Need some help, car alarm/car acting weird.

[Lurpin]

So my 98 s14 SE has been acting strange, the car alarm goes off randomly for no reason what so ever. The remote control that came stock with the car does not unlock, lock, or panic. At first i thought it had to be the battery in the remote thing so i changed it, and the damn thing still doesn't work at all. I think the car might have a short or something cause this all started two days ago when it started raining extremely hard at my house with slight hurricane force winds. My car wasn't sitting in any puddles, but it did get rained on heavily for about 24 hours straight. Do you guys think my car could of suffered some kind of water damage? Any suggestions as to how i can fix it? I'm stumped....

[Lurpin]

any suggestions?

[GabeS14]

is it possible that water may have got to it under the hood?
sometimes when i wash my car at home, if i spray the cracks along the die of the hood to much, and some water splashes in that area, where it's installed, it wont activate for a while, or it goes off and on for a few minutes..
cheap alarm, lol...
you can always just disconnect the sensor!

[cotbu]

What brand of alarm? check where the brain is installed for water damage. Also does the car minus the alarm function properly? ie do your lights work, cluster etc. If, you suspect water damage check battery terminals for corrosion. Do you have a shock sensor? Adjust the sensitivity.

[Lurpin]

its the stock alarm from the factory, and i believe it's right under the hood on the passenger side, close to the crack. The lights do go on and off when the alarm goes off, and the cluster is fine. everything thats electrical works fine. The only thing that doesn't work is the remote and the alarm goes off for no reason. The car does turn the alarm off on its own but then it will go off like a minute later, if i don't go out there and open the door. Thanks for the suggestions guys ill go look at the battery, and where would the shock sensor be?

[SILVIA_KIDs14.5]

one word batteries

[Lurpin]

one word batteries

If you would of read it you would of seen this.

he remote control that came stock with the car does not unlock, lock, or panic. At first i thought it had to be the battery in the remote thing so i changed it, and the damn thing still doesn't work at all.

But clearly you didn't, thanks for trying to help anyway....

[statik]

check your battery, when a battery gets low the alarm can act weird, and the remote can't communicate with the system etc. Sounds odd but I experienced the exact same thing, battery was bad.

[Rob's S14]

It could be the sensitivity setting, or maybe it's just a 10 year old alarm dying. Good luck though.

[sillydrift]

i had that problem on my altima i used to own, the factory remote would not work but it would set off my alarm by it self, i did the same, change the batterys and nothing, so i tossed the remotes. i figured out if i locked my car with the key it would arm the alarm, and it would disarm when i unlock it with the key, so i never used the remotes after that. try doing that and see what happens

[Lurpin]

well i checked my battery (which is pretty new) and it was low on water. So i put more distilled in. It still doesn't work. Yea i knew that if you use the key to unlock it it disarms it and if you lock it, it arms it. The problem is when I'm half way across campus and my car goes off for an hour (haha) i can't do anything about it...that really happen to me the other day. I came back from class and my car was going off, the security guard was standing by my car and asked me to turn it off ha.

[Lurpin]

Listen to this one, my car alarm goes off when I'm driving now. I'm totally bumming it right now. Is it possible to put another alarm in there. I was thinking about ripping that stock one out and putting a viper alarm in it.

[aznpoopy]

check the battery cables to the battery

the alarm that came with my car was finnicky and anytime the negative battery cable was loose, it'd go nuts. additionally, i later had a fraying short on my positive battery cable. that would cause the alarm to trigger at completely random times depending on whether or not the cable was kinked at a certain angle.

[Lurpin]

k thanks ill go check on that right now..

[Skullavera]

Just replace it. It sounds as if your car alarm is just old and it's days are numbered. Don't worry about it any longer and just replace it. Going off while you're driving means the wiring needs to be redone, or the brain is just fried, probably both. Save yourself the headaches.

[Lurpin]

yea the cables were fine. I'm pretty sure that the thing is fried.