Alarm retrofit has gone horribly wrong..

[percodan]

06/2002 4.4i

I have successfully retrofitted navigation and Bluetooth, and both went smoothly. Since I park on the street and have had a window broken before, I thought an alarm would be a good addition (not standard for euro-spec). I used the official retrofit instructions and parts from ebay. Mirror with LED fitted, siren fitted, tilt sensor fitted, hood switch fitted, unfortunately connector for ultrasonic sensor is beyond reach from the hole in the roof, so I may need to drop the headliner - but the alarm should work without it. I have coded with P.A Soft BMW Scanner 1.4, and the LED on the mirror behaves correctly.

Problem is - the instant I unlock the car, the siren sounds. Siren goes 30 seconds on, 10 seconds off, for about 5 minutes. I can unplug the siren, and it keeps going. I can start the car and drive away, siren keeps going. I can re-arm the car and the siren keeps going. My best guess is that the siren is thinking it has been disconnected from the car the moment it is unlocked, but I can't figure out why it arms itself, but won't disarm.

My best googling suggested that the siren was faulty, so I replaced it with another one. Straight after installing I could arm and disarm without the siren going, however after being connected overnight and charging the internal battery, I had the same problem..

Someone please help - I'm at a loss!

[upallnight]

Do you disable the alarm first or just hit the door unlock button on the FOB? Sounds like the alarm is not synch with the door unlocking and the power to the door actuators is setting off the alarm.

[percodan]

The door unlock button on the fob should disable the alarm.. I'm thinking that perhaps the coding isn't quite right - BMW Scanner has the option to enable/disable the alarm, but maybe more is required through "retrofit coding" to allow the GM5 to send the correct signals to the siren? I realise most people here are from the USA, and you guys got the alarm as standard - hoping someone else has had the same issue!

[upallnight]

If you use the key to unlock the door, does the alarm still go off? Yeah, us Yanks are lucky in that all X produce for us came with the alarm as standard equipment, perhaps that tells a different side of living in the USA that you must protect your property.

[jgold47]

When I retrofitted the alarm in my e46, there were several lines of code that needed to be enabled to fully activate the alarm. If you had a GT1 w/DIS, or NCS, you could check and see if that's why. But those were cars that were pre-wired. I'm guessing its something where the disarm signal is not being sent to the brain.

[Qsilver7]

Ditto in checking if the GM has been coded to check for the presence of FBZV/DWA (remote central locking and anti-theft alarm siren).

Question: are you only "arming/disarming" DWA (anti-theft alarm siren system) using the remote buttons on the key? Or have you tried arming/disarming using the key manually in the driver's door lock cylinder?

Either way should arm/disarm the system. But if using the buttons on the keyfob...the arming/disarming signal is transmitted over an RF (radio frequency) that is either 315 MHz (in North America) or 433 MHz (in Europe and many other markets in Asia & Africa). And in this case, the key's RF signal must match the frequency of the receiver.

With the info in the above paragraph...another question arises...and that is...does the RF of the key match the RF of the receiver? BMW makes keys and receivers that are either 315 MHz or 433 MHz:

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by Qsilver7

Ditto in checking if the GM has been coded to check for the presence of FBZV/DWA (remote central locking and anti-theft alarm siren).

Question: are you only "arming/disarming" DWA (anti-theft alarm siren system) using the remote buttons on the key? Or have you tried arming/disarming using the key manually in the driver's door lock cylinder?

Either way should arm/disarm the system. But if using the buttons on the keyfob...the arming/disarming signal is transmitted over an RF (radio frequency) that is either 315 MHz (in North America) or 433 MHz (in Europe and many other markets in Asia & Africa). And in this case, the key's RF signal must match the frequency of the receiver.

With the info in the above paragraph...another question arises...and that is...does the RF of the key match the RF of the receiver? BMW makes keys and receivers that are either 315 MHz or 433 MHz:

Very Interesting, didn't know they used different frequency between the US and Europe. If he brought the alarm module from a US seller that could be the reason.

As always Qsilver7 a plethora of info.

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by upallnight

Very Interesting, didn't know they used different frequency between the US and Europe. If he brought the alarm module from a US seller that could be the reason.

Yep, 2 frequencies are used...and if the writing has been rubbed off...you should see 315 MHz or 433 MHz written on the back of your key. And the antenna amp located on the tail gate (seen in pic in post above) will also have its radio frequency printed on its label.

And there's one more option...and that's the IR (infrared) remote key (BMW part # 51 21 8 374 933). Some markets still use IR remote lock/unlock. Again, this will be identified on the key (if the writing hasn't been rubbed off).

If you have a relatively unused spare...you may have to refer to it for the RF/IR info.

[percodan]

The remote and receiver etc were already in the car for remote central locking - I have just added the alarm parts which the car is pre-wired for. I have tried arming/disarming using the remote, I was under the impression that using the key is the same as far as the GM is concerned. I don't have GT1 or NCS, just the pa soft bmw scanner, so I may have to try and set those up..

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by percodan

The remote and receiver etc were already in the car for remote central locking - I have just added the alarm parts which the car is pre-wired for. I have tried arming/disarming using the remote, I was under the impression that using the key is the same as far as the GM is concerned. I don't have GT1 or NCS, just the pa soft bmw scanner, so I may have to try and set those up..

So did you ever tried disarming the alarm with just using the key in the door lock? Since most of the X owners on this forum lives in the States, all the X sold in this country has the alarm. We are trying to help you trouble shoot your problem, but in order to help you, you need to perform test that we suggest since we are not the owners of your car.

If you have BMW Scanner 1.4 you can perform some coding.

here's a link to performing coding with BMW Scanner 1.4

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