My alarm seems to be going off randomly. Here's the situation:

Sometimes when I lock the vehicle, the alarm doesn't activate. This seems to happen more in cold weather, and as I understand the locking solenoids are what activate the alarm. Perhaps they move too slowly when they are cold.

Now the wierd part. I locked the vehicle two days ago after fixing the brakes, because I left my tools in it in the driveway. The alarm did not come on at that point. That night, just before bedtime the alarm went of randomly. I rant out to the driveway thinking someone was messing with the vehicle, but no one was in sight. The alarm shut itself off within 30 seconds to 1 minute, just about the time I got out there. I could see when I approached the vehicle that the dashboard alarm indicator LED was flashing properly, so I left it at that. Didn't open the driver's door or turn on the ignition, just left it.

This morning, while my wife was brushing snow off another vehicle, the alarm decided to go off again. She swears she didn't touch it or throw snow at it, and was actually quite agitated by the situation. I think it surprised her when it went off or something. Same as the first time, the alarm shut itself off within a minute, and before I even had a chance to throw on a bath robe and go investigate.

A third instance which may or may not be related, at the ski resort I accidentally set the alarm off when I folded down the wiper blades before deactivating the alarm. I don't know if this is normal operation, though I don't know why touching the wiper blades would set off an alarm.

So now my questions: could the above instances have something to do with the alarm not activating when I lock the vehicle? Or are those most likely two separate issues? Also, if this problem continues, should I worry about inadvertently activating the vehicle immobilization system? I really don't want the Disco immobilized as I am about to make it my secondary vehicle as opposed to the tertiary vehicle it now is.

Any guidance will be appreciated, I've heard nightmare stories about British electronics and am hoping this is not one of them... Although a circuit is a circuit, right?

 

when i unlock my doors, then open the door mine goes off. i have to close the door, lock the truck and unlock it again for it to stop.
i've considered just pulling the fuses, but haven't read up on whether the immobilization junk will mess with the car by doing this.
can't help you with yours, but i'm along for the ride.

 

Haha, misery loves company. I guess it could be worse, I could have a problem that actually interferes with the functionality of the vehicle... Hence asking about the immobilizer, lol.

 

With my truck locked and the alarm set I can climb the ladder and walk on the roof and it wont go off.
Brushing snow off of it or the car next to it should not be setting it off.
I have no clue to what the problem is but I wanted to give you some insight.

 

Spike, that's good to know. I'm pretty sure these don't have a vibration sensor or anything like that, that's why I'm so confused.

 

I believe they have an inertia switch but I also believe the vehicle would need to be backed into by another vehicle or withstand a pretty severe "bump" to set it off. I can't tell you how to fix your problem but I can tell you what I would do if you brought the truck to me. first I would test all the door/hood triggers, these are you pin switches at each door jamb (all 5 doors and one on the inside of the drivers fender) next I would make sure your key switch is sending a proper signal to the security module. the next step I would only do as a rover owner and only because I have access to the rave manual and it has a security system test procedure in it and that step would be to perform the test procedure. if after all of this I still could not resolve the problem I would then suggest the problem would require extensive (and probably pricey) repairs and suggest switching to aftermarket security as it provides better protection, performance, and features for a cheaper price than repairing or replacing the factory security system. If you do decide to go aftermarket leave the factory system untouched, the factory system ties into (provides power to) the OBD2 system so it can't really be properly disabled without causing issues to that. I installed a Viper 2 way alarm/remote start system the first or second week I had the truck (I had problems with the alarm too) and have never had an issue since. I never have to use the key in the door, and have much better protection now with a paging alert up to a mile away.

 

Won't the factory system still be activated each time you lock the door? I mean my problem as I see it is two-fold. First, the system doesn't always arm when I first lock the door (though it usually seems to somehow arm itself later on). Second, I have occasionally had weird instances of the alarm going off unnecessarily. Two of the three instances I am sure were a time the alarm had not armed correctly at first, although the first time (wiper blade incident) I hadn't thought of looking for a trend yet.

I will try diagnosing it later, but if I can't diagnose it is there a way to simply prevent it from arming?

 

factory alarm does not activate/deactivate from the actuators, it only controls the actuators, it activates/deactivates from the key barrel switch or the fob/remote. as for not letting it arm I believe you can interrupt the key barrel wire and that will prevent the system from arming, but you may lose your locking capability (I am not sure as I just took the replacement route from the beginning and don't remember any of my troubleshooting)

 

I have a 94 does same thing, I stopped it from going off by never locking the doors

 

As I best remember, if you set the alarm with the key fob remote, it goes into SuperAlarm Mode or something like that which is a higher security level. If it detects intrusion or whatever, it activates the immobilisation feature which will prevent the engine from running by cutting off the fuel pump and whatever else it does. I think you have to use the key fob to reset this as well (maybe I am wrong, it has been a while since I read up on it).

However, you can lock and unlock the driver's door with the key only and it will engage a lower level of security which still engages the basic alarm system. You have to unlock the driver's door only or it will set off the alarm if you try the passengers door or rear door. But I think this does avoid the immobilisation aspect of the system.

The RAVE does contain a total system description. Consult it for sure.