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Fendr63

Alarm very quiet

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I had a common problem with the car today, haven't used it for 5 days (lockdown) and today it is completely dead... doors won't unlock with the fob, no warning lights on dash or any attempt to turnover. Toyota checked the battery a while back and said it was fine.

I have 2 questions:

1: I took the battery out to charge it and the alarm went off and continued to go off for about 15 minutes even with the doors locked and bonnet shut. How do you turn the alarm off if the fobs don't have any effect and there's no main battery in the car?

2: Why is the alarm so quiet? Is this normal? If you stand at the front of the car with the alarm going off you can just about hear it, also, should the indicators flash when the alarm is going off?  (sorry, that's 3 questions)

Thanks

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The alarm has its own built-in backup battery (I believe this is a Thatcham requirement). If the alarm is armed at the time that you disconnect the main car battery, then it thinks it is being attacked and the siren is triggered.

The only way to stop it (as far as I know) is to connect up s good car battery, switch off the alarm, and then remove the car battery.

I've also noticed that it is quieter than the full alarm siren. I guess that's because of the limited capacity of the alarm's backup battery.

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thanks for the replies. it's a bit of a pain if you don't have a spare battery, you'd think the fob itself would be able to disarm the alarm. The alarm itself is always really quiet, even when the battery is fully charged, I'll have to take it back to the main dealer to get it looked at once lockdown is eased.

We have an 8 year old Aygo which was my main car until I bought the 86 and that can be left for weeks and still start first time on the original battery (may be tempting fate there), as does my wife's 4 year old Civic, seems like Toyota are cost saving by using the cheapest battery supplier they can, I won't be replacing mine with another Panasonic one.

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EDIT

Ouch, somehow this messed up in my head with main car battery issues. Edited that out. Though regarding fob battery .. replacements that i bought (by different brand) lasted as long as original panasonic one. So again not sure it's battery/panasonic/toyota fault. Imho it's just that smart-key uses more energy then just basic alarm fobs of past, that transmit only when you press button, not all the time (as i get impression that ours do, for that proximity detection). So imho it's convenience of not having to reach out for it to open/close/start engine vs shorter lasting of battery, not weakness of battery per se.

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4 hours ago, Fendr63 said:

thanks for the replies. it's a bit of a pain if you don't have a spare battery, you'd think the fob itself would be able to disarm the alarm. The alarm itself is always really quiet, even when the battery is fully charged, I'll have to take it back to the main dealer to get it looked at once lockdown is eased.

One the 2 or 3 occasions my battery has dropped too low to open or start, the alarm was loud enough when I eventually got in! But that might be it's in a garage ... 

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