M5V8 337 Report post Posted July 23, 2013 (edited) so the wife calls me this morning as she's leaving and says the BMW's alarm is sounding. thing is it's locked in the garage. She said it went off several times. Once coincided with the neighbour opening his garage. the other coincided with a suspicious red ute & trailor driving slowly up and down our road. She's paranoid. I know. I checked the car. Seems fine. Wasn't sounding when I when down. so strange. what, besides the tilt sensor or interior sensor could trigger the alarm? Edited July 23, 2013 by M5V8 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
allan 295 Report post Posted July 23, 2013 This is going to sound nuts but does your car have a resident spider, eight legged type. Had an incident where a spider had spun it's web over a sensor inside a car and every time it walked over the web it set the alarm off. Once the web was removed no more alarm for a couple of days until it walked over the re spun web. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M5V8 337 Report post Posted July 23, 2013 (edited) haha! i'd hope not. But I will check. cheers I've stuck it on a trickle charger in case it's a battery thing. Battery is new (3 mths - ish) so i suspect not. I'll check all the doors & hood are closed properly as just reading it could be that or a faulty hood sensor. Does a scan tell you what triggered? Edited July 23, 2013 by M5V8 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Allanw 1071 Report post Posted July 23, 2013 You're talking about the M5 right? The bonnet switches cause a lot of false alarms. You can unplug the switch and see if it does it again. Of course, it might not ever do it again anyway I've never looked, but I wonder if you can see what made it trigger via software, or some other way??? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apex 693 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 How alarming. I owned my BMW for quite some time before I even realized it even had an alarm, I left my dogs in the car and they set it off. Everyone was surprised. How healthy is your battery? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M5V8 337 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 (edited) How alarming. terrible pun. just terrible. Battery is fine but I have stuck on charger as it hasn't has a decent drive for at least 3 wks now. Will check the hood switch when I get home. You do know that you can disable the interior sensors for pets? Edited July 24, 2013 by M5V8 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apex 693 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 Dude I didn't even know the car had a alarm for years, always wondered what the silly red light on the mirror was there for, just assumed/pretended it was my Police lights and I was on an undercover mission. I no longer own the car, would instructions on disabling be in the owners manual? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M5V8 337 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 just assumed/pretended it was my Police lights and I was on an undercover mission.AH hahahahahahahahahahaha...................classic. Yes in the manual. When you goto lock the car. Click the lock key once then quickly hold it down for 3 sec. The "police" light will confirm with a 5 second confirmation light before settling back to flashing. this disables the interior sensors so when you get back to the car and your dogs have been playing musical chairs it's only your hazard lights that were annoying the other shoppers and not the alarm. undercover mission. quote of the day. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Arma 134 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 I have a 'silly red light' under my rear-view mirror as well. No idea what it is. I do not have an alarm system that I know of :S Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
allan 295 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 Maybe the Infrared signal for central locking Clown's nose Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elmarco 56 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 The bonnet switches cause a lot of false alarms. You can unplug the switch and see if it does it again. That would be my first guess too. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_ethrty-Andy_ 2132 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 dont forget the ground isn't particularly stable around this neck of the woods at the moment! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kiwi535 538 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 I have a 'silly red light' under my rear-view mirror as well. No idea what it is. I do not have an alarm system that I know of :Sits an alarm/imobiliser Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hotwire 352 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 ^^^ or if a Jap car - it's the infrared receiver for remote locking - as alluded to above Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
beemn 50 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 terrible pun. just terrible. Battery is fine but I have stuck on charger as it hasn't has a decent drive for at least 3 wks now. Will check the hood switch when I get home. You do know that you can disable the interior sensors for pets? Hood switch...mine did the same, annoying for my neighbour's because I coded the high beams to flash as well as the indicators when it sounds Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M5V8 337 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 well I checked all the doors (they were closed) and checked the hood switch operation seems ok. Did a scan and showed only the usual post cat 02 sensor code which isn't important. Problem is I don't know it's going off as it's locked away snugly in the garage. I'll have to keep an ear out to see if it happens again. I guess anything could have triggered. How much is a replacement hood switch anyways? if it's pennies I'd prefer to just replace and be done with it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
allan 295 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 Sorry Darren it's an M5 nothing on those are "pennies" its $$$$$ all the way Pelican parts have it as 61319119057-M9 priced at $16.00US Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M5V8 337 Report post Posted July 24, 2013 good point. but $16 US isn't exactly breaking the bank. sweet thanks. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 540 Report post Posted July 25, 2013 Also check that none of your central locking motors are playing up. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M5V8 337 Report post Posted July 25, 2013 how would i check that? they all lock / unlock fine. nothing in the scan yesterday. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 540 Report post Posted July 25, 2013 how would i check that? they all lock / unlock fine. nothing in the scan yesterday. All good then, it's when the motors start playing up , lock , won't unlock , stay on that the become an issue. System reads in locking and unlocking, interior ultrasonic sensor, boot tilt sensor , bonnet switch sensor. One thought , my e36 alarm would go off randomly at home. Turned out to be the wife's overloaded handbag pressing against one of the alarm remotes set / unset . If this was pressed for around 5 seconds it would set off the panic alarm. Check where your keys are. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M5V8 337 Report post Posted July 25, 2013 thanks Neal. Yeah i thought of that. But both sets are in the house, in a draw. They wouldn't be able to reach the car anyway. So def not that. Unless someone has something running on the same frequency in the neighbourhood. Wife did say it went off again when the neighbor opened their garage. It's been on trickle charge for a day now, and I haven't heard any complaints from anyone that it's gone off again. hopefully it's solved but I will replace the hood alarm switch just in case Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
westy 614 Report post Posted July 25, 2013 Somewhere in the dark depths of my memory I think I recall something about a battery in the siren going flat causing ghosting. Had trouble with an e36 alarm going nuts so might have been E36 problem. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M5V8 337 Report post Posted July 25, 2013 wait what? there's a battery where? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
westy 614 Report post Posted July 26, 2013 Back up battery in the siren unit. Found this Visit My Website. Might be usefull? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
