I have read all the posts about the alarm, but none specify exactly how it works, ie what sets it off etc. I have turned it on and pulled on the door handles and nothing happens. The panic alarm works fine. What sorts of things make it go off? Thanks for any help.

 

The alarm is an intrusion alarm. It will not go off just by pulling on the door handle or bumping the car. It doesn't have a motion or shock sensor. To set it off, a door has to be opened. The alarm is turned on or off by locking or unlocking the doors with the remote. I'm not sure if using the key in the door will set the alarm or not. To test the alarm, lock the doors using the remote while inside. Then open the door from the inside. The alarm should go off. To stop the alarm, hit the unlock button on the remote.

The car also has an anti-tow alarm which will go off if one end of the car is raised. This is turned on or off by the switch on the center console. The red LED on this switch should flash anytime the alarm is set.

 

Thanks so much for the info. So the only time it goes off, is if the door is somehow opened. Gotcha. I really , really love the car, and could not be more thrilled

 

awhile back a friend of mine setoff my alarm after i let him drive it, he couldnt figure out how to stop it so i had to come out and figure it out myself. It was the 1st time the alarm had ever been triggered so i wasnt too sure about it myself. Long story short, i tried the remote and it wouldnt work, i tired unlocking the doors using the key and it wouldnt work. I had to put the key in the ignition and turn on the engine before the alarm finally stopped. I should test this again.

 

I take it the alarm was going off and at least one window was down, since you couldn't unlock a door. The only time mine as gone off was when something in my pocket pressed the panic button. It took me quite awhile to figure out what had caused it to start screaming. To turn it off (since I didn't even think about the panic button being the cause) I was able to unlock the door with the remote and put the key in the ignition which turned off the alarm. The second time it happened I figured out what caused it because I had just put the keys in my pocket and when I knelt bown to pick something up I could feel the pressure of something pushing on the keys and the alarm went off. This time I just took the keys out and pushed the panic button and it stopped.

 

That's interesting. I have set mine off a couple times playing with it to see how it works. With one window down I reached inside to open a door and it went off. The alarm also goes off if you reach inside and open the hood. I assume this is to keep someone from attempting to disconnect the battery to steal the car. Both times I was able to turn it off by simply pressing the unlock button on the remote.

Also, when I let my battery rundown, the alarm went off when the roadside assistance guy connected the battery jumper to it. It turned off by pressing the unlock button.

My previous vehicle (a Ford Escape) had a similar factory alarm system. The only problem with it was that if you unlocked the door with the unlock button on the door, it turned off the alarm. So it would depend on how the thief opened the door as to whether or not the alarm would go off. On my Crossfire, the doors will not unlock with the button on the console if the alarm has been set, so it is a little tougher to defeat the alarm.