1998 Legacy GT Anti-Theft System possessed by demons!

Hi,

I just bought a 1998 Subaru Legacy GT station wagon (manual transmission)

It has several 'age' issues which I need to deal with, but more pressing right now is a problem which occurred last night, and again tonight, this time necessitating my boss giving me a ride home from work because the stupid anti-theft system is holding my car hostage!

 

What happened each time was - I exited car, had multiple doors unlocked, but because I was removing things from car, had several doors open for a few minutes. So after an interval, the car locks its own doors (ala Steven King's infamous Christine) and then when I closed the doors the crazy system started going off (not horns beeping either, but that damn evil siren sound!)

 

I tried the prescribed protocol by inserting key in driver's door and ignition in order to turn it off, to no avail. Was trying every combination of things I could think of; nothing, alarm still blaring, little red light on dash blinking. Needless to say, in addition to this the car would not start.

 

Last night at least, I eventually was able to shut it off, although I have no idea how, and just left the car unlocked. Tonight, nothing would work. Luckily when the sound and light show went off, my boss (just my pt job; fortunately she is much nicer than my daytime boss...or I'd be waiting still for AAA to arrive no doubt! HAHA) anyway she hung around, offered me tips from her own Subaru driver's manual [not sure what year she has] abt. the emergency shut-off w/one key in ignition and another in driver's door. This having not worked, she gave me a ride home. The alarm seemed to have lost its voice by then but the 'armed' light was still blinking merrily and mockingly away!

 

Does anyone know if it is possible to COMPLETELY disarm this system...like...FOR GOOD? I don't need it; have never had one before and have never had anyone attempt to steal any of the cars I've owned, and frankly, just want the demonic system DEAD! Help; I have an aversion to noise pollution as it is, and my ears are still ringing hours later!

Thanks in advance...for ANY help or suggestions; I'd like to get an owner's opinion before I present this dilemma to my mechanic for his consideraton.

try pulling the fuse, i would have done that right there, had an abs problem, solved by taking the fuse out

Thanks!

Is this a permanent solution, and will the car still start?

honestly idk but it cant hurt to try, if it doesnt start, put the fuse back. i never had an alarm mess up before. im sure one of these guys will jump in and help out

with the fuse out the car should start, we dont have immobilizers in our cars.

 

Have you tried a cross, bible and garlic?? hahaha i kiddd

with the fuse out the car should start, we dont have immobilizers in our cars.

 

Have you tried a cross, bible and garlic?? hahaha i kiddd

 

 

holy water would work better

heh alarms arent the superhero everyone thinks, i have aftermarket, but the only time its been set off so far (by anyone other than me)

 

i was asleep at 11:30 go out to find it going off, have no clue if it had been bugging my neighbors all morning or what!

 

find the fuse pull it, or disconect the negative pole of your battery resetting everything and try not to set it off again i guess

^^ whenever I hear an alarm, it's not "oh no, someone's getting their car stolen!" it's "what moron set off his own alarm? turn that thing off!" no offense bassnectar yours kinda went off on it's own haha. definitely do the fuse as a quick fix, the battery is also another good option. maybe it needs a reset.

For the motion sensor and alarm part you can unplug them from the brain and then you will have the stock keyless entry system. I can't remember off the top of my head which plugs they are but this thread has the info in the beginning somewhere.

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/keyless-entry-no-horn-soundii-129557.html

 

Hope this helps

^^ whenever I hear an alarm, it's not "oh no, someone's getting their car stolen!" it's "what moron set off his own alarm? turn that thing off!" no offense bassnectar yours kinda went off on it's own haha. definitely do the fuse as a quick fix, the battery is also another good option. maybe it needs a reset.

 

 

Theres a possibility someone tried to break in my car lol, im pretty forgetful with my phone or wallet on the seat and someone might of been trying to carhop it. but unless your there your never gonna know if it was the real deal.

 

better be safe & loud than sorry, especially if you leave expensive shit in your car and dont have theft!

do you have the the keyless entry remote? my gets messed up if you lock it with keyless entry and then try to open it by putting the key in the door

do you have the the keyless entry remote? my gets messed up if you lock it with keyless entry and then try to open it by putting the key in the door

 

This is because you are not disabling the alarm when you open the door with the key.

Mine had a really quirky alarm system but it always worked decently for me. Never worked for my dad so he had the module cut out of my car. Yes CUT, not unplugged. Thanks Dad. I guess on the good side I don't have to worry about any alarms going off but still, the keyless entry would be nice..

Has anyone resolved the possessed demon alarm yet? My 98 Legacy GT is starting to act up. It seemed totally fine up until about a month or two ago.

I have the factory subaru alarm with fob which half the time barely works even with fresh batteries and the alarm just randomly goes off. Once I was sitting in the car for about 20 minutes and it just went off. Then yesterday it went off right after taking the keys out of the ignition.

I also have the blinking red light next to the fog lights that flashes. I was told by the previous owner if I pressed it would disable the alarm. So I pressed it 2 years ago and havent touched it since. But now I am having the problems.

 

I would just like to disable the whole system too. I can use the key to lock and lock the car since the fob barely even works.

 

Did anyone find out how to disable the whole system?

http://www.cars101.com/subaru/keyless.html

Ooops - I never came back & responded; thought I had!

Shortly after I posted the original cry for help, I ended up taking the 1998 Subaru to the dealership here in town (it wasn't bought there, but from a private seller in another state) - and I said - "Take it out, I just want the thing removed from my car!!"

They did this, which resolved the alarm situation.

 

However, there are other quirks which have developed with electrical things in & around the dashboard, which leads me to believe that something is not right w/the wiring. (They did tell me that it was the devil to remove; for all I know, this was the first time the service technician had ever worked on this particular problem!)

 

For instance, the car will randomly lock a door or doors on me (usually the front passenger door) which I KNOW I have left unlocked.

So, Christina still lives, though in a diminished, noiseless form.

.

As I do not have the funds to throw away on a comprehensive evaluation of the - I think it's called wiring harness? - for a 15 yr. old car, I just live with it....

I do thank everyone for their responses and helpful suggestions though! :-)

 

duffrey93,

I also don't use the fob to lock the doors, owing to same problem (possibly one of the reasons the alarm wouldn't turn off in the first place was because of its sketchy performance; who knows). I think with older cars, whose parts are starting to wear out like this, it was much simpler when problems were merely mechanical and didn't involve so many electrical/electronic components. For example, if my electric windows stop working, I don't think I'll be able to just take the door panels off to fix the window, but will have to take to auto repair. Cars are definitely more expensive in every way than they used to be. Extra convenience is not all it's cracked up to be - I can still use my hands to open and close windows after all Haha! And would rather do that than be subject to more costly repairs.....Oh well!

My friend had the same issue with his 97 LGT and we just unplugged the theft computer. If you want the system to work again you'll need a new one.

Thats what I was wondering spooln30. I was just thinking about unplugging the two connectors from the theft computer. I just wanted to make sure I am not going to screw anything else up on the car. I really dont mind just using the key to lock and unlock the car since my fob only works half the time.

 

I'll give it a try and see what happens. I imagine if I ever want to plug it in or get a new computer, I will have to reprogram it?

you can unplug the ''black box'' but you may lose the electric lock on the driver door. not a big deal but other than that , unplgging the unit will not hurt any thing.

 

the unit should have a plain single white? wire hanging out of one end. this is the receiving antenna. if it is missing you will have problems with the fobs.

Alright so here is what I tried.

 

I unplugged both plugs (medium sized one in the middle and larger one to the right). This diabled the fob and I am assuming the alarm but it also disabled the drivers side door lock. I can flip the lock and unlock button and all doors but the drivers will unlock.

So I plugged in the middle plug. Fob still does not work, alarm seems to be disabled but now the lock and unlock button controls all the doors including the drivers side door. Ok mission accomplished.... so I thought.

 

Now after a few days I kind of miss the fob. What I would really like to do is continue to use the fob and get rid of the alarm (the other day I came out to my car and the alarm was going off for no reason). I dont even mind getting rid of the chirp. So how can I go about this?

One though I had was to just cut the wire to the alarm horn but I want the option to be able to use it again whenever I sell the car.

 

Any other thoughts?

false alarms are sometimes caused by having only one fob programmed in the system.

 

the system can handle 4 fobs. if you go through the process of programming your fob into the system 4 or 5 times you will fill up all the possible fob locations. this MAY eliminate false alarms. having un-programmed fob locations can allow false alarms.

Hate to thread jack but can anyone explain why my unlock/lock horn is normal 20% of the time but obnoxiously loud all other times?

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

no.

on my 97 lgt Sometimes the alarm goes off randomly, I just push the small button that is near the wires under the dash by the pedals, Its in the manual, u just push the button with the key in and it kills it. Not a fix but short term at least.

on my 97 lgt Sometimes the alarm goes off randomly, I just push the small button that is near the wires under the dash by the pedals, Its in the manual, u just push the button with the key in and it kills it. Not a fix but short term at least.

 

you would be amazed how many folks cannot find that button.

 

false alarms are sometimes caused by having only one fob programmed in the system.

 

the system can handle 4 fobs. if you go through the process of programming your fob into the system 4 or 5 times you will fill up all the possible fob locations. this MAY eliminate false alarms. having un-programmed fob locations can allow false alarms.