Jeffrey T. Smith

Had my 89 'S4 for 2 weeks with no issues. Now it looks like I have an alarm problem...After a short drive and NOT locking the car, open the door, alarm goes off. Lock doors, alarm resets. Run inside, read Rennlist suggestions, try unlocking drives door again, alarm sounds, reset it by locking the door, unlock passenger door, alarm sounds, reset again. Open hatch, alarm does not sound! Close hatch and try to open doors again, alarm sounds. So at least in the morning I can open the hatch, disconnect the battery and try to bypass the alarm module (as descripted in several post). I would like to try and fix this, can anyone give me a suggestion on where to start? Since both doors seem to trigger the alarm, I'm assuming that its not the door sensors. Thanks, JS

Jeffrey T. Smith

I just rembered one other issue, right before all of this happen, I let my wife drive the car..she's 5'1" and pushed the seat as far forward as possible. Are there wires running under the drivers seat that are associated with the alarm? Maybe something got grounded out, thoughts? JS

Alan

Jeff,
Sounds like the alarm isn't ever getting disarmed. Unfortunately I don't think you can blame your wife (at least not based on the seat position).

What else isn't working on the car? Interior lights all good?...

Do you have the LED lighted alarm posts for the door locks? if yes what are they doing when locked/ unlocked?

If you open the hatch and leave it open - can you open the doors without the alarm coming on?

Alan

Garth S

On some cars there is a contact switch which is 'made' when the hood is closed .... located on the mid right side fender lip. Is this tied into the alarm trigger?

Bill Ball

Yes, the hood switch is tied into the alarm in 89s. My alarm used to go off in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. If I pushed down on the hood before leaving it for the night, it did not go off. The pin switch can be adjusted. This does not account for Jeff's problem, however.

Jeffrey T. Smith

update - unlocked hatch, alarm does not sound, but I assume is still active since the LEDs on the door locks are still on. Disconnected the battery, unlocked the doors and pulled the door panel. The "lock guard" on the drivers side was making a rattle, so I need to get in there anyway. From what I can tell everything looks OK so far. JS

Jeffrey T. Smith

update again...also when I unlocked the hatch, the interior lights came "on" (I would have thought that this would have set off the alarm).

Mrmerlin

Jeff look at the rear hatch lock( where the hatch part of the lock goes into the rear deck) look under the rear cover that holds the tools, look at the lock mechanisim you will see wire check these wires and see if there are any that might be disconnected also check all of the connectors that run under the carpet in the rear hatch area,might have gotten corrosion, Stan

Bill Ball

When you unlock the hatch it is supposed to disable the alarm temporarilty at least.

Jeffrey T. Smith

Update - removed passenger door lock, cleaned alarm contact, hooked up battery and everything ok(no unexpected alarm). Thought I had the problem licked, until I opened the hood to look at the hood switch. I had noticed the previous day that the electrical connector on the front passenger side (blue cap) had what looked like an extra wire with a fuse holder that was empty. Well when I hit the fuse holder with my arm, the alarm went off (was not even armed). I noticed that even without a fuse in the holder, it could still make contact. I'm quessing that this is some sort of after market alarm. I disconnected it from the connector and so far everything is good. But suddenly my heart sank, I looked at the hood switch and the wires are melted through to the bare wire (looks like old problem, since it was very corroded and seems to have 0 voltage). Unfortunetly it looks like the wires are burned into the main harness. So I have two questions, Is the extra fuse holder original? Also can anyone with a wiring diagram tell where the brown and brown/green wire on the hood switch terminates? Thanks, JS

Alan

Jeff,
No I dont think the fuseholder (?) is original! - get rid of it (you knew that).

Wiring to Switch: Brown should just be Ground, Brown Green goes to the alarm and to one side of the under hood light (test the connections on the light). Does the hood switch still work? if yes rewire it to the hood light and a ground point (one right in front of the radiator that side)

Make sure it still makes it to the alarm (test)

Alan