Subaru alarm being set off by Ford Windstar

[Hannah]

Odd problem, just got some new neighbors, one of whom drives a Ford
Windstar. Seems that when they open or lock their minivan with the
remote it sets off the alarm on my car.

My car is a 98 Impreza 2.5RS with a stock remote / central locking
system.

The dealer is telling me that's the way things are and I'll have to
deal. They also told me that when my car was in the shop the remotes
on other sooby's would set off the alarm on my car.

Any suggestions as to what I can do about this? The car's on an
extended warranty so brining it back to the dealr isn't going to be a
problem.

Thanks for any help you can offer

 

[Diva]

I sure wouldn't "deal with it." If it's under warranty and even THEY say that the alarm was set off by other soobies, then they should fix it. I'd put up a fuss.

June

Odd problem, just got some new neighbors, one of whom drives a Ford
Windstar. Seems that when they open or lock their minivan with the
remote it sets off the alarm on my car.

My car is a 98 Impreza 2.5RS with a stock remote / central locking
system.

The dealer is telling me that's the way things are and I'll have to
deal. They also told me that when my car was in the shop the remotes
on other sooby's would set off the alarm on my car.

Any suggestions as to what I can do about this? The car's on an
extended warranty so brining it back to the dealr isn't going to be a
problem.

Thanks for any help you can offer

 

[null]

Odd problem, just got some new neighbors, one of whom drives a Ford
Windstar. Seems that when they open or lock their minivan with the
remote it sets off the alarm on my car.

My car is a 98 Impreza 2.5RS with a stock remote / central locking
system.

The dealer is telling me that's the way things are and I'll have to
deal. They also told me that when my car was in the shop the remotes
on other sooby's would set off the alarm on my car.

Any suggestions as to what I can do about this? The car's on an
extended warranty so brining it back to the dealr isn't going to be a
problem.

Thanks for any help you can offer

I wouldn't put up with it. It sounds as if they don't want to please the
customer. It shouldn't
be a big deal to recode the car to a different frequency. I would question
them to if they even know
what the cause of the problem is. Its something that shouldn't happen no
matter what. I would look
into getting another dealer involved as well as the Subaru representative.
Its possible that the dealer may
not have his hands tied with what they can do locally but the Subaru
representative (who covers many dealers in a
particular area) has much more power and can authorize the free
replacement of the factory alarm system.

If your on friendly terms with your neighbor it wouldn't hurt to ask him
if he'd go along with you when you
talk to the Subaru rep so you can show him firsthand the problem. Doing
this will help get your problem more
quickly resolved.


An informed and prepared consumer is the dealers worst enemy.

 

[Subaru]

I would aim a rocket launcher at the Ford

 

[WRXtreme]

"Its something that shouldn't happen no matter what."

It shouldn't happen all the time, but any car alarm is susceptible to
interferance by other radio signals, they have to be to be FCC compliant.
That's not to say that they can't encode the signal or use an alogarithmical
(sp?) "code hopping" type of signalling process to help eliminate false
alarms and/or accidental disarms/rearms (I don't believe subaru uses the
code hopping in its OEM alarms.) Like I said, it should not happen every
time your neighbour AND other suby owners use their remotes to unlock their
cars. It sounds like it may just need a reprogramming or alarm module and
keyfob swap. I do have a funny story to share on this matter:

I was installing a remote start/keyless entry system into a 98 Dodge Caravan
and the owner asked me if it was possible to tie it in with his garage door
opener so that the exhaust gases would not be trapped in his garage while it
was running. I told him I could do it, but I would probably need to wire a
relay to a door opener module to do it or I would have to buy an interface
that is designed to integrate with garage doors, either way it would
probably cost the same amount (I think I quoted $150 extra to do this). He
said he wanted to think about it but to go ahead with the install w/o
interfacing. No problem, I get his remote start in he is very happy. About
an hour earlier he calls and says "I thought you said you weren't going to
hook this up to my garage door". I told him I didn't. He then told me to
come over to his house after work and explain why it was working with it
afterall. I thought he was pulling my leg, but he promised a cold beer for
me if I came over so I went and sure enough the "start" button would open
his garage door, but his lock and unlock buttons had no affect on it. That
was one of the weirdest things I ever saw.

 

[L. Kreh]

It begs the question, so I gotta ask: does your Subaru remote unlock
your neighbor's Windstar?

 

[Sparky Polastri]

Odd problem, just got some new neighbors, one of whom drives a Ford
Windstar. Seems that when they open or lock their minivan with the
remote it sets off the alarm on my car.

My car is a 98 Impreza 2.5RS with a stock remote / central locking
system.

The dealer is telling me that's the way things are and I'll have to
deal. They also told me that when my car was in the shop the remotes
on other sooby's would set off the alarm on my car.

Any suggestions as to what I can do about this? The car's on an
extended warranty so brining it back to the dealr isn't going to be a
problem.

Thanks for any help you can offer

Buy your neighbor a new remote set. Typically you can get them at an auto
store. Then they'd have to set the Windstar to "learn" mode to learn the
chip code in the new remotes. That may fix the problem if there is some
sort of rare code overlap and is pretty cheap.

Now if the problem is the Windstar gives off too much EMF during the
lock/unlock process then that won't fix the problem. (You could isolate it,
by having them park the Windstar somewhere else and use the remote to try to
set off your alarm, or to sit in the Windstar and work the electric locks a
few times to see if that sets off the alarm.)

Since your dealer said your car alarm went off for other remotes, I'd bet
something is wrong with your alarm and they owe you a fix.

 

[Fuzzy Logic]

(e-mail address removed) (Hannah) wrote in

Odd problem, just got some new neighbors, one of whom drives a Ford
Windstar. Seems that when they open or lock their minivan with the
remote it sets off the alarm on my car.

My car is a 98 Impreza 2.5RS with a stock remote / central locking
system.

The dealer is telling me that's the way things are and I'll have to
deal. They also told me that when my car was in the shop the remotes
on other sooby's would set off the alarm on my car.

Any suggestions as to what I can do about this? The car's on an
extended warranty so brining it back to the dealr isn't going to be a
problem.

Thanks for any help you can offer

My '03 Impreza keyless remote is quite easy to reprogram to a new code. The
instructions are in the owner's manual. That would be the first thing I
tried.

 

[Susan]

You aren't alone Null. We own a 1997 Subaru Legacy SUS and our
neighbor's Windstar AND their Saturn. We do not have a remote for it
and were told when we bought it that it wasn't activated. Now when
they set it off, the only way to shut the darn thing off is to
disconnect the battery and reconnect it.

We took it to the dealership (not where we bought it) and they ordered
a new remote but were unable to program it. Now we are stuck with a
possessed alarm. Our solution...sell the damn thing.

 

[Dan Duncan]

We took it to the dealership (not where we bought it) and they ordered
a new remote but were unable to program it. Now we are stuck with a
possessed alarm. Our solution...sell the damn thing.

Why not just pull the alarm out?

-DanD