Anyone else with a Viper alarm having a problem where it won't unlock when it's really cold out? I'm at work now and unable to look at the box it came in, but I think that it's a 791XV.
I dropped my car off at the shop to let it sit as it normally would when I work my third shift job so they can try to unlock it and see it fail in the morning like I do. When I described the problem the guy sounded like he's never had one come in with the same problem. I've had a Viper for about 3 years now, although the complete alarm system including the remote was replace about 2 months ago due to repeated remote start failure & they're inability to fix the system I had in. So at 2 months, it shouldn't be a keychain button wearing out or anything of that sort. My fiance has the same one on his car & had a button wear out, mine is acting close to what his was. I know the newer one is slightly different than the older one I had, but the old one never gave me a problem with unlocking.
To detail the problem more: I can always remote start the car, there's no problem there. When I go to unlock, whether the car is running or not, I cannot unlock it with the remote until the car warms up. Usually there's a rejection notice on the pager when the signal isn't received, but I only get one of those maybe 1 in 5 times I hit the button. The pager shows the signal going out, but nothing coming back. At this point, if the car is running, I cannot get it to turn off. Obviously unlocking with the key sets the alarm off, so it's just a pain to wait for it to warm up a bit until I can leave!
If this problem is anything like my remote start problem, I'll have to go back a few times while the guy tries to figure it out. Hopefully he'll get a fix the first time, but with him never hearing of this problem before, I think it might take a few tries. Anyone have any ideas?
They probably used scotch-locks to make their connections. I run into problems like this all the time fixing other shops work. We had the same problem with the parking lights on a car recently, it was because of the scotch-locks. I soldered all the connections and they haven't had a problem since. If these guys do not solder their connections, I will bet that is the problem. Viper is the best on the market, but if someone is doing poor quality installs it doesn't matter.
When you get the car back, look under the dash on the left side. It should look like everything belongs there from the factory. If its obvious there is a black box shoved someplace with messy wires coming out, and big plastic things where the wires connect to the vehicles wires, then take it someplace reputable to have it fixed. Let us know what happens.
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Thank you for the help!
What are scotch-locks? Do you mean it could possibly have those twist plastic things to join wires? I know what they look like. The box you're talking about, I'll have to look for it. I never look under the dash for anything. Although my underdash neons are just kinda thrown in there, so that may look like quite a mess.
I have no complaints with this shop, they treat me well. The same guy works on my car every time and he seems to really want to get it fixed. He likes to take the time to show me stuff and explain everything he did, not just hand me the keys and send me on my way & I like that. I'm not paying for anything, 100% covered. Plus since I have a 2nd car and this place is less than 10 minutes away, there's little inconvenience.
Hopefully they're working on it right now & I'll have a message on the machine when I wake up to go to work later.
Is your antenna in a place that gets exceptionally cold. what happens when you get super close to the antenna? you may have an antenna on the way out.
I stopped by the shop this morning where my Sunfire has been since Tuesday. He said that he tried Wednesday morning, Wednesday night, Thursday morning, Thursday night & again today before I got there and it worked fine every single time. I had a
face. The last I heard from the shop on Thursday was that it was my stock actuators, not the alarm because they checked & rechecked again and their wiring was correct.
So we walk out to the car, he tries to unlock it and it responds with the error beep on the pager. Ah Ha! It obviously just hates me being near it! I had brought the stock fob along and what do you know, I opened the door with it when the pager failed. NOT the actuators!
He shuts off the alarm that's now going off & gets out. We mention that I ALWAYS remote start it before this problem happens, so he locks it, remote starts it and now the unlock won't work again.
Through trial and error, we've discovered that it really hates to lock and unlock when it's remote started. In fact at one point he had it unlocked, remote started and then couldn't lock it.
He's puzzled & my car is still at the shop
i think he needs to give you a new brain. there is no reason it shouldnt lock/unlock with it Rs.
n8ball2013 wrote:i think he needs to give you a new brain. there is no reason it shouldnt lock/unlock with it Rs.
There's definately something fishy going on. The entire system was replaced about 2 months ago though, so maybe it was just bad from the beginning? Regardless, it'll be fixed or replaced again, 100% free.
im bettin on a bad brain...lifetime warranty is great though isn't it
The fix: new antenna! Working so far, I tried it at the shop, then I went for pizza and tried it again leaving there. They tried it with success multiple times before I got it. Guess the antenna was freezing.
DropTopPaul wrote:im bettin on a bad brain...lifetime warranty is great though isn't it
LOOOOOOOVE the warranty! Without it, there's no way I'd be able to get it fixed for a while!
wow.....CURVEBALL!!! glad ya got it fixed though
interesting...i went out to my car a few weeks ago, unarmed it, went in the car, closed door, armed, then tried to unarm it again, and it will not unarm. i opened the door and set off the alarm and ended up having to unhook the battery so the alarm would shut up. my remote gives me the beep like im too far away or it dosent recognize it...
basically my car has been sitting with the battery unhooked for a month so the alarm wont sound, lol.
im trying to figure this out as well..
may have to try a new antenna
Joey Baggs (Eazy716) wrote:interesting...i went out to my car a few weeks ago, unarmed it, went in the car, closed door, armed, then tried to unarm it again, and it will not unarm. i opened the door and set off the alarm and ended up having to unhook the battery so the alarm would shut up. my remote gives me the beep like im too far away or it dosent recognize it...
basically my car has been sitting with the battery unhooked for a month so the alarm wont sound, lol.
im trying to figure this out as well..
may have to try a new antenna
Do you think it's related to weather? How old is the system, mainly the keychain? My fiance has the same alarm I do on his car, also installed about 3 years ago & he started having a problem similar to mine, but not related to cold. What he did was (on the advice of the shop) pay attention to the keychain when this happens so you can see if the signal is going out and bouncing back. From watching his, he saw (and heard) that the signal wasn't coming back correctly & eventually diagnosed it as the keychain wearing out. Unfortunately, the keychain isn't covered in the warranty. He had to disconnect his battery as well to reset the alarm & even one night he had such a hard time getting into his car that he just took my other car to work
It was a huge PITA until we got it figured out! Helpless feeling being locked in or out of your own car because of an alarm isn't it?
ya...its pretty agrevating(sp?)
my system is less than a year old. had it put in i think in april or may of 06. my buddy who runs the shop that installed it is supposed to come look at it soon, but i just wanna start the damn car, lol
i tried the whole key in and hit the reset button under the dash, but that did nothing as well
Oh wow, a newer one! I asked if my antenna that was bad was also a new install from the "full replacement" I was told I had back about 2 months and the guy at the desk wasn't sure. We agreed that as long as it works now, doesn't really matter. So I'm not sure if mine went bad after 2 months or 3 years. Good luck finding a fix for that!
The thing is your "antena" is actually a Receiver for the alram. Not like an antenna for a car radio. I took one apart one day after we replaced it for a customer and there is a tiny circuit bord in there. And I believe 4 wires go to it. It actually receives the info from your remote and sends it to the control module to do the command. Old alrams have the receiver in the control module and just ran a single wire up the a pillar for the antenna. But you notice how much better the range is on newer systems, that is because of the receiver being in the "antenna" mounted on the glass. Not sure as to why they go bad, but 1 gets replaced every so often.
hmmmm. i may have to try and play around with the antenna a lil...maybe just a loose wire in the connection or something...
is there a simple way to disconnect the whole system just so i can start the damn car?? lol
Joey Baggs (Eazy716) wrote:hmmmm. i may have to try and play around with the antenna a lil...maybe just a loose wire in the connection or something...
is there a simple way to disconnect the whole system just so i can start the damn car?? lol
So you haven't been able to drive it for a while? While I had problems, I just didn't use the alarm to lock or unlock, I hit the button on the door to lock and used the key to get in. Maybe getting it into valet mode might help too, but I'm not too sure on that.
^^^i cant start it cuz when i connect the battery, the alarm is going off, which i cant shut off unless i disconnect the battery, and the alarm wont disarm with the remote.
Joey Baggs (Eazy716) wrote:^^^i cant start it cuz when i connect the battery, the alarm is going off, which i cant shut off unless i disconnect the battery, and the alarm wont disarm with the remote.
Ooo it goes off the second you give it juice? We never had that problem with ours, the battery disconnect would always keep it quiet even when reconnected until we "broke in." I think there's a way that you can turn it to valet while it's going off, but I'm not sure how. Would your buddy know how to handle it? The shop I took mine to would be willing to tell me if I had that problem.
n8ball2013 wrote:unplug the brain joey
happen to knwo where that might be located?? i assume right there under the dash somewhere, but i dont look under there much, lol
yeah it should be right up under neath your steering column. if not find where they tap into your ingition harness and start following them. with it unplugged you should be able to drive.
thanks man, ill check that out tonight. i dont need to drive it, but id like to start it to keep the fluids moving around over the winter.
