Ok I've taken about 2 hrs or maybe more to read through all the forums I can find to try to figure out if my baby is having issues the same as everyone else's. I can't pin it exactly down to one of those threads, so here goes (please if you know the answer you can toss in a link to the right forum).

Today: Driving down the road in the midst of some lovely rain caused by tropical storm FEY I stop at a red light (as one would normally). The dome light turned itself on!! I don't normally drive with the lights on with my car, not much night driving and sun is up when in the mornings so, I thought maybe the lights being on caused it. I played with closing the door, turning the lights on and off (and probably the guy ahead of me scratching his head). No dice. I turned off the dome light switch thinking - whatever, problem solved who needs a dome light?

I was at work not 10 minutes later, parked, lights off, working away and the alarm goes off. It is no longer raining at this point, I click the alarm off with my fob, scratched my head and turned to go into the office when it went off again. I keep my fob on top of my desk, so I'm not pressing any buttons when it is doing this. I click and I click with my fob, angrily at this point as that siren can drive you mad. Nothing - except loud siren noises and the flashing of lights - however, interestingly it flashes its lights at me while I tap the buttons as though to say "yea I know your pressing my buttons but I want to drive you insane anyway".

I finally walk over to the car, unlock the doors with the key and it shuts up for the rest of the day. I brought my cds into the office with me as ... well a car unlocked... well ok it's not yelling at me anyway.

My boss said, hey maybe your fob no longer has good batteries in it. Ok good point, 2005 model never replaced the fob batteriers, so sure that could be it. I go and get new batteries inthe fob, the guy at the store said "yup these are dead missy, don't know how it was working for ya" which it worked just fine until today, but again, whatever, if the shoe fits... $10 is nothing.

So I'm in the parkinglot. The key fob flashes the lights at me, but doesn't unlock/lock/alarm the car. The key in the door doesn't cause the ararm to go off, but if I put the key in the ignition, press the buttons twice and turn to ON i can happily lock/unlock the car whilst inside said car. As soon as I close the car door, it stays unlocked, and does not lock the drivers side door no matter how many times i press the buttons. (doesn't actually unlock the passenger/trunk doors either).

If I am inside the car the alarm button works (um OW). Not so outside the car.

So... what good does a key fob do me that only works inside the car? This is very silly but highly annoying.

I've read some articles indicating the battery could be a culprit, do you think this to be the case? A trip to Autozone to test it?? I mean that's the only thing I can think of unless there's some external sensor that actually picks up the fob magic to make it work??

FYI my spare key fob does the same thing, not working outside and works perfectly inside the car, never used the spare fob before, did not replace batteries.

Also just for fun because I know how easy it is to put batteries backwards, I disassembled my fob in my car to the dismay of my car (OW MY EARS!) and reseated the batteries correctly, did not fix the issue.

Aaaaarg!

 

May sound crazy, but I think someone had this same problem and was caused by a faulty car battery. It was too low voltage or something. Usually all the electrical stuff points to the relay control module, but most with that problem have the mystery no starts. I'd start with a fresh battery. Sorry don't know which thread it was in.

 

SB_08_030_04_Key_Transmitter.pdf

this may be your problem

 

Nice - I didn't see this in any of the forums!!! Thanks! I'll have to let you know if that fixes it. I'll also get the battery checked out tomorrow

 

Well I'm sorry to say it isn't the battery. Autozone checked it thoroughly for me and said - nope - all good here. The spare fob has decided it is a good day to work (not die). So... I can at least stop the random attacks of flashing lights and sirens from my apartment now (tho requires I park MUCH closer to my apt). Oh well. I'll have to stop by the dealer tomorrow and see if they can replace the panic button on my fob and see if that is my issue.

I can't store my car on a flat surface. There aren't any parking spots that are totally flat in the apartment complex... all are on inclines. Could the slight incline be messing with my car and should I back it into my parking spot religiously instead?

OY maybe it is the door sensor. The dome light stays on 100% of the time now, never goes off... so I have it turned off. The siren constantly goes off now as well, unless it is unlocked. oy-oy I can see it gone tomorrow at this rate.

 

I am having similar issues - but thank goodness does not involve any noise or interior light problems as of yet. In the span of a day the car started to flash its lights - fog/blinker/accessory when the car is parked and turned off. At first could get it to stop this by using key fob either to lock/unlock. Now that won't work either. Autozone battery test says all ok there... disconnected the battery and reconnected without any change of status...it did stop the flashing briefly but within 15min it was back at it.

Help - I hate my car looking like a possessed Christmas tree. Can't get to the dealership for a couple days due to busy schedule :<

Appreciate the assistance.

 

Could be a faulty ground. Check the electrical grounds on the car, make sure they are clean and tight

 

If your battery is under warranty at autozone, I would just leave the lights on for a few hours and kill it all the way, then just get a new one.

Also way back someone posted that the alarm control was in the trunk area and when washing the car water would leak to it and cause problems. The solution was to wrap in plastic to waterproof it. Hope this helps.

 

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...t=alarm+issues

This thread may help. It sounds like some of the symptoms are the same.
If nothing else, it is a great read.
Good luck, and let us know what the fix turns out to be.
Sorry I could not help more.

 

By the way, my issue was that water got into the back end of the car. Somewhere in the trunk, there is apparantly some wiring harness/cage that controls all the electrical stuff on the car. If it gets wet it starts doing all kinds of crazy things.

Due to circumstances, my car is still under warranty, so I did take it in to get it fixed. If you are not under warranty, it could be expensive!!! They replaced the wiring harness on my car, all the electronic gizmos in the housing, the sticky stuff that should water seal the trunk around the spoiler, and did some random recall on my interior door handles? Well it was free for me but I was without car for 2 weeks while they did all this. I also had a free rental while the car was in the shop. So I also learned that I will never own a Dodge Avenger, very unconfortable seats and only an "ok" drive.

Note- the only way to get my car to be quiet thru the night was to lock the driver's side door manually (sitting in the passenger side seat), then lock the passenger door manually. I did also have to have the dome light turned off (as it would turn on randomly).

 

That won't work. They have to charge it and then test it before they are allowed to give you another battery. If it passes it's your battery, all you did was waste some time.
Ex-Autozoner manager

 

Don't you run a quick test with your machine to see if it takes a charge? If a battery is completely dead, it won't pass this test. If there is any juice left then it will take a charge. It's worked for me many times in my work trucks and didn't have time to leave the battery there. Dead, exchange and go.

 

So the water gremlins were hard at work shorting out the electrical system.
Thank you for posting the fix.
Looks like cruizinquick, had mentioned where the problem could be