Weird Alarm issue. Ideas what happened?

[GT2Sean]

Long time troller, first time poster.

I went down to the beach this weekend, parked the 95 540ia, locked it with the remote, and left it. When I came back hours later, I couldn't unlock the car with the remote for the life of me. I unlocked the driver door by putting the key in it, and the alarm went off. I had no way to disable it with the remote not working. I ended having to disconnect the battery and get towed to a stealer.

They said that the battery in the remote died, and that I couldn't disable the alarm with the key in the door because it tripped an engine fault code when the alarm went off. They charged me $113 to read and reset the codes and replace my remote battery.

Also, my radio doesn't work now, because they said the PO changed the code and the original code they looked up does not work. Does what they told me about the alarm make any sense? And how do I make my radio work again? Thanks in advance for the help from the experts.

[DaCan23]

After unlockin the door with the key did you try to start it? Usually putting the key in the ignition and starting it turns off the alarm. The battery in the remote is cheap and easy to replace. Sometimes the chip in the remote pops out and it wont work and you might think the battery was dead then

For the radio, if its not the same one that came with the car, and since they lookup the code by VIN, you can pull the radio and write down the serial number and they should be able to find the code that way. The PO didnt write down the code in any of the manuals?

[uscharalph]

Long time troller, first time poster.

I went down to the beach this weekend, parked the 95 540ia, locked it with the remote, and left it. When I came back hours later, I couldn't unlock the car with the remote for the life of me. I unlocked the driver door by putting the key in it, and the alarm went off. I had no way to disable it with the remote not working. I ended having to disconnect the battery and get towed to a stealer.

They said that the battery in the remote died, and that I couldn't disable the alarm with the key in the door because it tripped an engine fault code when the alarm went off. They charged me $113 to read and reset the codes and replace my remote battery.

Also, my radio doesn't work now, because they said the PO changed the code and the original code they looked up does not work. Does what they told me about the alarm make any sense? And how do I make my radio work again? Thanks in advance for the help from the experts.

$113.00 = Highway Robbery (Pun intended).

[GT2Sean]

After unlockin the door with the key did you try to start it? Usually putting the key in the ignition and starting it turns off the alarm. The battery in the remote is cheap and easy to replace. Sometimes the chip in the remote pops out and it wont work and you might think the battery was dead then

For the radio, if its not the same one that came with the car, and since they lookup the code by VIN, you can pull the radio and write down the serial number and they should be able to find the code that way. The PO didnt write down the code in any of the manuals?

I did try to start it, nothing happened. The alarm kept going off. The stealer said there was some sort of 'malfunction' that caused the car to 'lock up' and trip an engine code. Sounds fishy.

The stealer said the radio was the origianl for the car, but the code was changed. Is this possible? Why would anyone bother doing that? Would getting the serial number from the back of the radio help in this case?

[DaCan23]

I've never heard of a code being changed on a radio..... sound likes they are tryin to rope you into a radio programmin charge... did they give you the code that they had on record?

All in all very weird about the alarm and radio issues

[GT2Sean]

I've never heard of a code being changed on a radio..... sound likes they are tryin to rope you into a radio programmin charge... did they give you the code that they had on record?

All in all very weird about the alarm and radio issues

They gave me the code. I haven't had a chance to try it yet though. They said they tried three times and it didn't work. Do you just punch the numbers on the radio station preset buttons?

[DaCan23]

yes, and if you enter them wrong, it'll lock you out from trying for an hour or so....

On my old sticky E24 radio I kept entering it wrong, came back an hour or so later and made sure I pressed the buttons real good and it worked.

If I am passing by a stealer where I know the service mgr well this week I'll ask him if it is possible the code can be changed.

[GT2Sean]

yes, and if you enter them wrong, it'll lock you out from trying for an hour or so....

On my old sticky E24 radio I kept entering it wrong, came back an hour or so later and made sure I pressed the buttons real good and it worked.

If I am passing by a stealer where I know the service mgr well this week I'll ask him if it is possible the code can be changed.

Thanks for all the help, DaCan. I will try the code tonight. Hopefully it works. I don't know what to do if it doesn't.

[Qsilver7]

At this point in time...you 've had 3 failed attempts ...SO...you need to
* turn the ignition to Position 1 (not position 2...will fail to work if you do)
* turn the radio on and leave it on for 1 hour (60 minutes) no less...if you do ...it won't work
* after 1 hour, turn ignition to POS 1 or 2, turn radio on, then enter the 5 digit CODE (numbers should only be between 1-6 since there's only 6 radio preset buttons).

If at any point in entering the CODE you hear a beep before you've entered all 5 digits...STOP...and start over from the first digit.

In regards to the alarm going off...I do believe the owner's manual says that in the case of setting off the alarm when opening the door with the key...that you are suppose to stick the key into the ignition and turn it to either position 1 or 2 and the alarm will go off in about 30 seconds. But maybe something malfunctioned as you stated ... but check your owners manual under Deactivating the alarm.

Good luck.

[GT2Sean]

At this point in time...you 've had 3 failed attempts ...SO...you need to
* turn the ignition to Position 1 (not position 2...will fail to work if you do)
* turn the radio on and leave it on for 1 hour (60 minutes) no less...if you do ...it won't work
* after 1 hour, turn ignition to POS 1 or 2, turn radio on, then enter the 5 digit CODE (numbers should only be between 1-6 since there's only 6 radio preset buttons).

If at any point in entering the CODE you hear a beep before you've entered all 5 digits...STOP...and start over from the first digit.

In regards to the alarm going off...I do believe the owner's manual says that in the case of setting off the alarm when opening the door with the key...that you are suppose to stick the key into the ignition and turn it to either position 1 or 2 and the alarm will go off in about 30 seconds. But maybe something malfunctioned as you stated ... but check your owners manual under Deactivating the alarm.

Good luck.

I tried that last night with no luck. Between steps 2 and 3, do i have to turn off the radio and remove the key? When I tried to enter it, I heard the beep on the fifth number every time. This is getting really frustrating.