2000 Boxster Alarm weirdness
 

Hello all.

I've searched around through the forums a bit but have yet to find what is happening, so please pardon me if this topic has been covered elsewhere.

I'm running into some WEIRD-ass bahavior with my alarm.

This has just started happening recently.

Starting a couple weeks ago, the car will be sitting in my driveway and the alarm will go off. Nothing has touched the car. This has happened 3-4 times.
(I go outside, shut it off, swear a little, and head back inside).

More recently, the car will be sitting in my driveway and it sounds like a "portion" of the alarm will go off. This bit is even weirder since it sounds like a really big balloon being squealingly drained of air (REALLY LOUD). I have to physically put the key in the lock and lock/unlock the car 5-10 times and it will finally shut up. A couple times I have had to acually disconnect the battery to silence the car. The noise seems to be coming from the passenger-side. It's not the beep-beep-beep of the alarm, but a constant shreiking noise that seriously sounds almost identical to a balloon being drained as loud as possible. If it didn't piss everyone in my neighborhood off every time it happened, I'd spend some time while it was going off to dig in and figure out what specifically is causing the noise. (I live a block from the local PD station, so they're kinda sensitive to the annoyance)

The other day I drove it 3-4 blocks to run an errand and upon starting it, the hazards were going off - about twice as fast as normal. Had to stop and restart the car 3-4 times and they stopped blinking.

What's even more of a pain is that when these mishaps occur, the trunks will both lock, so I have a hell of a time getting the hood open to disconnect the battery. (finally had to resort to the emergency pull-cable to get to the battery tonight)

Anyone have any ideas what kind of gremlin has possessed my lovely car?

Cheers,
-Chris

Check for moisture behind and under the drivers seat and report back. ;)

Sorry it took so long to reply - was on-call for work the last 2 weeks so just now got a chance to check this out.

Yes, it has been raining a LOT lately (damn near every day for the last 2 months).

At any rate, I cleaned out what little debris (leaves/pine-needled/etc) was in these drain areas and flushed the ports with a healthy amount of water. They seem to be draining just fine.

I found 4 drains up under the front cowl and then the two behind the door under the convertible lid.

When I finished this, I checked, and under the driver's seat (not visible from the front), when I slid it forward, there was ~2" of standing water!! :eek: WT*??

So I suppose I now have 2 questions.
1 - what about the water causes the alarm to trigger (curious more than anything - a sensor under the seat?)
2 - more importantly, where did all this fluid come from? (I'm guessing these drains have something to do with it?)

I drenched 3 towels soaking it all out as best I could and have a couple fans running in the car to air it out.

The immobilizer unit is under the drivers seat. You need to pull it out, open it up, flush it with some rubbing alcohol, and let it dry out. After dry, check for corrosion damage.
Dry out the area under the seat thoroughly and ensure that all drains are clear.

Particle? You run a linear accelerator? Just curious..

What he said..

but I use a toothbrush and WD40. The Immob comes out pretty quickly once you remove the seat!! The black plastic box open right up with some small screwdrivers. Pull the board out of the black plastic and clean it thoroughly.

I see this in my race cars when the owner *think* they are going to clean/wash the car.

For several years now, I have moved the immob up and behind the air bag cover on the passenger side (cant get wet there)

disconnect the battery before you remove the seat - otherwise you will have an airbag idiot light on the dash.