Alarm Problems, won't start - 1997 Jetta - HELP

[2500HD4x4]

Hello all,

I'm helping out a friend with a 1997 Jetta. I'm not a VW guy, but here's what I know: 1997 Jetta, 5 spd manual, 100,000 + miles.

Here's the issue: The car was idling for several minutes, in neutral with the parking brake on. I don't know the exact order of events, but the car alarm starting going off, and the car stalled / engine shut down. Multiple fuses and the negative battery cable were then disconnected to silence the alarm.

In attempt to dis-arm the alarm, and start the vehicle again, the key was inserted into the driver's side door, then turned it multiple times, turned the key in the ignition multiple times, depressed the clutch while doing all this. Nothing worked. In order to get the vehicle towed home, we disconnected the horn, then reconnected the batteries so at least we could have lights, but no horrible noise.

Anyhow, the car still will not start (as the alarm is still activated), and the dealer says that it will have to be brought in to the dealer. Like I said, I'm not very familiar with VW's, but it seems that something could be done without having to take the car to the dealer? Any series of turning the key and doing certain combinations of events to disarm the alarm system from its current state???

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[saigon72]

Ihave the same problem with my 1998 Alarm activates by self and car won't
start.

[toddpavlack]

I have a 1997 Jetta that used to have a bad alarm. It seems as though that the alarms in 1997 swtiched over halfway through the year, so there are multiple types of alarms (as what I can gather from my VW mechanic) because my alarm is apparently "After market." However, I purchased the car from Volkswagen brand new with 43 miles on it, with the alarm installed.

So, now to your problems. First of all, it could be the door sensors. They go bad and the plastic rips off them and then crap gets in them and they get all crazy. These run you about 6 bucks a piece, and are a quick replace. Next, to get the car to start with the alarm running, there should be a kill switch somewhere in the car. Mine is hooked directly to my fuse panel under the driver side console. Its a little button on the panel itself, and when i put the key in the ignition and turn it to the On position, I hold the kill switch and the alarm goes off. If neither of those options work, then theres also a sensor in the trunk that could be bad, or the hood sensor. Those are a bit harder to replace/more expensive. This is what I went through three years ago with my Jetta. Let me know if you need anything else!

[JunkTitleGolf]

Not sure if this helps but my 95 golf had a bad connection on the positive side of the battery. It would cause the alarm to go off if I hit a bump sometimes or it wouldn't get a good connection. So you might want to try that. But whenever it happened I would have to pop the hood and wiggle the battery cables (at the time I didn't know what was wrong.) Then go put the key in the drives door lock it and hold it in the locked position for like 5 secs. Then unlock and I was good to go. Hopefully this helps.

[Bob hagaman]

I just bought a 1998 GLX GR6 HAD 2 NEW POWER WINDOW MOTORS PUT IN 2 DAYS AGO and now it wont start not even turn over! everything else works. any ideals? also new to the site looks pretty cool.