Vet

Coming up on my C6's two year birthday, car has been 100% incredible in every way, never a problem, only a joy and a thrill.

Today I experienced TWO different nuisance alarm trips... in one day. Both ultimately my fault, not the car's fault... but some new lessons learned.

Of course our C6's have a built-in factory alarm... once it is set (car locked), the car's horn will beep (alarm) if a door is opened somehow without the car first being "officially" unlocked by the FOB.

I'd like to just mentioned that I HATE when people allow their car alarms to go off due to carelessness and ignorance. Maybe I'm sensitive because I grew up in Queens NY where car alarms would be going off every 5 seconds. You think you'd get used to it, but I think it just makes you hate alarms that much more. So, I personally try VERY hard to never let any alarm go off... ever. I'm REALLY careful... and I get very embarassed and upset if and when I do somehow allow an alarm to ring unnecessarily.

So, drove the car out to Montauk yesterday, stayed at a nice quiet B&B... a place for peace, quiet and relaxation. The last thing anyone out there wants to hear is a car alarm, especially early in the morning. So I go to close the rear hatch, but I didn't press it down firmly enough. The hatch closed only halfway... did not get fully sucked in by the electronic mechanism... but little did I know, it closed just enough to make the car think it was closed. So, noticing that the hatch was still sticking up a quarter inch or so, I merely pushed down on it with my hand hoping to fully close it... but instead, by pushing on it, I caused it to move up and down slightly (but not close), this movement caused the car to think that the hatch had opened, and the alarm went off (this is my take on it anyway). Made a racket before I even realized what was going on, took a moment for me to get the FOB out of my pocket and shut it off.

Lesson learned here... if the hatch or a door does not seem to fully close, properly, DO NOT jiggle it or push on it WITHOUT having the FOB in hand, ready to kill a potential alarm trip. Or, better yet, hit the unlock button on the FOB before touching the hatch or door. I believe doing so would prevent the alarm from potentially going off.

Second alarm trip of the day... I visited a family member on the way back from Montauk... car parked in driveway, near house... I was inside the house playing with a dog... I knelt down to pick up a ball and suddenly I heard a car horn beeping... this is a quiet neighborhood where I've never heard a car alarm before... so after 3 or 4 beeps, I'm thinking, "damn, that's my C6 again!!!".. I run out, whip out the FOB, and I first press the unlock button... no response... I then press the lock button... no response... I then press the hatch-open button... hatch opens but horn continues beeping!!!... I then lastly pressed the red panic button, and that finally killed the alarm. What had happened here, apparently when I knelt down with the FOB in my pocket, the red panic button got pressed, triggering the alarm.

Lesson learned... apparently, when the alarm is tripped by pressing the red panic button on the FOB (as can happen in your pocket), the only way to kill the alarm is to press that same red button again... the other buttons will NOT kill the alarm. This may seem obvious, but when the car is loudly beeping away in a quiet neighborhood and you're fumbling to shut it off as fast as possible, you can easily forget these things. If I had pressed the red button first, as opposed to last, I may have killed it several beeps earlier... and made a few less people annoyed and angry. So... the lesson... when the alarm seems to go off for "no reason", it's probably because the red button got pressed in your pocket... whip out the FOB and press that RED button FIRST!

If any of this info seems incorrect or inaccurate, please chime in. I did not yet go back and test any of this, nor have I had a chance to review my owner's manual... though I will do that soon.

adias

From the Manual:

(Panic): Press this button to sound the
vehicle alarm. Press any other button on the
keyless access transmitter to stop the vehicle
alarm.

Vet

Thanks. That's what I kinda thought... not sure what happened here... I'll need to test, hopefully I do not have an issue with the car or FOB. Or maybe I just got unlucky and the first three button presses I tried just didn't reach the car due to some random interferance... I WAS inside an aluminum porch room (mostly glass windows though) when I was trying to kill the alarm, but was not more than 20 feet from the car itself. Maybe just a fluke? I'll test and report back... but I gotta wait until I have a chance to take the car out to some desolate area where I don't mind having the alarm blaring away.

davanz

I have found this to be an error in the owner's manual. On my 2006 coupe if you activate the alarm with the fob's red button the only way to shut it off is to puish the red button again, no other button will kill the alarm.

papester

I'm surprissed the car armed itself since you were still standing near it while you were trying to close the hatch. Since the FOB was still near the car, it should have been disarmed. I can usually tell when my Vette is locked because as I walk away, the parking lights flash.

Vet

Wow, thanks. This is getting interesting. I will indeed do a test with my car to confirm how my car behaves in this regard. But when I pressed the non-red buttons the other day to kill the alarm, I got no response... then, without moving or even changing the position of the FOB, I hit the red button and it DID kill the alarm... which certainly would suggest that only the red button will kill the alarm, at LEAST when the alarm is initially activated BY the RED button. Will report back after test.

Maybe ANY button will kill the alarm if the alarm is activated by a means OTHER than having hit the red button. To be determined.

In general, if it turns out that the red button kills the alarm in ALL cases, regardless of how the alarm was set off, then the thing to remember is that whenever the alarm does go off, for whatever reason, ALWAYS aim for that red button FIRST.

Vet

Makes sense. All I know is that I closed the hatch improperly, then tried to fully close it maybe 15 seconds later and the alarm went off. I do not remember whether or not the car had officially locked itself (lights flashed) before I had pressed on the hatch the second time. Probably did though.

As for my reason why this happened, described in the first post, it's just my own theory. I've never had any issues like this before. I do have my DIC set to automatically lock the car, and though I have never tested, I do seem to remember seeing the lights flash (lock itself) even when I am physically quite close to the car with FOB in pocket... how close, I couldn't tell you at this moment. But, I think the car probably DID lock itself after my first attempt at closing the hatch, even though I was near the car with FOB in pocket, then I jiggled the hatch, then the alarm went off.

I'll have to test all of this.

cincyspider

OMG! errata in the manual! Who'd a thunk??

Zozzie

The fob jackets from Jim at Southern Car Parts will really help in preventing this happening. I was having "in pocket" experiences until I got one and since then ~ nada.

Vet

So you're saying that the FOB jacket effectively "shrouds" the buttons a bit, lowering the chances of them getting pressed randomly while in your pocket... plus it appears to be good general protection for the FOB... for $7.99, looks like a worthwhile little product.

Edit: Just ordered two FOB jackets from Southern Car Parts - free shipping too

rz2mbc

correct...happens every time I walk away

Vet

I just realized... this WAS definitely the case with my car the other day... because after hitting the unlock and lock buttons on the FOB (and getting no response, horn still beeping), I then hit the hatch button on the FOB and the hatch OPENED, which proves that the car DID receive a signal from the FOB at that point... but the horn kept beeping anyway. Only shut off after I hit the red button.

I have an `06 also, I wonder if this is an `06 specific quirk, or if they all respond this way.

Well... when in doubt, if the alarm is ringing, go for that red button first.

RICH 28

I just went to the garage and hit the red button. The only way to stop the alarm was to hit the red button again. The other buttons did not shut off the alarm.

mdb917

Thanks for the post. Once the alarms start your brain shuts down temporarily so this thread will hopefully help me keep some sense when the alarm goes off accidentally.

RicK T

The panic button thing has happened to me several times with other cars. Now I just automatically go for the panic button if an alarm goes off for no apparent reason. Stupid design. Don't they know guys carry keys in pockets? Maybe guys with panic button equipped fobs should carry purses for their keys.

firemon

any one making the fob jacket for the 08 yet ? and you are right, when the alarm goes off your brain is affected. When the alarm is triggered your car sends out a mind ray that blocks rational thought and makes you panic and fumble lol

Zozzie

I shrouds them a lot.

For sure. It hasn't happened once to me since I've had one. It's also one of the few mods I can afford!

Vet

Cool! I just received my Key FOB Jackets... they're excellent! I just posted a review in a separate post, but wanted to include an edited version of the review here too for anyone following this thread:

I paid Southern Car Parts via Paypal, received an immediate reply saying that my order was shipping, and I received the FOB jackets like a day later. Amazing service!

Per my own observations so far, the Key FOB Jacket provides FOUR very useful functions:

1. - Adds a layer of physical protection, you can drop your FOB on the concrete and it will land quite softly - will protect the FOB from getting all scratched up over time too.

2. - Shrouds the buttons to a good degree and will definitely reduce the possibility of a button getting pressed while inside your pocket and thus reduce the possibility of an accidental alarm trip

3. - The rubber of the FOB jacket is indeed "rubbery" - and very "grabby"... the FOB will no longer be able to accidentally slide out of your pocket. The FOB jacket will NOT slide on material, period, where as the bare FOB will slide very easily.

4. - You can order the FOB jacket in one of a bunch of different colors. If you do a lot of walking and hiking, you may wish to get a bright colored FOB jacket, such as bright yellow, to help you find the FOB if you ever drop it. Also, you can get two jackets, each a different color, one for each of your two FOBs, to help you to tell the difference between them... you know, get a pink one for the wife and a yellow one for yourself or whatever.

Hats off to Southern Car Parts for offering a good useful product, and for excellent service.

http://www.southerncarparts.com/corv...81ba7774e1b765

Zozzie

If Jim doesn't snap you up as an ad copy writer for his company, he should!