Stock alarm won't deactivate
 

I hate to post what appears to be a dumb question like this, but I've searched and don't know what else to do.

The short story is that I can't get my stock alarm to deactivate, and I don't know what set it off in the first place. I've disconnected the battery, used the key in both of the doors, pulled the alarm fuse, and nothing gets it to turn off. I've also tried disarming/arming my Clifford aftermarket alarm but that doesn't seem to have any effect.

The only thing I can think that could have anything to do with this is that I have all of my power window switches, gauge cluster and clock/ACC out of the car to have LED work done to them. The car has been acting fine for the last 2 weeks but when I got in today the alarm went off and I don't know why.

Is there a way to reset the BCM or something like that?

The only 'reset' for the BCM is disconnecting power.

Is it going off constantly, or only when you open a door/turn the key/etc?

How/where is your aftermarket alarm wired up? Use stock horns or an aftermarket siren?

Will it start up? Does the security light stay on?

i had this **** happen once too, it happened because i reached through the window and unlocked the door by hand rather than with the key or clicker. took me a while to figure out what i had to do but i ended up just having to get out, lock the car as normal, and then unlock it as normal, and it stopped going off.

Ok, so I figured out that I had to open the trunk with the key while the alarm was going off to get it to turn off. Normally, using the key in the door locks should have the same effect, so I'm guessing that not having my power window switches in caused that to not work as intended. The car did start after it was disabled.

As for the security light, I have it wired up with the RPM switch, so that won't be of much use.

After we got it turned off the first time I tried to open and close other doors with the front doors unlocked and every few times it would set off the alarm. So the problem is recurring but intermittent. It goes off when the doors are opened up, even if the door is unlocked.

The aftermarket alarm was wired up by someone else, but it uses its own horn/interior siren, and disarming it had no effect of the stock alarm.

You say it goes off with the doors unlocked, but is the alarm saying it's disarmed, pre-armed, or armed when this happens? Without the security light, who knows.

Go through the IVMS diags in EL-167 and see if you can't find any sensors/switches that react intermittently.

Thanks for the tips! What exactly are the IVMS diagrams, and where is EL-167?

http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/maxima/1996/EL.pdf page 167.

Built-in diagnostics to test inputs to the BCM, very handy and just one of the little known features of this car.

There's a surprising amount of diagnostic information available from these cars just from setting the right switches and watching some lights.

:bowdown:

Thank you!!

Well I think I got the problem resolved. Apparently the car needs the gauge cluster installed to complete a circuit for the alternator, so that's what drained the battery. And I'm assuming the stock alarm starts to go crazy when the volts get low, so that's what was setting it off. I did an electrical system test with the gauge cluster installed and it shows my alternator working perfectly now. I did one with the cluster not in the car and it said I had a completely failed alternator. So yeah, you can drive around without a gauge cluster for about a day, but then your battery will be drained. Lesson learned!