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Alarm issue or electrical gremlin?

highrpm666

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 19, 2014
Messages
124
Location
Morrison, Co
Today my vr4 started doing something odd. I had went to the DMV and left a bit angry. I slammed my driver door very hard when getting back into the car and then drove to my next destination. When I shut off my car and opened the door just the low beam headlights began flashing and I could hear the headlight relay clicking. They flashed for about 2 minutes and then stopped. During this time I tried unlocking and locking the doors and cycling on and off the ignition. Nothing I did other than turning the headlights on would stop them from flashing temporarily. I did notice that my alarm light on the gauge cluster doesn't illuminate when I lock the doors now(after slamming the door at the DMV). The car still has the factory alarm but, the horn for the alarm was disconnected when I purchased the vehicle so I left it unplugged guessing it had issues with the factory alarm. Also when I left the second place I had stopped I noticed that the headlights continue to flash while driving for about 2 minutes if I don't turn on the headlights.

So this is basically the problem I'm having. I'm thinking I damaged something in the driver door causing the factory alarm to go off whenever the doors are opened.

Would pulling apart the driver door be my next plan of action when trying to diagnose this issue... Or could it be some other type of electrical gremlin or vr4 voodoo at work here?

I was thinking of just plugging in the alarm horn also to see if its honking along with the flashing lights to verify.

I will add that I have tried to make the factory alarm go off in the past and couldn't make it work and gave up on fixing it.
 

G

Staff member
Joined
Feb 24, 2004
Messages
8,896
Location
zompton
There are 3 wires that go to the back of the door lock tumbler. You have to take apart the interior door card to get to them. Chances are they just need to be lubed. There is a tiny micro switch in between the wires and the tumbler that is probably stuck or corroded. Just spray some wd40 there and lock & unlock the tumbler a few times to lube it up and see if that fixes it. I had the same problem on one of my gvr4's.
 

iceman69510

Turn Right Racing
Staff member
Joined
Mar 5, 2001
Messages
10,964
Location
Michigan
Just to add, to turn off the alarm, unlock the trunk with the key. I have had to do this for a couple years now. I know I have damaged wiring in my door somewhere I have to fix.
 

Pushinink

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 30, 2012
Messages
70
Location
cincy, oh
actually on gvr4 its turn the lock cylinder with your key in either front door should turn the alarm off. usually trunk cylinder wont shut off the alarm. also if you dont fix the problem it will most likely start to drain your battery. A lot of guys just disable the oem alarm altogether. the module is way up in the dash above the clutch pedal to disable it
 

iceman69510

Turn Right Racing
Staff member
Joined
Mar 5, 2001
Messages
10,964
Location
Michigan
My driver's door is where the problem is, so I use the trunk cylinder and it works every time, so I beg to differ.
 

highrpm666

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 19, 2014
Messages
124
Location
Morrison, Co
So my dash security light is now working intermittently..

Also I was rolling the driver window down yesterday and it snagged something inside the door and made a loud pop noise. I'm guessing wires out of place were caught and yanked. The window functioned normally after the one pop.

I still haven't had a chance to tear the door panel off to see what I broke but, the only way to stop the alarm is to unlock the trunk.

I'll post an update once I dig into the door.
 
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