Mine went off last night for no apparent reason. Anyone else have this?

 

check the sensivity. It my be set high

 

I'd worry about thieves if you don't keep your car parked in a garage. I've heard stories where people "case" your car by setting off the alarm a few nights in a row making you think your alarm is going crazy for no reason until you get so annoyed with it that eventually you just turn the thing down or off completely to deal with the problem. Then the next time the thief "tests" your alarm and finds that it doesn't go off it's game over for you and your car.

 

moved...

 

Malina has it dead on. Odds are it's thieves because the Scion alarm only reacts to contact. Thieves will case it to see what you have. They will set it off, then, if it goes off enough, they expect YOU will shut it off thinking it is not working right. Do NOT shut it off.

 

But I thought that the alarm only goes off if the engine is started without the key. Oem does not have a shock sensor in it does it.

 

I can only comment on the Toyota VIP alarm that Scion has as an option for the xB...

On the xB the 'factory alarm' has a microphone they call a 'glass breakage sensor' that 'listens' for a fairly loud, sharp sound. It is located below the A/C controls right next to the little flashing red LED that tells you the alarm is armed.

The sensitivity is adjustable - the alarm should go off in 'warn' mode (20 second alarm) if it hears a sound as loud as rapping the driver's door window with your key moderately hard.

The instructions for setting the sensitivity are in the installation manual for the alarm system, and have been posted in detail here on ScionLife a few times... Here's one of them. (One of the posts in that thread has a link to the manual .pdf...)

Here's another thread that includes the sensor test from the manual, and another link to the manual...

:D

 

I've got the stock tC alarm - it's DAMN hard to set off. There is a microphone in the little switch plate area to the left of the wheel that detects breaking glass. I don't know if there is any sort of shock sensor at all because I've never managed to set it off that way. Other than that, I think it reacts to doors opening or unlocking while armed and that's about it. If it was thieves, they might have been tapping on the windows or something - I'm sure you could set it off somehow...

 

I have the stock alarm in my xB and my car had the back window shot out with a bb gun and that didn't even set it off!!! I haven't been impressed to say the least.

 

Well you've got to remember that the alarms on the tC and xA/xB are different - the tC has the one that goes with the key fob - the others have seperate remotes. I think the hardware behind it is also different, but I guess it could be the same.

 

Even the fobs are different between the xA and xB - non-interchangable...

From what I've seen of the stock alarms, I suspect that few are adjusted correctly, and that leads to many people saying they are lousy alarms.

That's like saying all Sony TV's are bad 'cause the ones you've seen haven't been adjusted right...

 

It makes me think I should do the adjustment from the manual on mine. Part of me loves it because it never goes off - very nice for no false alarms. The other part of me thinks that it might be turned down so low it's useless. Which I guess kinda sucks. So maybe I'll take a look - I think the modules you tune are right behind the glovebox. Maybe I'll wait until the next time I need a cabin air filter change. I can't imagine it's great for the car to be pulling that thing out all the time.

 

anyone know how to change the sensitivity for the tC? u guys think it would be behind the glove box too?

 

not to be... well... yeah. but my guess is yes? cause the guy who just posted that his was behind the glove box has in his sig that he drives a tC...

 

Yeah - scroll back up the thread. I haven't looked at it in a while but if you look at the end of the installation instructions (which I believe are above) it has a lot of adjustment and test stuff at the end. That's what I'd go through if I wanted to adjust it. And it is two black boxes behind the glove box.

 

i've heard about this too, be careful.