For those of you who have a factory alarm and it doesn't arm or suddenly stopped arming (but light shows up when locking the door, no beep), check the hood release switch. I spent an hour messing with it, hope it helps someone in the future.

Basically it is located at the bottom of the hood latch, you will see electrical wires leading up to it. You will notice there is a thin metal "lever" attached to it. The way it works is when the hood is released, this lever will touch the "button" on the switch, when the hood is closed, the lever will NOT be in contact with the switch.

To properly set, with the hood released and up (of course), bend the thin metal lever so it is making hard contact with the "button" on the sensor. The metal lever already has a bend on it at the end, increase the angle of this to ensure it won't move out of position in the future.

In case the metal lever got moved, it goes below the actual release lever that is attached to your release cable, it should not be above anything.

When you open the hood, that metal lever will move up and out of the way, releasing the contact it had with the hood switch. When closed again, it will push the button on the switch.

 

And i thought the security system was just for show

 

its pretty funtional, heck it gives me an insurance discount while im at it : )

 

Indeed, I just discovered I had it after owning the car for 3 years! (there was no center console when I got it). I'll have to look into that insurance discount.