Hi there,

I've got an interesting one for you all. Twice now, during a heavy snowstorm (we're getting pummeled in Southern Ontario at the moment) my factory alarm has gone off for no particular reason.

I've tried disabling the motion sensor on the b-pillar, hoping it might be the snow melting off the car triggering the sensors or something. No such luck.

The only way to prevent it is to keep the car unlocked... yuck.

Any thoughts? A short perhaps?

 

Thats a new one. If i leave my windows down in the summer time, sometimes the wind blowing through my car will set the alarm off, but I can't imagine why a snow storm would do the same....

With the short are you suggesting that its a short and the alarm coincidentally went off during a snow storm? Or that the snow storm is somehow causing the problem?

 

Yeah, i have the same problem in the summer, but disabling the motion sensor has always remedied that.

Well, i'm thinking maybe the snow is melting into a part of the engine housing (or maybe even from the bottom?) and there is an exposed wire or something.

Just grasping at straws at the moment...

 

yeah i gotcha. I dunno i feel like if it was an exposed wire shorting out when it gets wet, the same thing would happen during a rain storm. does it?

 

Its the water that is setting off the alarm. Same thing happened to my brother's passat when it rained. Cant remember what i did to fix it, all have to ask him if he remembers

 

Thanks guys,

No, it does not happen when it rains. Only heavy snow. Here's what i'm thinking.

My skid plate is fairly loose towards the back of the engine housing, and is currently held together by tie wraps. It seems when i reverse, and the snow is deep, the reversing scoops up the snow in between the skid plate and the engine components.

The snow likely melts and then causes the short. Probably can be remedied with a quick electrical tape job. Probably exposed wire, or, since snow is conductive, completes a circuit that shouldn't be completed or something.