How To Turn Off Your Car's Alarm - J.D. Power

See All Shopping GuidesHow to Turn off Your Car’s AlarmMatt Yantakosol | Nov 01, 2024

Modern cars are built with numerous alerts. Whether it is lane departure warnings, rear cross-traffic warnings, or not closing a door fully, your vehicle is ready to let you know. 

One of the original alert systems is an anti-theft alarm. This alarm system is wired to go off automatically upon detecting signs of intrusion, such as a picked door lock, a broken window, or even a bumped windshield. But while these alarms can help prevent thievery, they can also sometimes go off on their own, causing an embarrassing incident or a sudden panic in the night.

In the worst possible cases, your alarm might continue to wail even after you’ve hit the alarm button on your car key’s control fob. Let’s go over some of the ways you can turn off your car’s alarm when it won’t do so naturally.

Why Do Alarms Go Off Randomly?

Car alarms are often intentionally designed to be sensitive. In most safety equipment manufacturers’ eyes, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and a little late-night inconvenience is a small price to pay if it means your car isn’t stolen from the parking lot while you’re eating at a restaurant.

Still, some car alarms are built to be a little too sensitive when movement is detected. Let’s consider the situations that may prompt the alarm to sound. Some triggers include pets moving around in the vehicle, a broken key fob, a low battery, and a vehicle being transported by ferry. Roll sensors could also activate the alarm when the vehicle is towed or jacked up. Similarly, the shock sensor could trigger the alarm if the car is hit, or something taps on the glass. An open trunk, hood, or door can also cause a breach of the security loop.

Whatever the case, it’s essential to know how to turn off your car’s alarm ASAP when there’s no real danger.

How to Disable a Car Alarm

Let’s break down a few tricks you can try to shut off your car’s alarm if the regular process doesn’t work. This guide assumes you’ve already tried to shut off the alarm using your key fob (if you haven’t, try that first!).

What to Do in Advance

Learning to deactivate your alarm while it is blaring is not ideal. Thus, it is best to prepare in advance so you can react accordingly if it occurs. When you acquire the vehicle and learn about day-to-day operation, ask the dealer and consult your owner’s manual about alarm deactivation. Reading up on turning off your car’s alarm ahead of time will give you peace of mind to complete the trial-and-error steps to disengage it if it sounds. Think of this like a fire drill. 

Ask yourself in advance: Is there a valet button in the vehicle? Does the vehicle have a two to four-digit PIN code that can disable the alarm? You should also locate components that might be leveraged to disengage the alarm. For instance, open the fuse box and open the hood to identify the battery location. This way you are not searching for the first time while the alarm is sounding and are instead ready to execute the steps below. 

Use Your Key and Both Lock and Unlock the Driver’s Side Door

Grab your keys and try unlocking and locking your driver’s side door multiple times in rapid succession. Some vehicles are wired so that their alarms go off when they detect certain doors opening. Locking and unlocking the driver’s side door can reset the switch and cause the alarm to cease.

If the driver’s side door doesn’t work, try the passenger door.

Further, try turning your vehicle on as well. Some vehicles’ alarms cease sounding once you ignite the engine —after all, the car doesn’t detect that as a theft situation. In many cases, turning the engine on resets the alarm back to neutral.

Check the Panic Button

Try hitting the panic button on your key fob if you haven’t already. While the panic button is normally used to set off your alarm manually in the event of an emergency, this is an appropriate time to “abuse” it.

Panic buttons are easy to identify; they’re usually red or orange and are more often than not labeled with a horn.

What if the alarm is still going? In that case, let’s try some more technical solutions.

Check the Mobile App

Apps continue to take more and more of a role in controlling your vehicle and, depending on your model, you may be able to turn off your alarm using the vehicle’s app on your smartphone. For instance, with the Tesla Model 3, drivers can deactivate their alarm by pressing any button on the mobile app. To manually turn off the alarm, drivers can navigate in the app from Controls 🡪 Security Alarm.

Before Anything Else, Check Your Owner’s Manual

The next solutions are a little more invasive and require you to be comfortable tinkering with your car and its parts. That’s why you should check your owner’s manual before doing anything else.

The manual might indicate that there’s a secret button or another little-known control you can press to turn off the alarm when it doesn’t stop screeching. While not incredibly common, some auto manufacturers include unique controls like this so owners head to licensed workshops and pay a fee to get the issue taken care of.

If your owner’s manual doesn’t indicate a way to turn off your alarm beyond what you’ve already tried, continue reading.

Remove the Alarm’s Fuse

For this step, you need to locate the fuse responsible for your car alarm’s power. Fuses send electricity to different parts of your car, so removing the alarm’s fuse won’t stop power from the overall battery connected to your engine (remember, car alarms need to run when the engine is off, so they have a distinct fuse). 

The exact location of the fuse can differ from model to model. But it’s generally beneath the hood of your car. Check your owner’s manual and look for a picture or diagram indicating the location of the alarm’s fuse box.

Use a pair of pliers to remove the appropriate fuse. That should take care of the alarm in all cases except one (noted below) since the alarm won’t run without electricity.

Disconnect the Vehicle Battery

If you can’t find the alarm’s fuse, you can always temporarily disconnect your car battery. But disconnection is only recommended under the most extreme circumstances. You should only do so if you have the experience needed to be safe. Certain car models might not let you disconnect the battery without specialized tools found at licensed dealerships or maintenance shops.

Provided that your battery can be disconnected without special tools:

• Open your car’s hood
• Remove the negative terminal on your car battery. It will be marked with a minus (-) symbol
• Place the connecting terminal where it won’t touch the battery
• Re-establish the connection

By replacing the connecting terminal, you essentially reset your car’s battery. The alarm should stop now. If not, you’ll need to take your vehicle to a shop for a more detailed inspection and repair work.

Summary

Hopefully, the steps above resolve your issue. Remember that although an alarm can sound for no reason, it is best to avoid permanently turning off the alarm as doing so renders it inactive when there is an attempt to steal the vehicle. 

Since an alarm may be indicative of an issue in the vehicle, it is best to consult a professional to make sure the battery, key fob, and other components are functioning properly. 

Also, your best strategy is to take preventive measures to know how to disengage the alarm if the issue occurs. This way you are prepared and not fumbling through your owner’s manual while the alarm is blasting.

Matt Yantakosol is a lifelong automotive enthusiast and former consultant focused on the consumer aspect of the industry. He has traveled to New York, Detroit, Chicago, L.A., Paris, Geneva, Frankfurt, and Tokyo Auto Shows to track and observe the newest industry innovations. In addition to JDPower.com, Matt's writing has appeared on Pcarmarket.com.

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