems can even try to start the car. However the remote for the 550 should be able to turn off that system which should eliminate two of your three issues. If you have a second alarm system on the car your options for turning it off are:

1) use the remote for it (which you may not have)
2) use the valet switch (which you may not have or know where it is)
3) pull the fuse on the power wire, or better yet uninstall the thing.

A second alarm would require a second siren, have you tried locating it?

Also I would strongly recommend dropping the driver's side lower dash panel and snapping some pictures to help with this discussion. If you had an existing aftermarket alarm on your car before the 550 was installed the installer should have removed the other unit. Regardless any alarm will need to connect to the ignition harness and removing that lower panel makes it easy to see what all is running to the ignition harness.

Edit: Something else to note is that low battery voltage makes aftermarket security products do very strange things. Be sure your battery is nice an charged before you reconnect it.

Remote starts definitely do not try to start the car when first powered up.

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Originally Posted by Streamln1

Remote starts definitely do not try to start the car when first powered up.

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Speaking from personal experience it can and has happened. It isn't a common thing like the alarm going off but I have had a 550 ESP do it. There is a reason DEI recommended making connections like a hood pin prior to powering up the unit.

So I have found out that it was something to with the actual car alarm going off the viper 550, and there are not 2 alarms going off like I originally thought. I know it was receiving power from the gauges in my pillar pods, so both of those are disconnected. A new problem is that my radio will not function now, but I'm going to get it working in time. I suspect a bad wire coming to/from my gauges (or radio possibly) and will need to replace it.

Glad you're getting it sorted. :)