Your car alarm ringing off in the middle of the night is not only annoying but also embarrassing. When the alarm goes off, you are taken through a wild ride. First, you are afraid that your car is being stolen. Second, you agonize at the realization that it is a false alarm. And third, you are embarrassed to have woken your neighbors up from their sleep.
So, why does my car alarm keep going off in the middle of the night? – A car alarm can go off due to various reasons at night. From malfunctioning security equipment to freak ambient occurrences, there is a vast list of reasons an alarm might go off for.
The reasons why a car alarm might malfunction and keep going off at night are plentiful. Follow along as we discuss the issues in-depth.
Why Does My Car Alarm Keep Going Off in the Middle of the Night? -Discussing the Reasons
As hinted before, there are plenty of reasons that can cause the car alarm to blare at night. Some of the causes are quizzical whilst others are a bit more serious. Here are the 5 most common issues that might be causing your car alarm to blow at night:
Noise
Modern car alarm systems are tuned to be responsive to loud noises and bangs. The system can detect noises like window breaking or crashing and blow off the alarm accordingly. This is a great feature for theft prevention, but it does have its drawbacks.
Often, the noise detection systems can be a bit too sensitive and start reacting to ambient noises. This means that the system might set the alarm off at simple noises like trees rustling, trashcans falling over, or noise from a construction site.
If you live in a ‘loud’ area, a sensitive sound detection system is likely the reason why your car alarm keeps going off at night.
Collisions
The car alarm systems have sensors that can detect collisions and set the alarm off. Whilst this is a crucial anti-theft feature, it can also be a nuisance.
Throughout the night, many wild rodents and animals are bound to knock and crash into your car if you park it outside. And there is no way to stop these animals from hitting your car. The big problem, however, starts when the collision sensors detect these knocks as threats and set the car alarm off.
As a problem, this is tough to diagnose as you don’t expect a stray dog to be able to set your alarm off. But the skittish collision detectors can often falsely set the alarm off at night perceiving a tiny vibration caused by a rodent as an immediate threat.
Worn-out and Dirty Sensors
It is evident by now that car alarm systems are dictated by sensors. Everything from sounds to collisions to even your door handles nowadays is monitored by sensors. And these sensors can over time get covered in dirt and wear out which can lead to your car alarm going off at night.
Sensors such as those on your door that determine whether your door is closed or not can easily collect debris. This debris can then lead to false readings and an untimely alarm.
The security sensors can also wear out electrically. This causes their sensitivity to alter. It is common for the security sensors of a car to become more sensitive and erratic over time and cause false alarms.
Damaged ECU
ECUs in modern cars control everything and they are also connected to pretty much every electrical part in a car. This includes the safety and alarm systems as well. In a perfect scenario, the ECU of a car tells the safety system to set the alarms off only when the sensors have detected something suspicious.
But, when an ECU is damaged, it starts to send wrong electrical signals. A bad ECU can send signals to the safety system of the car and cause the alarms to go off without any input from the security sensors.
Electrical Faults
The security parameters of a modern car are wholly dependent on the electrical systems. This is why it is common for cars with electrical faults to have their alarms set off randomly. Issues like corrosion in connectors, worn-out batteries, and faulty wiring can often be the cause for the alarms to go off.
Problems like corrosion, worn-out batteries, and faulty wiring cause the safety systems of a car to have a spotty electrical connection. This results in the safety system receiving random electrical signals. These random receptions are easily mistaken as threats by the system, which then sets the alarms off.
Furthermore, the fuses that relate to the safety systems can also give you headaches and alarms. If a wrong fuse is used or more commonly, when a fuse is worn-out, it can cause the safety system to malfunction and set off the alarms in the middle of the night.
Leave a Reply