Does my alarm button work properly?

[neilmac]

Where do you aim the blipper at to get it to work best?

Mine usually needs 2 or 3 or more presses to arm or disarm and I think the best place to aim is just in front of the windscreen on the drivers side, but sometimes it seems to be OK from some distance behind the car.

Seems to be the same with spare blipper so I don't think its battery and its been like this all the time I've had the car(96 Griff 500).

Do they all do this? The alarm is the original Meta I think BTW

[bellerophon]

have the same problem in my chimaera, only seem s to want to work from just forward of the drivers mirror, quite embarressing when tryingto get back in the car at a petrol station. have you tries holding down the button for a few seconds rather that just pushing once,? seem s to work a little better for mine....would be interested to hear a better solution though..

[mongoose]

mines like that!mines the meta system,griff late 96.it always disarms first time and also mobilises the ignition/fuel pump first time,but to lock the car up takes a few goes usually, so i dont understand why this is,unless it requires more power from blipper or better signal to lock than unlock?!get best results aiming at rear of door.but would love to know for sure if theres a real cure or even just where receiver is located.its very annoying.

[davidn]

The alarm unit (usually)is positioned behind the dash, mine was (Foxguard) and has an antenna running alongside, so it's probably best to aim through a side window at the middle of the dash, well it works for me.
David

[IPAddis]

Mine does this. You will usually find that if you take the control board out from the plastic casing and press the button, it works every time.

The button on the plastic casing appears to be hinged on one side and doesn't always press the button on the control board if you press it near the hinge.

Ian A.

[simon gray]

Neil, I have a 96 Griff and have been told that the sensors are in the transmission tunnel and to point it at that- it seems to work

[neilmac]

Thanks very much for all your replies, seems like its pretty normal then!

[yellowchim]

Hi Neilmac, i've just posted a thred about my alarm
(oversensetive alarm). I have the same alarm as you in my 98 chim (Meta type),with the same problem's .this may sound like a silly idea , but i was told that if you aim the Blipper at your chin (don't laugh yet!! )it sounds like a 1st of April joke Dont it.But try it in the dark first so the neibours don't think you've gone mad !!, i tried it and it worked once .let me know how you get on .

Dave

[Ballistic Banana]

simon gray said: Neil, I have a 96 Griff and have been told that the sensors are in the transmission tunnel and to point it at that- it seems to work

Thats just the ultra sonic sensor, the ariel for the alarm is usually in the main unit with the siren which is mostly in the engine bay.

BB

[neilmac]

Tried all different places today to get to the bottom of it (even pointed at my chin Dave - and it worked! First time anyway then became intermitent as usual).

Found the most reliable spot is at the rear of the drivers door, also at the transmission tunnel through the drivers door glass.

BB, tried towards the front as you suggest but absolutely no response at all - must just be one of those TVR things!

[max500]

Got a M reg Chim 500 and been having lots of problems with ocasional cutting out & missing. I suspect there may be a connection with the alarm. Its a crap system anyway and am about to change the alarm, but has anyone experienced similar problems?

[Lensey]

My alarm has been like this for the past few years, I thought I would change the battery the other day and when I took the keyring apart I accidentally pressed the button and the griff disarmed. I tried again and it worked so easy, the car was parked about 30 metres away! I kept trying it and it worked fine. I cleaned the keyring out and put it back together and went back to usual. Can anyone explain this?

[pdV6]

yellowchim said:

i was told that if you aim the Blipper at your chin...

If its an RF sender rather than IR, actually touch it to your chin & use your skeleton as a booster aerial!

[prop]

I thought my alarm button was faulty until I realised that it only worked if I held the button in the pressed position for at least 3 seconds. If I do this it has good range (about 3m) and works from most directions.

[JonRB]

My experience is that I can disarm with no problems, but to arm (lock) it often does not work at all.
However, if I pop the door open, close it and then arm immediately then it arms every single time. I can't explain it, but it works.

Must get it looked at before it fails to arm altogther.

[DennisTheMenace]

Try changing the batteries in the remote , and if you can get to it try moveing the ariel for the alarm normally a black wire

hope this helps

[dg1]

I've also found holding for a few seconds works every time.

This reminded me of something I've wondered is normal or peculiar to my '96N griff - if the engine is off then after about 60 seconds the immobiliser automatically kicks in. To start the car I have to arm and then disarm. This is a major pain when you want to just start and go - like in service stations or in stop start traffic at Le Mans when I wanted to turn the engine off between crawls forward in semi-stationery traffic. Is this normal?

Another question (apologies if this is too off-topic). The alarm sender on the spare key set doesn't work. I've put in a new battery and the red light comes on when pressed but nothing happens on the car. I'm wondering if it's sending a different alarm code and if so can I get this checked and maybe re-keyed to the right code.

Don

[JonRB]

dg1 said:

This reminded me of something I've wondered is normal or peculiar to my '96N griff - if the engine is off then after about 60 seconds the immobiliser automatically kicks in. To start the car I have to arm and then disarm. This is a major pain when you want to just start and go - like in service stations or in stop start traffic at Le Mans when I wanted to turn the engine off between crawls forward in semi-stationery traffic. Is this normal?

Yes, this is completely normal. It is an auto-arm on the immobliser that is extremely common on Cat2 and Cat1 immobilisers. In fact I think auto-arm is a requirement for certification.

You don't need to completely arm and disarm though. Turn the key as normal and if it has auto-armed then release the key (ie. ket it spring back to where it wants to in the ignition and then let go of it), push and hold your plipper for a couple of seconds, and then turn the key again. It should work.

Little trick: I press & hold until the MIL light flickers and the fuel pump primes. Then I know it has disarmed correctly.

[dg1]

Top tip for disarming JonRB - just went out to try it and it worked but not quite as you said. On mine I need to release the key from the start position and then turn the key back one step (ie into the position between off and full ignition) before pressing the blipper.

[Sarnian]

I do the same as JonRB, and have had no probs (got a '98 500 and find that using the manual enabler behind the ignition a right pain in the ar$e.

One thing though when I bought the car (second hand) I didn't get a second alarm fob, I then contacted the dealer and they supplied me with a spare FOB FOC, the spare fob is completely different in design and unlike the TVR fob which makes you feel like a complete prat sometime by just playing ignorant to your arming requests, the new one will arm/disarm successfully even when I'm inside the house!!!! Brilliant.