Problem with car alarm

[geordiemick]

the fault is a batch of faulty alarm control units. the modified units have the same part number as the previous unit.

[Lazarus]

I have a 'facelift' 2011 Tamura bought last week (May 2011). It has 150 miles on the clock.

After a week with no problems, today I could hear what I thought was a house alarm going off in the distance.  It turned out to be my car's sensor alarm, which doesn't make much noise outside of the car but, makes a hell of a racket when you are inside! (I think the unit is located in the L/H side of the boot?).

Pressing the 'cancel' button on the fob made no difference at all. Neither did getting in and starting the car. The noise sounds for about 30 seconds, pauses for 10 or so then starts again! Eventually it stopped with random key presses and then starting and driving the car before it went off again.
By the time I had done some shopping in B&Q it was going off again!

I phoned Arnold Clark Mazda but, being Saturday afternoon their service Dept was closed.  On advice from the Salesman I have taken to locking it with the key for now, I'm to phone Arnold Clark Service on Monday to get it booked in.  As a previous person has mentioned I'm not happy about the insurance situation with regard to leaving it 'off' but, at least the immobiliser is always active.

I might have a play with the door switches/bonnet catch and some WD40 in the meantime.

Any advice on what guidance I should point towards Arnold Clark?  They aren't the greatest technical gurus and I'm concerned this could drag on.  The salesman did mention that some cabin movement sensors have left the factory set too high and that downloading a software update to alter the cabin sensor's sensitivity might be in order.  Any thoughts?

Cheers!

-LaZ-

[screwball]

hi i have three buttons on my remote key fob lock unlock and third button switches off cabin censers (2009 sport) so you should be able to set the alarm then press the third button to deactivate internal cabin censers  hope this helps and you get the problem sorted

[andy_g]

if its the same problem as before with the alarms pressing the third button will make no difference the problem is with the alarm unit not any of the sensors leave well alone and let Mazda sort it out as you could invalidate the warranty by playing with the bonnet catches etc.

[shawnho]

You can reset the alarm system by turn your key to Acc/ON (No need start engine), then turn to OFF.
Repeat this step for 10cycle. Turn ON and turn OFF = 1 cycle.
This will reset the alarm system for our M2.

[Lazarus]

I'm taking it in to AC (Mazda) this coming Friday to see what they can come up with.

I did the 10x reset thing above yesterday but still locked the car with the key as I didn't want anything going off overnight.

Today, though, I locked the car with the remote and it gives its usual flash, then a couple of seconds later it gave 3 flashes more - which I think means that the Movement Sensors have been disabled?!
The car did this by itself without any further input from me! I pressed nothing, just the one-time press of the padlock button on the fob.

I then thought I'd test an alarm condition by opening the car with the key after arming it (as stated in the manual this should cause all hell to break loose!)

All that happens is the indicators flash - No horn, no internal noise, nothing; just flashing 'hazards' -   That's gonna scare people eh!!

I think the Theft Deterrant System is gubbed?  Any further thoughts?

-LaZ-

[Lazarus]

Well, after all that messing about on Monday evening, the car was locked with the key and left to sit in our multistory car park until it was time for me to go home on yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, ready to take to the dealers this morning.

I unlocked it with the key-fob threw my stuff in and was about to drive off but, I thought let's give it one more try ...

Lock car with key-fob button - One Flash of indicators...  nothing else, no additional 3 to indicate any disarming of sensors.

  Maybe?  Decide to initiate alarm condition by opening with key.  It alarmed!    Lights flashed everything!  It even cancelled when I pressed the button!

  Will it work if I leave a window open? Leans in window ...  Yes! Again everything worked fine!

I'm wondering if doing all the reset stuff and leaving it for a while allowed it to re-sync itself somehow?

Anyway, it's Friday morning and it hasn't gone off on its own at all overnight.  I've cancelled taking it to Arnold Clark because they not only charge £15 for Courtesy Car insurance but, they also charge £20 for any Warranty investigations that fail to turn up anything!  Bawz to that, I'm not taking it in to be charged for nothing.  I'm still waiting for the £15 cheque after they charged me twice for their 5 day drive-away insurance..

We'll see how it goes over the next few weeks. It's got a 3 year warranty after all! 

-LaZ-

[sarein]

Shame to see someone has the same problem as me, it's doing it on and off all the time.
I park outside someone Else's house so I can hardly risk it going off and keeping them up 

Post an update in a day or two, I might try the key reset thing if it worked.

[Si]

they not only charge £15 for Courtesy Car insurance but, they also charge £20 for any Warranty investigations that fail to turn up anything!  Bawz to that, I'm not taking it in to be charged for nothing.  I'm still waiting for the £15 cheque after they charged me twice for their 5 day drive-away insurance..

We have two TS2s and both went back numerous times for warranty work and we must have had a courtesy car about a dozen times.  While every time there was an actual fault rather than just them investigating, at no point was any charge every mentioned by our dealer.  They do charge £10 for the courtesy car insurance but we only paid once when it was due to warranty work - that was probably goodwill from the dealer.

We are about 15-20 miles from three dealers but have had no reason to move from the one we bought the cars from.  How far away is the next nearest (not AC) Mazda delaer from you?  It may be worth you going there in future.