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Alarm kept going off

Maintenance/Repairs
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#1

Hi all

So the other day we were pulling our 2011 Accord into a Costco parking lot. My wife was on the phone with my mom, and after I parked the car, I turned it off and we sat in the car for a few minutes to finish the conversation. Then when I tried to open the door to exit, the alarm starting honking and the doors could not be unlocked.

I drove the car to the far end of the lot, still honking. We tried repeatedly to turn the engine off and on. Eventually it did stop, but we were still locked in. I opened the door manually and then the alarm started again.

We also tried the panic button on the fob, but that didn’t help.

Eventually my wife tried holding down the panic button AND the unlock button, and that seemed to fix the alarm.

What the heck is this? Is something funny with the system or what? I’m afraid it’s going to happen again or maybe get worse. Is holding panic and unlock on the fob a real way to silence the alarm?

Thanks!

Neel

#2

The only advice I can give you since you didn’t tell us what year the car is or if the car has a factory alarm or an aftermarket alarm system is this;

Open your owners manual and look up “security system” or “alarm system” in the back of the book. Go to that section and read up on how the system works, how to arm and disarm it.

If you don’t have an owners manual, you should be able to download this in PDF form from Honda.

#3

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that we checked the manual but couldn’t find anything to do with alarm or security. I just looked in the PDF and there is a page there, so maybe I missed it in the real manual.

It says the system can be deactivated by unlocking the doors, but we couldn’t do that, and still begs the question of why the alarm went off in the first place.

#4

I edited my original post, it’s a 2011 Accord

1 Like
#5

When was the last time you replaced the car’s battery or the key fob battery? Sometimes electrical gremlins are related to low battery power. Get the car battery checked, even if it is relatively new. I had a battery replacement in a car I used to own, and the first two replacements were faulty. If the key fob batteries are the originals, just replace them. They are cheap in the car expense category. This stuff might not work, but it’s a place to start, and neither will break the bank.

1 Like
#6

A previous Honda of mine would arm the security system if the doors were locked and the car not running. It was a convertible so if the top was down and I reached in an unlocked the doors, the alarm would go off. I think I remeber having to push alarm and unlock at the same time to stop it.

Look closer, the instructions are in the manual.

1 Like
#7

September 2018, I replaced the car battery. Key fob, I’ve never replaced the battery, we bought this car in 2015. I had the same thought, maybe the fob need a fresh battery.

#8

When you say the doors couldn’t be unlocked, did you mean that you tried pressing unlock on the fob?

#9

It seems that you inadvertently enabled the alarm while waiting in the car. When an intrusion is detected the computer will not respond to the door lock switch on the door panels and will relock any door that is unlocked, this is normal.

Press only the unlock button. When an intrusion is detected the security module will only respond to the RKE transmitter or the door lock cylinder switch (insert the key into the drivers door lock and rotate).

#10

Yes, that’s what I meant. Also the power lock switch on the arm didn’t work. Only manually moving the lock switch itself unlocked the door.