Doors locking/alarm setting itself!
teenie
01-02-2004, 04:14 PM
It appears to be a common problem, that darn alarm! From what I've read on previous posts, one most likely culprit would be a bad ground. Any tips on where to look first? I don't work on cars-my husband does, and this is the 1st electrical problem we've had.
Symptoms are: doors lock and car alarms itself while driving. Thankfully, that's ALL that's going on, and from what I've read, it could be a lot worse. It's just a hassle to get out of the car 'cause the power button on the dash won't work, you have to remove the key, & hit the alarm button two time-the 1st time you hear the vacuum motor go, probably attempting to lock the already locked doors, the the 2nd time will "blip-blip" (turn off alarm) and unlock the doors.
I read on another site that if you attempt to disengage the alarm, you run the risk of making your car immobile as it's a factory alarm and they designed it so it wouldn't even start without that alarm hooked up. Don't know if that's true-anyone disalarm theirs and run into problems like that?
My 1st concern really is to get hints on where to look for the ground wires-or if anyone else has had this problem, what you did to fix it.
Thanks,
Christina
Symptoms are: doors lock and car alarms itself while driving. Thankfully, that's ALL that's going on, and from what I've read, it could be a lot worse. It's just a hassle to get out of the car 'cause the power button on the dash won't work, you have to remove the key, & hit the alarm button two time-the 1st time you hear the vacuum motor go, probably attempting to lock the already locked doors, the the 2nd time will "blip-blip" (turn off alarm) and unlock the doors.
I read on another site that if you attempt to disengage the alarm, you run the risk of making your car immobile as it's a factory alarm and they designed it so it wouldn't even start without that alarm hooked up. Don't know if that's true-anyone disalarm theirs and run into problems like that?
My 1st concern really is to get hints on where to look for the ground wires-or if anyone else has had this problem, what you did to fix it.
Thanks,
Christina
ponchonutty
01-09-2004, 08:27 AM
It appears to be a common problem, that darn alarm! From what I've read on previous posts, one most likely culprit would be a bad ground. Any tips on where to look first? I don't work on cars-my husband does, and this is the 1st electrical problem we've had.
Symptoms are: doors lock and car alarms itself while driving. Thankfully, that's ALL that's going on, and from what I've read, it could be a lot worse. It's just a hassle to get out of the car 'cause the power button on the dash won't work, you have to remove the key, & hit the alarm button two time-the 1st time you hear the vacuum motor go, probably attempting to lock the already locked doors, the the 2nd time will "blip-blip" (turn off alarm) and unlock the doors.
I read on another site that if you attempt to disengage the alarm, you run the risk of making your car immobile as it's a factory alarm and they designed it so it wouldn't even start without that alarm hooked up. Don't know if that's true-anyone disalarm theirs and run into problems like that?
My 1st concern really is to get hints on where to look for the ground wires-or if anyone else has had this problem, what you did to fix it.
Thanks,
Christina
Yes, if this is the new style Jetta, open up the driver's door. That's where the lock/alarm module is located. You'll have to test wires from there. Might even be a bad wire in the door jamb. Unfortunately, you probably will not find it. These cars are horrid to work on. Even VW doesn't understand fully how to fix them. I had 1st hand experience. :banghead:
Symptoms are: doors lock and car alarms itself while driving. Thankfully, that's ALL that's going on, and from what I've read, it could be a lot worse. It's just a hassle to get out of the car 'cause the power button on the dash won't work, you have to remove the key, & hit the alarm button two time-the 1st time you hear the vacuum motor go, probably attempting to lock the already locked doors, the the 2nd time will "blip-blip" (turn off alarm) and unlock the doors.
I read on another site that if you attempt to disengage the alarm, you run the risk of making your car immobile as it's a factory alarm and they designed it so it wouldn't even start without that alarm hooked up. Don't know if that's true-anyone disalarm theirs and run into problems like that?
My 1st concern really is to get hints on where to look for the ground wires-or if anyone else has had this problem, what you did to fix it.
Thanks,
Christina
Yes, if this is the new style Jetta, open up the driver's door. That's where the lock/alarm module is located. You'll have to test wires from there. Might even be a bad wire in the door jamb. Unfortunately, you probably will not find it. These cars are horrid to work on. Even VW doesn't understand fully how to fix them. I had 1st hand experience. :banghead:
teenie
01-10-2004, 05:48 PM
Since you've had experience with this, let me pose another question...Do you think a faulty alarm system (be it wire or whatever) would cause the car to stall as soon as you give it a little gas? That's the newest thing. Attempting to restart the car only makes the alarm go-quite an amusing sight for my neighbors I suppose, but extremely frustrating.
We have recently replaced the timing belt, and on the test drive after instalation, it would buck a bit in 1st gear-NOT every time starting out, maybe 1/2 the time. We were going to pull in into the garage again for minor adjustments, when it bucked, stalled, and bells & whistles! Ugh!
I don't know if these 2 issues are related or not. I know the importance of timing belts, how they're very particular & need to be placed just so. I've also heard that 1 aspect of the alarm is that it is supposed to shut down the fuel pump if someone attempts to get in & actually starts it. While our car will idle forever & ever (as long as there's gas in the tank), it shuts off when you try to move it. I'm just wondering IF the alarm could be malfunctioning? What do you think?
We have recently replaced the timing belt, and on the test drive after instalation, it would buck a bit in 1st gear-NOT every time starting out, maybe 1/2 the time. We were going to pull in into the garage again for minor adjustments, when it bucked, stalled, and bells & whistles! Ugh!
I don't know if these 2 issues are related or not. I know the importance of timing belts, how they're very particular & need to be placed just so. I've also heard that 1 aspect of the alarm is that it is supposed to shut down the fuel pump if someone attempts to get in & actually starts it. While our car will idle forever & ever (as long as there's gas in the tank), it shuts off when you try to move it. I'm just wondering IF the alarm could be malfunctioning? What do you think?
cmedrive
03-05-2004, 10:37 PM
I have a 97 Jetta and the alarm would go off when I tried to start the engine. I would have to stick a key in the door and turn it while I started the engine and the alarm would cut off. I found the problem in the door jam. Take the rubber boot around the wires and pull it back and check there first. I found 2 broken wires there. I spliced a piece of wire between them and that cured the problem.
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