Avalon theft deterent system

I have a 99 Avalon that I love but have a problem with the theft
deterent system. I don't use it very much, usually just on trips.

Three times in the past year, twice in the past month or so, it has
armed itself when the ignition was turned off and the doors were locked
manually.

I discovered that the instructions in the manual weren't clear, and to
shut it off I have to turn the ignition on then hit the little red
button three times. In the meantime, everyone who is parked near me
thinks I'm trying to steal the car.

I'm trying to avoid turning it over to the high-priced dorks at my
local Toyota dealer, but the guy who I go to doesn't have a clue what
the problem is.

Anybody got any ideas what's causing this?

Thanks,
Ed

On 25 Apr 2005 15:04:32 -0700, "Ed" <edurall@aol.com> wrote:

>I discovered that the instructions in the manual weren't clear, and to
>shut it off I have to turn the ignition on then hit the little red
>button three times. In the meantime, everyone who is parked near me
>thinks I'm trying to steal the car.

Just press the unlock button on the remote, that will disarm the alarm
as well.

"Ed" <edurall@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1114466671.934284.140890@z14g2000cwz.googlegr oups.com...
>I have a 99 Avalon that I love but have a problem with the theft
> deterent system. I don't use it very much, usually just on trips.
>
> Three times in the past year, twice in the past month or so, it has
> armed itself when the ignition was turned off and the doors were locked
> manually.
>
> I discovered that the instructions in the manual weren't clear, and to
> shut it off I have to turn the ignition on then hit the little red
> button three times. In the meantime, everyone who is parked near me
> thinks I'm trying to steal the car.
>
> I'm trying to avoid turning it over to the high-priced dorks at my
> local Toyota dealer, but the guy who I go to doesn't have a clue what
> the problem is.
>
> Anybody got any ideas what's causing this?
>
> Thanks,
> Ed
>
Under the factory theft deterrent system's default settings, the TDS should
arm when locking the door and disarm when you unlock the door with the key
or remote so it's pretty unobtrusive. If the TDS is armed and you unlock
the door without the key or remote, it should trigger sound the horn and
disable the ignition. If you leave the windows open and lock the door and
then reach in to unlock or you arm the system when someone is inside and the
person unlocks and opens the door, then the TDS would be triggered.
--
Ray O
correct the return address punctuation to reply

Just press the unlock button on the remote, that will disarm the alarm
as well.
.....
That's not the point. The system alarmed itself when I locked the
doors with the key. The remote was at home and hadn't been used for
months.

The remote sits on a shelf at home and is not used for months at a
time.

I lock the door with the key and the system alarms itself...3 times in
the past year...in the same parking lot BTW.

I don't see how the system could be alarmed by using the key to lock
the doors. That seems to be my basic problem.

I also don't see how you could unlock the doors without either the key
or the remote.

Ed

There are only X number of codes for the remote to use to communicate to
the computer in teh vehicle. The number of codes are small compared to the
number of automobiles that use these codes. In essence these codes are
repeated many many times. On one vehicle I owned there were only 5
different codes. Therefor if you had one remote and 5 vehicles you had a
1in5 chances of entering a vehicle.

There are many many vehicles that use the same code as your vehicle. There
is another in the parking lot that has activated your alarm.

One of the tactits that criminals use if taking a car remote and driving
through the shopping malls and see what vehicle they can lock/unlock the
doors and then clean up.

You may be able to disable the door lock/unlock and alarm feature. Visit
your dealer.....

C.



In article <1114552147.956739.63270@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.c om>, "Ed"
<edurall@aol.com> wrote:

> Just press the unlock button on the remote, that will disarm the alarm
> as well.
> ....
> That's not the point. The system alarmed itself when I locked the
> doors with the key. The remote was at home and hadn't been used for
> months.

"Ed" <edurall@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1114552429.763920.321030@f14g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...
> The remote sits on a shelf at home and is not used for months at a
> time.
>
> I lock the door with the key and the system alarms itself...3 times in
> the past year...in the same parking lot BTW.
>
> I don't see how the system could be alarmed by using the key to lock
> the doors. That seems to be my basic problem.
>

IIRC, on our 97 Avalon, the system arms when the the doors are closed and
locked, regardless of how the vehicle is locked, whether by remote, key,
power door lock button, or manually locking the door from the inside.

To understand how this works, think about how locking the door in an
airplane lavatory turns on the "occupied" light. Locking your car's door
turns on the theft deterrent system. Your car's theft deterrent system is a
little more sophisticated because it knows how the car is being unlocked.

> I also don't see how you could unlock the doors without either the key
> or the remote.
>
There are several ways to unlock the doors without a key or remote, all of
which will trigger the theft deterrent system:

1) Reach through an open window, manually flip the lock toggle, and open the
door. Variations on this include breaking a window to reach the toggle or
using a coat hanger through a partially open window to reach the toggle.

2) Reach through an open window, push the power door lock button, and open
the door. Variations on this also include breaking a window to reach the
switch or using a coat hanger to reach the switch.

3) Slim jim or pick the lock. This process does not cycle the switch inside
the lock so the TDS should trigger.


--
Ray O
correct the return address punctuation to reply

"C." <cpierce@ust.net> wrote in message
news:cpierce-2604051744430001@user-37kac6s.dialup.mindspring.com...
>
> Ed
>
> There are only X number of codes for the remote to use to communicate to
> the computer in teh vehicle. The number of codes are small compared to the
> number of automobiles that use these codes. In essence these codes are
> repeated many many times. On one vehicle I owned there were only 5
> different codes. Therefor if you had one remote and 5 vehicles you had a
> 1in5 chances of entering a vehicle.
>

I haven't a clue as the truth of your statement, but it strikes me as odd.
If there was a 5-digit code, then the statement would make sense, but only 5
codes for the entire fleet seems like it wouldn't be secure at all. A
5-digit code would take 100,000 vehicles before there was a duplicate, this
would increase the security greatly. And if any given code had a secondary
number, kind of like a PIN, then there would be no duplicates ever. Well,
there would be a duplicate in theory, but as a practical matter it would
take just about every car on the planet to be equipped with the same
security system before duplicates cropped up.




> There are many many vehicles that use the same code as your vehicle. There
> is another in the parking lot that has activated your alarm.
>
> One of the tactits that criminals use if taking a car remote and driving
> through the shopping malls and see what vehicle they can lock/unlock the
> doors and then clean up.
>

This is precisely why the Avalon - and any other factory installed security
system - wouldn't be protected by 5 different codes.

On 26 Apr 2005 14:49:07 -0700, "Ed" <edurall@aol.com> wrote:

>That's not the point. The system alarmed itself when I locked the
>doors with the key. The remote was at home and hadn't been used for
>months.

If you were out of the car and turned the key to lock all 4 doors, of
course the alarm got activated, that's the default behavior for that
model. You should read the owner's manual sometime.

Not sure if that could be modified to do what you want. Go to the
Toyota dealer and ask. Or just rip out the alarm since you don't want
it.