I have never noticed the factory alarm before this past week and that has been OK by me but last week while I went into work in the evening for a little catch-up My car alarm went off for 20 minutes( my neighbors told me the next day) I left for 3 hours and it went off about 5 minutes after I left. I did not really believe them but several people told me this and some kids also told me " it just started beeping and flashing" Well tonight after a little drive I had the car parked with the hood open ( to cool down) and the doors closed and locked (windows up) I went inside and started to play some metal of honor front line and had the surround cranking. Some time later when I got killed I heard a beeping not sure what it was I went around the house checking smoke and CO detectors, listened out the back door and when I went to the front door I saw my lights going up and down and the horn was beeping. I grabbed my keys and unlocked the doors to stop the alarm. I have a PC680 battery and don't want this happening any more ( saw the lights and they looked dim ) Anyone have a clue as to what may have triggered this. The neighbors said it was going off for about 10 minutes this time. and no one was around the car.

Very strange...


Thanks for any input here. I may just try to disable it if it happens again.

 

Couldn't say for sure, but this happened to me once before too. The car was not touched and the alarm just went off. It is supossedly only triggered by the trunk, doors, or hood opening. even if your inside the car and unlock the doors when it's armed it will go off. try adjusting the latch on the trunk and lubing all hinges and latches. plus if you have the trunk rattle problem you can get it taken care of now.

 

Factory alarm doesn't trigger the headlights does it? I thought just the horn goes off?

I think having the hood open can trigger the alarm. I am not 100% sure though. Maybe the hood got opened a little more due to wind or something and that triggered the alarm.

 

Yes, and since the lights have indipendent motors they tend to get out of sync with each other and will look as though they are winking at you. Very strange to see a car wink.

My car used to do this as well, and I think that it is trunk sensor that has a hair trigger.
I installed keyless entry with an aftermarket alarm system and it used to be that I had to dissable the stock alarm each time I needed to get in. When my car was at a mazda dealer for engine troubles it came back with the factory dissabled for good. I don't know what they did, but at least they fixed one of my problems while it was there. Too bad they couldn't fix the engine.

 

Check to make sure your battery isnt low on power or messed up. If your battery is low it will get mixed signals from the door, trunk, and hood sensors triggering it to go off. Do you have a turbo timer or aftermarket alarm?

 

Hey everyone. The car did not do this for the first 2 years I had it. The first time everything was closed. Only last night I had the hood opened. My battery still showed a good charge an hour after the alarm went off( it must have recovered cause the lights did look dim when the alarm was going off) I have a HKS turbo timer but I have not used it for months, the timer is set to 0 minutes. I noticed that I do not get the arming beep every time I shut the car off and lock the doors. Is there a set routine for setting the alarm, I need to look into the owners man. again. It's been a while. Where is the switch for the hood? is it in the latch? I have a mazdaspeed stlye hood.


Thanks again.

Jim in PA

 

RX7FAN,

mine has done this too -- hood open with doors & trunk closed & locked. with the hood open, the stock alarm should not arm. it happens so infrequently, and the car is parked in the garage that i don't worry about it. but a logical guess would point towards the hood sensor.

here's my theory: i don't know what kind of sensor the hood uses, but i would guess it's some kind of pin-type sensor. i suspect that the hood sensor is sticking closed (making the alarm think the hood is still closed, even though the hood is opened, so it arms the alarm), then after awhile the sensor unsticks (however, the alarm has already armed) and sets the alarm off (thinking someone has opened the hood).

the car is parked in the garage, and i've been able to catch it the few times that it has happened, but what does concern me is the fact that when it goes off, it raises & lowers the headlights (for 5-minutes -- i thought that's what the owner's manual says). it seems to me that that's a little too much of a workout for my headlight motors, which i'm sure mazduh charges 2-arms, 1-leg, and a ******** for. i wonder which brilliant mazduh engineer came up with that idea??

....good luck...