Car alarm failure?

[orkiz]

I have a 2-door 95 Honda Civic which I bought used. It seems to have an Audiovox APSx5CL car alarm system based on the kind of remote it has. I have only one of the two remotes. The alarm system was working fine until a couple of days ago. It did not respond to the remote couple of days ago, and I found that the valet toggle switch under the dashboard is broken. Nothing seemed to work. However, next morning, yesterday, it seemed to work fine, and it worked fine for a few times until late last night. This morning, it refused to respond to the remote again. Where do I check for the problem?

I changed the battery on my remote yesterday and it was working fine last evening after the battery change. There was no rain or anything similar to upset any sensors that may have been installed. Hope one of you can help me.

[sofast]

Check for loose wiring from the unit. Check the antenna on the unit.

[ponchonutty]

Most of the cheaper alarms such as yours will not respond if there is any interferance around. You might want to change the batteries and clean the contacts in the remote.

[orkiz]

I cleaned the contacts in the remote when I put in the new battery. It is possible that there is some interference.

I don't know where the brain is installed. I really don't want to take the dashboard out. So I bought a new toggle switch from Radioshack and soldered it in place of the broken valet override switch. (Man, it was a pain to solder it directly onto the wires - the wires move, the swtich moves, and the solder gun in my hand wavers because I am at such an awkward postion. Took me an hour to solder it.)

Any way, is there a way to feel around the dashboard and check for the antenna and loose wiring?

[ponchonutty]

Yes, you just have to trace around wires that look out of place. I usually look for a common area that you know the installer had to run wires. The easiest is the wires from the siren through the firewall.