Hi all, quick question regarding my mk3 drove home tonight around 100 miles from a truck show, got home locked the car with remote and went into house to open garage and move another car and after a minute or so after locking the alarm was sounding, done it last week after a similiar journey back from spring rally but with sidelights left on can’t figure out why the alarm went off but I did have my I-Pad tucked between centre console and seat, can this set the alarm off? Wifi only on I-Pad. Seem to remember one time before on a road run with other club members someone left their cell phone on the centre console when locked and the alarm went off on their car, folk reckoned this was responsible for setting it off, can a phone or wifi signal set the alarm off when a device is left in the car? Curios one.
I read on here that the alarm module on the Mk3 is under the centre console, towards the rear. So can that be the reason, interference from any mobile/electronic device?
Having suffered the same myself, I think it’s a deliberate design by Mazda, reminding you not to leave anything of value in the car!
This has confirmed my recent experience. I have left my smart phone in the car a couple of times and this seems to set the alarm off. Once on the console and a few days ago on the passenger seat. The alarm has never activated otherwise. At least it reminds me where I’ve left the phone.
Interesting that others here have had the same sort of thing happen to them, I aksed the same question on Miata.net and have yet to get a reply. The car was also parked around 12 ft from wifi hub in house and I suspected this maybe a cause. Sometimes I leave my ipad below the passenger seat and have had no problem with the alarm going off when left there.
When i bought mine last year, i got home parked it on the drive and within 2 minutes the alarm was going off.
I had no mobile phones left in the car.
Since then i’ve always disabled the ultrasonic from the fob.
I really need to get around to testing it fully.
Hmm, you’ve given me an idea. Do you have one of those Ultrasonic Cat repellents nearby, perhaps even pointing towards the car?
I can’t hear ours (all in the back garden) but the young builders were holding their ears until I took pity and turned them off. My car lives in the garage at the front so cannot hear them.
Thanks for making me think about this, I might be able to do some tests when I get home again.
I have left my Samsung phone on the centre console twice, both times the alarm sounded.
When i say ultrasonic, i meant the internal sensor.
We don’t have a cat scarer
I am not the only one then too experience this then, must make a point of not leaving phones etc in centre console when car is locked no problems though it seems beneath seat or in door pocket so far on my car.
Our cat scarers are VERY loud, and if you have a soft top then it would go straight through. While I can’t hear them, they do give me a headache in less than a minute! Neighbours?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Selections-GFA805-Operated-Ultrasonic-Batteries/dp/B0077LW0M6
Another possibility dredged up from the dark depths of faded memory. Many years ago the alarm in my neighbour’s Volvo V70 (then brand new) was frequently set off by jingling keys, usually just as he was finding the front door key; apparently they can produce some of the same frequencies as breaking glass. Eventually he got the dealers to change bits of the alarm system under warranty, and the problem went away.
Having just got home I tried the cat scarer on the locked and alarmed car, various permutations of one or two lock presses and turning inner sensor on and off etc. Fortunately the car simply ignored the scarer, so that possibility can be written off.
Leaving your wifi on will do this as the band is virtually the same hence the problem. Turn your wifi off if you leave it in the car.
So then it seems the alarm goes off if mobile phone, iPad whatever is left in the car on or around the centre console and not by signals from outside the car. Will try out over the next few weeks leaving ipad in car with and without wifi on and see what happens.
Alarm went off again last night, made the mistake off leaving ipad below drivers seat which picked up a BT wifi hotspot but this didn’t set the alarm off but my mate locking his car with remote set mine off, either that or just coincidence at the exact moment it went off we he locked his car. Must remember to switch ipad to flight mode.
I’ve got my phone attached to the bottom right hand corner of my windscreen as its used for Bluetoothing music and also on occasion I use copilot satnav. It will without fail set my alarm off if left there.
I remember being sat in a roadside restaurant in Germany a couple of years ago and I’d left it there and it kept going off so I kept unlocking the doors from my seat at the window to stop it. It was from then I figured it what was going on.
Came home from holiday yesterday and had to leave the Mk3 outside for a while, locked it and set the alarm. Around 15 mins later the alarm sounded, never done that ever whilst I’ve owned the car. After 3 alarm soundings and resets I remembered this thread, yes I had forgot to remove my phone from the centre console.
Same here always sets the alarm off if I leave anything like a mobile / laptop in the car, I would guess anything on 2.4ghtz will set it off.