Car alarms can help to protect your motor from those who would like to help themselves to either your car or the stuff they fancy on the back seat and they can be a good way to reduce your car insurance premiums but they can also be a) incredibly annoying (when they belong to your neighbor and go off at all hours of the night and day) or b) incredibly embarrassing (when they belong to you and go off at all hours of the night and day).
So how can you silence the alarm quickly with the least amount of embarrassment possible?
• Make sure that you check out the owner’s manual whenever you pick up a new car (there are some smashing ones at metronissanredlands.com). You need to know what you’re up against, just in case of emergency. You need to know which button to press to set the alarm and which to press to switch the darned thing off.
• If you have batteries in the key fob to control your car alarm make sure that they are well maintained. Your key fob will not be able to silence the alarm if the batteries are flat. If you have to press a button a few times to lock and/or unlock your car doors then you can assume that the batteries are on the way out and need to be replaced.
• If your remote button pressing isn’t working try unlocking the driver’s door with the key – that should do it. If the door is already unlocked and the alarm just keeps on blaring out try locking and unlocking the door again to sort out the problem.
• You may be able to re-instate the “sound of silence” by starting your car engine – the majority of factory built and after market car alarms turn off as soon as the ignition is switched on (that’s assuming that the immobilizer hasn’t jumped into action).
• If the alarm is still blaring and your embarrassment levels are rising out of control it’s time to really take matters into your own hands. It’s time to remove the fuse which connects the alarm to the car battery. The owners’ manual should be able to point you in the right direction. Factory installed alarms will generally have a connecting fuse behind the steering column in the fuse box and after market alarms will probably have a fuse somewhere in the engine compartment. Remember that this should only be used as a temporary solution – you should get your alarm fixed as soon as possible so that it can do the job it was designed for. If your car is stolen whilst the alarm is disconnected you may have a struggle convincing your insurance company to pay out.
• Pull the offending fuse with a pair of tweezers – you’ll know if you’ve got the right one because it will suddenly become quiet. If you pull out a fuse but the noise continues remember to put it back before you start on the next.
• If you really can’t find the right fuse to disconnect you may have to disconnect the entire negative terminal from the car battery. Not only will this stop your alarm from blaring out it will also cut off the complete electrical system of your car. Leave a good 30 seconds for things to re-set before trying to reconnect the negative terminal and restore power to your motor – hopefully the alarm will have sorted itself out by then.
Check out the great motors at http://metronissanredlands.com if you decide that you just need to replace your old car with a fabulous new, and less embarrassing model.