2000 Sable security system bug

My 2000 Sable security system is going off at random times, on the average about once every couple of days. It can occur anywhere, anytime. It can occur whether the car is left locked or not. The dealer has had it 3 times and has had no success correcting the problem. (They replaced the hood switch, although I told them I didn't understand how that would cause the fault to occur even when the car was unlocked, and now they've disabled the hood switch. They say that's the only fault they're getting from the system diagnosis.) I would be happy just to have the darned system disabled, although repairing it would be even better. I've taken to pulling the horn fuse when I really don't want it to go off, but that's a pain to get to.

Another symptom is that a total of 4 or 5 times (i.e. rarely), the keys do not work to start the car, i.e. the behavior is as if you don't have the special key with the chip in it. After a few minutes (the system apparently resets) the keys work.

If anyone can provide advice, please do!

Reply to
Tim Miller
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The first thing that comes to mind is a possible wiring issue. Maybe a loose connector, poor ground, a partially broken wire, or an intermittent short. In addition to the hood switch, there are switches inside all 4 door latches and the trunk latch. If one of them is intermittent, it could be fooling the system into thinking something was opened.

According to the service manual, you cannot fully disable the security system.

Reply to
Andrew Rossmann

Andrew,

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't see why failure of any of the hood, door, or trunk switches would cause the alarm to go off even when the car is unlocked, i.e. when the alarm is not set. You may be right about a wiring problem elsewhere, though.

BTW, I got a new suggestion to not leave my spare remote in the glove-box. A possibility is that it may be intermittently "going off" (pushing the panic button) and causing the problem. So, I'm going to try stashing it in a distant drawer in the house instead and see if that may solve the problem.

Thanks again for the thoughts and suggestion.

Tim

Andrew Rossmann wrote:

Reply to
Tim Miller

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