BMW alarm probs

**karlos130** · 29th January 2006

wonder if any one can help me

got a factory fitted alarm on 94 BMW its connected to the central locking via key fob

right when I arm it at night, normally about 01:00 am the alarm goes off.. its always about this time and it doesnt do it during the day..i live on a main rd so thaught this may be the problem but was up 1 night when it sounded and there were no cars about so ruled that out

can any one offer any ideas cos me neighbours must be sick of it now..most of the time now i dont arm it, but thats not ideal where i live lol

cheers

**zelnik** · 29th January 2006

Not really a solution but until you get it sorted you can use the little key that should (hopefully) come with the car to disable the audio alarm.

The lock is in the engine bay on the left side (ie opposite side to steering wheel) just infront of the headlights you will see a square box with what looks like a horn (it is!) and a lock, turn that to the opposite direction and that will disable the audio of the alarm but will still arm the immobilizer and the alarm will go off but just flash the lights instead.

I seem to remember someone having the exact problem (not sure if it was from a bmw) with their alarm going off at about midnight to 1am do a search on here.

**MIKE M** · 29th January 2006

The alarm is fitted with current sense, the bmw ( would hazard a guess a 3 series, as this is most common) computer does a self check every 24hrs which causes the alarm to trigger, turn the surrent sense off and all should be ok.

**zelnik** · 30th January 2006

Originally Posted by MIKE M

The alarm is fitted with current sense, the bmw ( would hazard a guess a 3 series, as this is most common) computer does a self check every 24hrs which causes the alarm to trigger, turn the surrent sense off and all should be ok.

Out of interest (as i have an old 3 series also) how does one do this?

**karlos130** · 30th January 2006

Originally Posted by zelnik

Out of interest (as i have an old 3 series also) how does one do this?

thanks for info lads .....karma left for both of you's

yeah its a 3 series also ..would also like to know how to turn current sense off ..thanks again

**karlos130** · 30th January 2006

Originally Posted by zelnik

I seem to remember someone having the exact problem (not sure if it was from a bmw) with their alarm going off at about midnight to 1am do a search on here.

just done search on here and would you believe it ...its the same car LOL

bought the car from lighty few months ago he had same probs.....
obviously never got the right answer then

**MIKE M** · 31st January 2006

you will need to find out what alarm it is, if its badged as BMW on the remote, it will either a serpi-star or sigma, if the remote is long and thin its sigma, if its triangular at the top its a serpi, let me kmow which and will check my files to see if I can help further

Mike

**karlos130** · 1st February 2006

its sort of triangle at top m8 help would be great m8

**Lighty** · 1st February 2006

Yes its a serpi alarm system I ended up taking it in to BMW and the alarm guy there said it could be one of many things mainly Tilt sensors that were fitted on that particular car as extras to stop the car being towed could be faulty (Which never really explained the exact time it goes off) and the eprom on the main alarm unit could be re programmed if it was before a certain date of manufacture otherwise it would need to be replaced. There was one other thing but I cant remember and it seemed the most likely at the time cant for the life of me remember what it was but about a week after I took it in we moved house and our new street is on quite a slope and ever since that day it never once went off again so I just thought ah well its fixed itself?? kind of made me think it was to do with these mercury switch tilt sensors thingys? anyway it never did it again is your street a flat road karlos? If so try parking it on a slope just one night saying that our street is very steep?

**karlos130** · 1st February 2006

cheers for the info lighty m8....

my street is on a flat road so maybe thats the problem...finding a hill maybe a problem tho

think i will just have to disable the siren for now till i can get it sorted
thanks for ya help

other than that m8 the car is going well,had to get bit of welding to exhaust manifold and popped private plate on it lol

**Lighty** · 1st February 2006

bloody hell thats strange never ever had a n exhaust problem with it once in all the time I owned it and my new car (Jeep Grand Cherokee) just cracked the exhaust around the manifold so I had to take it off and weld it myself ended up taking the complete motor out just to get to it !! Gutted anyway its done now and all is well, the alarm problem that we are talkin about it was well over 18 months maybe even 2 years before I sold it to you that I had this problem since then it never did it again thats why I just thought it was OK now???

**karlos130** · 1st February 2006

No worries lighty, you expect things to go wrong with older cars m8

as for the alarm..wont arm it at night and put car on drive at back of house....move the wifes car off (she gona be impressed) LOL

cheers

**MIKE M** · 2nd February 2006

Ok its a serpi star the led , can you push it ??? feels like there is a switch contained, if so it will need to be programed via the led with a serpi proggy if not it is done via dip switches