Alarming issue with my alarm...

[NJExplorerFan]

Hey everyone, I had a weird situation happen with my '03 Explorer about a week ago. Got out of the gym, tried to start the truck and no luck. The truck has a Prestige alarm in it. Well I'm walking towards the truck after a workout pressing the unlock button and it's not giving me the 2 chirps and unlocking the doors. Okay, I figured the only way to get in is to open the door manually and once the alarm goes off, quickly insert the key into the ignition and it will kill the siren. I thought maybe the keyfob battery went dead. Well, I unlock, open the door and the alarm starts dinging like crazy in the parking lot. Key goes into the ignition and it does NOTHING. I'm scratching my head thinking what the heck is wrong? My key turns and it literally won't start the truck at all (no crank, nothing). It was as if the alarm killed everything. At this point, I'm getting so annoyed (and going deaf). Luckily, I was able to lift one of the battery cables off the battery to kill the siren noise. Finally, two guys come and offer help. Long story short... the only way I could get the truck started to drive home was to unplug the alarm's "brain" (little black box under the dash), therefore disabling it.

Now I know it's an issue with the alarm. I been driving with it disconnected for about a week now. Keyless entry I certainly miss! The alarm has been on the truck for 4 years now. Can an alarm go bad like that? The shops I been to say yes (because my Prestige alarm is a crappier one) but of course they want me to buy another alarm from them. Now while I don't have an original Ford key fob, I can get one at my dealer for about $50 + $75 to program it. Plus another $50-100 to remove the "broken" alarm. Problem is, I still have no alarm - it just becomes a keyless entry. But one of the shops did tell me that with the chip in the Ford key, it works with a transponder which kills fuel flow so technically nobody can steal the truck, and I don't keep anything valuable inside it. Is it worth spending another $250-350 for a new alarm?

I'm curious about the basic situation in general because I never heard of an alarm itself going bad and actually breaking, especially after only 4 years.

 

[HISSIN50]

When disarming without a fob, are you sure your aftermarket alarm does not have a momentary switch that you have to depress to deactivate the alarm [as the key is turned]? If the alarm has said switch and that switch wasn't depressed, the alarm would remain active (as yours did) and, if applicable, the alarm's starter-kill (not PATS) could keep the vehicle from being started.

If you haven't yet, install a new fob battery and try the alarm again. Note that you might have to go through the initial remote programming sequence if the alarm has been unpowered for too long (on alarms like that, there's often a zone pin switch which must be grounded for programming. See the manual).

Just random thoughts. Best of luck.