Alarm system goes off ?
 

How come the alarm goes off, when I put the key in the driver's door to unlock it? It's happened 4x now.

Turn the alarm off by unlocking the doors with the remote first. Otherwise it goes off. ,,,,,assuming you have a remote that is,,,,,, :smile:

Julian

That's weird. Why even bother with a key, then ???????

Not one of GM's smarter things.

It figures you'll unlock it the same way as you lock it.

If the remote goes dead, you'll need the key. Probably one of the reasons for door lock on drivers side. ;)

If you lock the door with the remote, you have to unlock it with it. If you lock the door with the key, you can use the key to unlock it without the alarm going off. At lleast that's how mine is.

If you lock the door using the door lock button, it will alarm whenever you open a door, some sorta intruder/tamper feature, I had this problem my first week because we only got one key and the fob was at the dealers, long story...
Anyway, don`t use that button, that should solve you problem.

It's made to do that by design. It's not a malfunction.

Safety. It's the only thing that makes a factory 'alarm' usefull as an anti theft device. This way, if someone defeats the lock with a screwdriver or crow bar, it still sounds until you put the real key in the ignition.

My Jetta didn't have this feature, and someone broke in to it one fall evening, in my driveway, which is right underneath my open bedroom window. Woke up to an undrivable car that had to be towed away and had about $3000 damage.

That's what happens when factory alarms turn off with the key in the door :D

Why use the key? Because sooner or later, the motor in the door will start to fail and the only way into the car is with the key. This is happening in my 9-year-old minivan.

I have always locked all my cars with the door button. I hate that the horn sounds when I use the remote. The alarm is engaged same as if I used the remote. I know because the alarm light is on and I've tripped it once or twice when the lock didn't go down all the way. However, it does save the battery in the remote. I only use it half the time!

My horn only sounds if I hit the lock button twice. You can set it up that way using you DIC.:D

Navyflyer11 is correct...it's in the owners manual how to disable it. Page 3-46 :thumb:

LOCK HORN
If your vehicle has remote keyless entry, this feature, which allows the vehicle’s horn to chirp every time the lock button on the remote keyless entry transmitter is pressed, can be enabled or disabled. When LOCK HORN appears on the display, press the reset button to scroll through the available settings:

OFF (default): The horn will not chirp on the first press of the remote keyless entry transmitter lock button. The horn will still chirp on the second press.

ON: The horn will chirp on the first press of the lock button on the remote keyless entry transmitter.

See Remote Keyless Entry System Operation on page 2-6 for more information.

Choose one of the available settings and press the information button to select it and move on to the next feature.

That just changes the chirp Deb, it does not disable it. I tried each setting to see what one I liked.

What are you saving the battery in the remote for?
And if you`re worried about the MOTOR on the lock going out, why wait until it`s out of warranty?

Not to nitpick but... battery in the remote.. that's a $1 part at most and should be lasting you somewhere between 3-5 years with daily use. The 'motor' on the door lock should also be about a $50 part at most... but I've never had one go on me GM or otherwise, though I have never kept a car more than 6 years with power door locks.

Honestly... you're paying hundreds of dollars to have these convienance features... for the sake of at most $100 over the life of your car, and average case $10... why aren't you using them?

My 2006 doesn't 'chirp' on the first press of the fob, on the 2nd press it does. Perfect IMHO when you're just out of earshot and can't hear the locks go down, the horn gives a nice little confirmatio toot!

J

No horn chirp from Dory unless I hit the lock button twice.

Sandy; Turn the horn off on the DIC if you don't like the horn when you lock, if you push the remote just once the horn won't sound.

Thanks Tom...I didn't try this myself, as I don't feel the need to disable it anyway. I like the fact that it chirps (mine is set for 2nd press on fob), as I like knowing that the car is securely locked as I walk away and that lets me know for sure. ;)

My wife borrowed my car. She doesn't keep the fob on her key ring, because she has her own car's fob and a gazillion other keys on it. She unlocked the door using the key around 6 am the other day and got a big surprise.

I normally use the fob and not the key.

Thanks for the explanations, all :bow:

I woke up the whole motel in PA a few months ago when the key fob was not working. I ended up changing the door lock option to drivers door only when in park and got out and locked the door with the key. The next morning I was liked again.

I believe the alarm/fob system is designed to work after the second press of the button, to prevent accidental disarms/alarms when the button is just pressed by a key or something in your pocket.
Setting the alarm is most likely gonna be a straight forward event, so one press will suffice.
But you`d hate to find out you`d accidently disarmed your ride, and it`s been that way for the last 8hrs.

IF your HHR battery dies, YOU NEED to open the door with the key to release the hood and/or the tailgate to jump start or replace the dead battery.

I think it's a good idea!

That is a setting you can change in your DIC, that is what Deb had mentioned above. If your battery is dead, yes, you will need a key to open the door to release the hood, or open the door and climb in to manually release the rear hatch. (Manually releasing the rear hatch is described in your manual)

The alarm still sets in a delay mode if your horn is set to go on the second button. ie.
1. Press lock button once - Delay lock/alarm mode, no horn.
2. Press lock button twice - No delay lock/alarm mode, horn chirps.

To test with either mode,
1. Open drivers door window
2. Press lock button one time or lock on fob one time.
3. reach in and pull up lock button on door.
4. Open door with key in hand, You will have to insert your key in the ignition and turn to ignition to shut the alarm off. (try shutting the alarm off by pressing the unlock button on the fob)

Has anyone had their battery (veh.) go so low on power, that it couldn`t even maintain the little current required to open the door locks?

Yes. After coming back from my 2 week vacation, the battery was completely dead.

What caused the drainage?
I leave my veh. undriven for long periods of time, the van for instance, and the battery holds up, fires right up.

Don't know what caused it, but the dealer replaced it under warranty.
Could be that the HHR as a seriously underated battery as suggested elsewhere on the forum.

Pressing the electric lock button on the door assures me that all doors lock. I'm able to see and hear them lock. I don't waste the car's battery energy by making the horn sound and the lights flash. The only time I use the remote is if the car is outside the garage and I can't remember if I locked it. Then the horn sounding is convenient.

By the way, the last remote battery I replaced was about $7 at Wal-Mart.

I'VE had no probs with my 2006 HHR, but wifes 2006 ....WHEW!! Altinator went out last month, alarm lock failed this morning, car wont "release", start up! Towed to the dealers again! Was locked in May, alarm set, passenger side rear window smashed, car ransacked at her job, no noise from the car! Anybody have ideas? Possibly the puter screwed up? HELP!!
Tom (DRTYOLMN)

If they went through the window, then the alarm would not have sounded. It really sucks to have your car broken into.:mad:

I had another alarm piggybacked on the Beautiful One, of course that created another problem, and it had to be towed to the shop.
One alarm said, "ok, it`s him", the other one said "No, it`s a thief, I`m shutting down",.... it would start, but shut down.

Courthouse Deb had to climb in through the back seat one time when her battery went dead.