2007 Saturn Vue interior lights and alarm

[LarsMac]

This just recently began.
I park and lock the car. Alarm goes of at some time.
I can stop the alarm with unlock from remote. However, interior lights remain on. If I lock the car, at some point the alarm sounds.
Leaving the car unlocked, alarm never sounds.
For tonight, I have disconnected battery.
Need to figure it out in the morning. Any suggestions would be welcome.

[LarsMac]

Well, this AM, All is normal.
This thing has been bugging me for three or four days, now, but this morning, it's like I imagined the whole thing.

I am currently thinking that the switch in the side of the dashboard that appears to control the interior lights when the door opens and shuts, might be loose, or moisture got into it.
But now, I have to wait for it to act up, again.

I got to say, though, for 140 k miles on a 17 year old car, this is the first problem that I've run across, I reckon that I've got nothing to complain about.

[LarsMac]

Well, all day, not a peep. Until about 6 PM, then just now the alarm started up.
Hit the unlock on remote. Alarm stopped.

No sign of water intrusion.
Going to look for signs of mice. That's a possibility, though I never leave food in the car.

We're in a rural area, so mice can be an issue.
not worried about burglars and such.
It does get windy out here, so possibly motion sensor tripped? We been out here for going on five years, and wind has never triggered the alarm. Even being battered by hail storm didn't trip the alarm.

I'm going to use this as a log, if anybody runs across the thread and has some suggestions, I'd welcome them.

Monday - 4 Aug
no further event after alarm trigger last night.

Spent morning inspecting for mice or other critter intrusion. nothing, so far.
checked all doors hood, and rear hatch for proper opening, closing an latching.

Set lock. Waiting.

very light breeze, so far.

[LarsMac]

Today, the thing was quiet most of the day, until around 3:30 or 4, when the temps got up in the 90s.
When the alarm sounded, first time, I hit the unlock button on remote. The driver's door unlocks and the alarm stops.
I re-locked, and left it.
about half an hour later, sounded, again. This time I hit the alarm (red) button, alarm stopped. after a couple minutes, I hit the unlock button, and the car beeped three times. and the door unlocked.
I went through the car, checking all the doors(again) looked for signs of rodents or any other critters. (again)
The only thing I can come up with is that somehow the car detects motion from the wind blowing and it sets off the alarm. But there is no consistency to that, and I would expect that I could also set the alarm off by bumping and pushing on the car. No luck there.

[LarsMac]

Well, other than logging the issue, it seems posting here is a waste of time.

All the weird behavior I encountered initially seems to have ceased.
The interior lights no longer remain on, and alarm does not sound while I'm driving, Everything seems to be have as expected, other than that the alarm can sound randomly while the car is parked and locked.
My only guess, at the moment is that one of the contact switches (Probably the Driver's door) is faulty? I'm will figure out how to get under the dash and try to test that.

[LarsMac]

Well, ...,

The symptoms ceased, as mysteriously as they began.

Not a clue what started it, nor, what may have changed to finish it.

Possibly some random water intrusion, that eventually dried up?
Mouse intrusion? no signs.

I dunno. :shrug:

[LarsMac]

OK, I have some updates on this.

A few times over the last year or so, for no apparent reason, my alarm will sound. when I simply stop the alarm with the remote, it can be fine for a while. Sometimes days. sometimes it will go off again within an hour or so. Completely random.
I am beginning to think there is a relationship to ambient moisture.
Several other events of late have my attention.

In February, I drove to Atlanta area to visit family. I was there when the big "Polar Vortex" event hit most of the South.
The saturn was out in the weather, and a lot of ice caked on the vents in front of the windshield.
The alarm, along with Flashing lights went off. I stopped it. Several times it repeated. I was in a relatively safe area, so I released the locks. No more alarm. Next day, I left and drove to Nashville area.
That night something new. The alarm sounded, with lights flashing and when I stopped alarm, the interior Dome lights remained lit. Looking the car left the dome lights lit, and the alarm would sound every regularly. Leaving it unlocked would stop the alarm from setting, but the dome lights remained lit.

So, for the night, I disconnected the battery. (I locked doors first)
I decided to re-route, and headed back south toward I-20 to go west to Texas rather than brave I-40 through the area worst hit by that "Vortex"
All day, while driving, the dome lights remained on. I stopped for the night near Meridian. It had got dark, and the dome lights were making it difficult to see properly. I disconnected the battery, again, so I could lock the car.

Next morning, I headed west towards Waco, where I have family. During the day, there were times when the dome lights would go out. They were very intermittent, though.

I arrived in Waco, Sunday, and Monday, took it to a shop to see what they could determine.
They said there were a lot of codes from the computer, but managed to lose the data before clearing the them. (?)
They told me I needed to replace the computer.
I retrieved the car from the shop, and let it sit for a day or two while visiting.
The weather was dry and somewhat warm.
I drove the car around for a couple of days, with nothing of note taking place.
I headed for home that weekend. Everything was fine for the whole trip. Car behaved as expected.
A month or later, we had a fairly significant rain event.
a couple days later, the alarm went off, again.
A few more times, the alarm has triggered when the car is sitting, locked.
This seems to be happening within a day or so of a rain event.
Another symptom worth noting, during cold weather events, I have had the Engine light come one, and scanning the OBDII port, we see a single event in which three cylinders report a misfire. It is always the same three, 1, 3, and 6. and a single event on each. Nothing changes behavior-wise. no detected misfires. I can clear the light, and go on about my business.
The only clue I can point to is both events seems to be related to higher humidity and cold.

[LarsMac]

So, I am probably wasting my time on this forum, as there is no sign that anyone else has been around for a couple of years, but still, having this documented might be helpful to somebody in the future.

Since last post it has been stable. I am down to the original complaint - Sometimes the intrusion alarm kicks off for no explainable reason.
As long as I leave the car unlocked, no problem. If locked alarm may sound.
One new item - Recently, (last couple days) the auto door lock has begun to work again - when I put car into gear after start-up the doors auto-lock. That behavior has not been noticed for a while.
I will lock the car this evening and wait to see if the intruder alarm goes off again.
Whatever is going on, I think it is somehow linked to Ambient temp and Humidity, but I have no reliable data.