alarm goes off spontaneously
 

Starting yesterday, my car seems to have developed an alarm problem. During the last 28 hours or so, the alarm spontaneously activated on 7 occasions and I had to use the key fob to shut it off. No, nobody was tampering with the car or breaking into it. Doors were closed and locked. There was no reason for the alarm to go off. Any ideas?

Mine has done this twice, but i can't be sure i wasn't leaning on the key.

holy man with holy water!! Question is does it only do it in one spot or does it do it where ever you are. If it is only in one area there may be a signal it is getting thinking the panic button has been pushed. If it does it everywhere I would suggest taking it to the dealership because you may have a short or a mouse/rat chewing on wires causing it to go off.

it only happens in my driveway so far. but i always parked there for over 2 years and it only started yesterday. also i thought it's very difficult for outside signals to interfere and trigger the alarm. and no, i did not accidentally push the panic button those 7 times.

if you have the ability to park in the garage or somewhere else and see if it happens, if it does then you probably have a short, if it does not and you then park back in your driveway and it starts doing it again you can bet someone or something has some device that is causing it to go off. I would try to nail it down to time of day/location/conditions to narrow it down before going to a shop. Good luck

If you are absolutely sure that the either remotes are not being handled at the time of the panic alarm going off I'd also suggest what kelly has mentioned to have the dealer see if there's anything they can do.

Was your key exposed to water? (not rain, but accidentally fell in a puddle of water, or bucket of water or in your pants and put into the laundry) Water damage can cause that, If its water damage, Nissan should be able to replace your key.

No water damage. As for the times of occurrence, the first 3 times happened within 1/2 hour thursday afternoon around 4 pm or so. The next 3 times also happened within 1/2 hour at 5 am Friday morning (yes, it woke me up from my sleep :( ) The last time it happened at around 3 pm friday.

One thing I noticed is that on all times the key fob was on my cupboard close to the window near the driveway, so it was within reach of the car. I thought perhaps the battery is getting low, and its causing the key fob circuits to malfunction and accidentally trigger the panic button. So yesterday I swapped batteries with my spare fob, and placed the key in the same spot. So far the problem hasn't happened again yet.

i was gonna say low battery in the remote.

Would it theoretically be possible? That's my working hypothesis right now. Is it possible that low battery might cause the fob to freak out and send the panic signal to the car without me pushing the panic button?

It's highly unlikely that a low battery would trigger the panic since the signaling strength of the remote gets weaker, And would eventually require you to actually stand right by the car to be able to read it or in a complete dead battery situation you would need to open it with the mech key. I don't see much can be done unless the dealer changes out the rf code to the remote. Have no idea if its possible but I'd hope its covered under the warranty.

Kind of sounds like the short or a bad crimp on a door connector, have you disconnected/
reconnected anything electrical ? maybe it is making intermittent contact.
On a side note, our fobs are tough, I ran one through the washer/dryer and still works fine,
wondering if I shortened it lifespan tho.

UPDATE:

Took the car to the dealer today. They were able to replicate the problem (when was the last time you heard that, lol). They traced the problem to a faulty hood release sensor. It kept mistaking that the hood is being opened and sent a signal to trigger the alarm. They will order a new switch from nissan, but for now they disconnected the switch so i can lock the doors without worrying about the alarm going off by itself.

Cool outcome.

:iagree: