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Alarm sets off and on

I HAVE A 2005 X5 4.4 AND LATELY THE ALARM HAS BEEN SETTING OFF ON ITS OWN. WHEN ALARM IS DISABLED, THE INTERIOR LIGHTS TURNS OF AND ON BY ITSELF. AT ONE POINT IT STAYED ON FOREVER AND TOTALLY DISCHARGED THE ORIGINAL BATTERY. I REPLACED THE OLD BATTERY WITH A NEW ONE THINKING THAT THE OLD ONE WAS GOING DEAD. ONLY ENDING UP WITH THE VERY SAME EXACT PROBLEM. TOOK THE VEHICLE TO THE DEALERSHIP AND SAID THEY FOUND THE INTERIOR SENSOR O BE DEFECTIVE. BUT SINCE THEY DON'T HAVE HE PART IN STOCK, THEY TEMPORARILY DISABLED THE INTERIOR SENSOR. WHEN I GOT HOME, I ENABLED THE ALARM THINKING THAT MY PROBLEM WAS SOLVED. ONLY TO FIND OUT AFTER A COUPLE OF HOURS, THE ALARM STARTED GOING OFF AGAIN. THIS TIME I DECIDED TO JUST DISABLE THE ALARM AND LEFT THE VEHICLE UNLOCK. AFTER A WHILE, THE INTERIOR LIGHTS STARTED TURNING OFF AND ON BY ITSELF AND AT ONE POINT JUST STAYED ON. SO FINALLY I DECIDED TO JUST UNPLUG THE BATTERY CABLES AND LEFT THE X5 SITTING IN MY GARAGE FOR THE PAST DAYS TILL I FIND THE RIGHT SOLUTION. TAKING IT BACK TO THE DEALERSHIP IS NO LONGER ONE OF MY OPTIONS SINCE THEY ARE LIKEWISE OBVIOUSLY DOING THE SAME THING I AM DOING, HIT OR MISS. HELP..HELP..HELP..HELP..HELP..HELP

My quess is bad hood switch.....

Put the battery back on and unplug the switch under the hood located at the lower passanger side windshield near the right hood shock.

I have done that. Did unplug the cable from the underhood switch and activated the alarm. Alarm did went off as usual. thanks for the suggestion.

One other thing I have in mind are the doors. Maybe one or more has gone out of alignment causing a glitch. And since it is just a glitch, it will not show up on the dealer's computer. Hence, they said that no problems were found on all door latches, contacts and locks when they hooked it up via GT-1 (I guess the name of their computer).

I can only think of one way or one reason why the interior lights would turn on, an open door or intentional switching on of the lights.

A couple guesses

This sounds quite different than mine (I had to replace the hood switch on my '05 30i this weekend), but then engineer in me cannot resist the opportunity to troubleshoot

From the manual: The vehicle alarm system responds:

>When a door, the hood, or the liftgate is opened
>To movement in the vehicle interior: interior protection, refer to Tilt alarm sensor and interior motion sensor
>To variations in the vehicle tilt angle such as occur during attempts to steal the wheels or tow the vehicle
>To interruption of battery voltage

The interior sensor is disabled and the vehicle tilt angle isn't an issue. That rules out #2 and #3

You've replaced the battery which should rule out #4 unless there is something draining the battery, but difficult to tell if something other than the interior light is draining the battery

FWIW, two things to try:
- One of the other switches (door or tailgate) is bad
- Something is interrupting battery voltage

Try reconnecting the battery and disabling the interior light.

From the manual: If you want the interior lamps to remain off all the time, press and hold the button for approx. 3 seconds.

That may allow you to confirm #4 if the battery is drained by something else.

Or, try disconnecting the door and tailgate switches to rule out #1 (although it sounds like the dealer already verified this)

Feels like a faulty switch to me. The faulty switch would signal that a door or the tailgate is open and activate the interior light and the alarm (when enabled).

Will try going thru each and every item starting with one door at a time this weekend and will keep you posted. Thanks a lot for your suggestions, very well appreciated.

Fixed at last. Planned on troubleshooting each door by triggering the door latch with a screwdriver thereby imitating a closed door and enabling the alarm. If the alarm sets off then I proceed to the next door. But I didn't get to that point. After reconnecting the battery cables and closing the tailgate, I found that the trunk door was misaligned. Thereby causing the trunk door to move and shake even during a simple revving of the gas pedal. Same reason why the message "door open" appeared twice on my way to the dealership. Thanks again for the suggestions guys especially to RedStripe88.