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Alarm goes off everytime I open the car

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luke w

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CN2
Didn't want my first post to be about a fault with my new car but here goes. I went to see the car at the beginning of the week and the owner said the central locking had just stopped working from the remote, but the central locking worked fine with the key. On the test drive everything was fine, the car was opened and closed a few times with no problems. The fact the remote central locking wasn't working wasn't a big deal to me and it got a bit of money of the asking price.

The old owner dropped the car round to my place on Friday when my girlfriend was home and said the remote started working again. My girlfriend had a little play and said it was all working, but when I went to open it when I got home, the remote wasn't working again. So I unlock the car with the key and opened the door only to be greeted by the alarm going off. It eventually stopped itself and I then used the car another 5-6 times with no problems with the alarm going off (it even locked off the remote a couple of times). Then last night the alarm went off again but would not stop, I had to drive home with it going off which was very embarrassing! It didn't stop until we were out of the car and the car locked again, with the key. So I've tried to get into the car today but the alarm is constantly going off and will not stop until the car is locked again.

Few more things that I've noticed which might be of use, the little red light flashes on the key fob when I press the buttons so I think the batteries are okay. When I unlock the car, only the drivers door unlocks first of all, with the others opening afterwards. Also when locking the car with the key, not all of the doors initially lock, sometimes I have to open and close one of the other doors and then the rest will lock.

Any ideas how I can stop this from happening, I'm not overly fussed about getting the remote to work but I just need to stop the alarm from going off.
 
Hi Luke and welcome to TA; sorry to hear that you are experiencing problems. I haven't come across your difficulty with the alarm myself, and I'm sure you will find someone on here able to give you some better informed advice, however, I do remember reading something about the sensors that switch the courtesy light on when you open the door. The fact that you have to open and reclose doors in order to get the central locking to work might suggest that one of the little buttons isn't working properly - either a bad connection or a bad earth. It is also worth noting that there are sensors for the bonnet and boot/tailgate. Until you hear from someone better qualified, I would have a quick look at all the buttons!
 
Welcome along Luke it sounds like you need new battery's in your fob.Or it might need recoding with your car.
Have a look at this thread. http://typeaccord.co.uk/forum/topic/6934-remote-central-locking/
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

Brett, read up in a few different threads about reprogramming the key and changing the batteries, would that be the cause of the alarm setting off? I'd have thought the key would still disarm it.

Mike, I did notice the interior light for when the doors open was switched off by the previous owner, so I switched it back on, could something as small as that cause it?

To be honest I've never owned a car a new as this with as many toys and I hate anything to do with electrics, might just call out an auto electrician to give it a once over.
 
Luke if the key is not coded to the car i dont think it will turn off the alarm its worth giving this a try mate.Also replace the battery s for good measure as well.
Iv also heard that your main car battery can trigger the alarm off as well if its in poor condition.
 
Mike, I did notice the interior light for when the doors open was switched off by the previous owner, so I switched it back on, could something as small as that cause it?

Hi Luke, I too find the sophistication of modern cars a little overwhelming - sometimes a simple fault can cause all sorts of strange symptoms, particularly where electrics are concerned. Getting an auto-electrician to have a look might well save you a lot of hassle in the long run and allow you to fully enjoy your nice new car!
 
Thanks again guys. I'll change the battery in the key fobs and try the reset and check the car battery with a multimeter and if they don't work I'll call out an electrician to look at it.

Out of interest, does anyone know the battery size for the key fob?
 
Replaced the batteries in the key fobs and tried the reprogramming but that didn't work, the alarm was still blaring out. I'm going to have to call around for someone to come out and have a look at it, I'm at my wits end with the car! I don't care about the remote central locking working, I just want this alarm to stop!
 
luke w said:
Replaced the batteries in the key fobs and tried the reprogramming but that didn't work, the alarm was still blaring out. I'm going to have to call around for someone to come out and have a look at it, I'm at my wits end with the car! I don't care about the remote central locking working, I just want this alarm to stop!
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear this Luke did you see what the condition of the car battery was like.
This is probably a very simple thing and once its sorted you can start enjoying your car mate.
 
Thanks Brett, didn't get round to checking the battery as I think the neighbours are starting to get slightly annoyed with the alarm going off. I think I'm going to give a few places a ring tomorrow to see what they say and then check the battery tomorrow when I get in from work. Just running it through my head a deteriorating battery seems a plausable cause, I did do quite a few short journeys on the Friday night and Saturday day time before this started happening, then the alarm going off so many times isn't going to help. And the cold weather is supposed to have an adverse affect as well.
 
Luke if you don't get any joy with the battery then go down the road of a good Auto electrician.
I just wish I could help more on your problem mate.
 
Another update! I got into contact with the previous owner and found a receipt from a few weeks back from an auto electrician so contacted him as well and it turns out the car had been diagnosed with a faulty fuse box. Apparently, it had the central locking problem for months and the auto electricians traced it down to the fuse box and found that I they "tapped" the fuse box then the central locking worked. They stripped the fuse box down and it seemed okay but the problem was still there so recommended to the previous owner to replace the fuse box. Suffice to say it wasn't replaced and subsequently sold to me!

So, tonight I've reprogrammed my keys again to make sure they are programmed, and I could hear the locking make a noise on the 4th or 5th attempt and pressed the lock button on the other key and again heard the locks make a noise so I'm confident they are programmed correctly. But the alarm is still going, so I popped the bonnet and "tapped" on the fuse box like the auto electrician said he did, but still couldn't get the alarm to stop or get the central locking to work off the remote. One thing I did notice was the fuse box was "clicking" while the alarm was going if that's of any significance?

So that's where I am now. I'm pretty certain that I've armed the alarm by pressing the lock button and now due to the fuse box fault I can't disarm it and the key isn't disarming it when unlocking. I have already had a quick search on eBay and found a fuse box for reasonable money (£100 delivered), so I'm in two minds as to whether buy a new (second hand) fuse box and replace it myself (is easily accessible) or try and find a way of stopping the alarm to get it to a garage and make sure the fuse box is properly fixed.

One auto electrician I phoned said disconnecting the alarm for half an hour or so usually resets the alarm, but I don't want to potentially muck up something else by doing that, anyone know if that's the case?
 
Barry have you got any breakdown cover like the AA if so you could call them out and see if they can sort the problem ;)
 
It could be anything tbh. Here is my punt (and that's all it is).

You have to bear in mind that all alarms (boat, caravan, car, house) have their own internal battery (usually a small SLA). The internal battery is charged from the main power source (the big 12V battery in a car), but when the internal alarm battery starts to age then the alarm relies totally on the power from the main battery. If the battery volts drop, the alarm will go off. You might have a dodgy battery in the alarm, and a dodgy feed from main battery to the alarm.

But otherwise, it could be anything already mentioned, it's a shame you don't live nearer to me, I'd take a look at it :(
 
The car is fixed! After taking it to a couple of auto electricians only to be told they can't get hold of Honda wiring diagrams, I bit the bullet just after Christmas and booked the car in to my local Honda dealership to have it on the diagnostic machine to find out what was wrong. Well, it turned out there was loads wrong! In all there were 21 fault codes that came up, the most they've ever seen. Not sure what a majority of them were but they were sorted pretty quickly before they got to the first problem with the central locking, the module in the driver's door was dead, so it needed a new one of them. That fixed the central locking, but the alarm problem was still there which was eventually traced to a damaged wiring harness running from the door to fuse box. That took almost a month for the part to arrive, but I now have the car back working as it should, but quite a bit lighter in the pocket now. Annoyingly I probably could have gotten a lower mileage face lift model for what I've ended up spending, but I plan on keeping the car for a good few years so I'll get my money's worth out of it, and I'm just glad I can actually use it and enjoy it now.
 
Hope you don't mind me asking, but how much lighter in pocket ?
if you'd rather not say, then say that ;)
 
Well it went into four figures in the end, parts alone were just under £600 :(

Should have been more as well, they spent 21 hours working on it in total but only billed for 10 hours.
 
crikey, dealers usually charge about £100 per hour, and new Honda parts are loads of money as well.

At least it's fixed now, hopefully it'll be good for several years.
 
My local dealer charged £60 an hour labour so looks like it could have been worse than it was! Have to say I was impressed with the service, kept me up to date with everything they came across and were always letting me know the costs involved, etc. And the technician that worked on it came out and chatted to me about what he did when I went to pick up the car.
 
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