Alarm

General Discussion
1

So as some might know i’ve been having issues with the keyless entry & welcome lights, I’m still waiting for Ds to find a fix.

At the moment I dont lock or unlock the car with the remote fob unless the doors refuse to open by keyless entry.
So usually when I walk away from the car it locks and gives a couple of beeps and thats it , no other lights or indicators just the two beeps…
I’ve always been under the impression that the alarm has been activated because of the beeps that the car gives, but I now think I might be wrong ???

Today the locks didnt lock as I walked away and no beeps, so I used the remote fob lock the car, to my surprise the there were the two beeps but also the indicators flashed , I’ve never seen the indicators flash on locking the car or unlocking as I’ve never used the remote to lock or open the car , Ive been relying on the keyless entry so this led me to try out a few things.

Firstly I unlocked the car using the remote, and the indicators flashed, so I put one window down, walked away and the car locked by itself , gave the beeps and the indicators flashed.
I then put my hand through the open window and the alarm sounded.

All good so far.
I then unlocked the car again with the remote, but didnt open any doors, walked away, the car locked itself , beeped, but no indicators, I waited a minute or two, put my hand through the open window but no alarm sounded ???

Hope your keeping up :rofl:
So my theory is this.
You have to initially activate the alarm by using the remote fob, once thats done you have to at least enter the car otherwise it deactivates the alarm, otherwise the beep that is heard when walking away only indicates that the car has locked itself, its seeing the indicators that confirms the alarm has been activated .

This is important, at least to me because it seems as though initially using the fob has sort of reset everything including the welcome lights !

So now when I walk to the car, the locks open ,the car beeps, the indicators flash, welcome lights come on, and when I walk away , the car locks, beeps and indicators flash.
However, if I do this a number of times without opening a door or driving the car it seems to revert back to just opening and unlocking without activating the alarm (no indicators or welcome lights), it then needs to be reset using the fob once again to open and lock the car, everything then seems to work again ???

I might be wrong but it seems as though theres a sequence using the fob that needs to done to activate the alarm, its not just done by walking away from the car and it locking and hearing the beeps, those beeps are only there to confirm the car is locked, it doesnt confirm that the car is alarmed.

Theres a bit in the manual about how the turning off the internal sensors and red switch leds ect ect but it doesnt make a lot of sense.

Long winded but its hard to explain what I’m seeing :roll_eyes:

Maybe someone can explain it all a bit more clearly.
Thanks

2

I have no explanation to share, only my own experience.
I rarely use my keyfob to unlock or lock the car, dont even remember last time.
But my car always flash the indicators when leaving or approaching it.
Thanks to my dogs I know that the alarm is being activated every time I forget to inactivate interior surveillance.

How many times did you approach the car while testing your theory? Im willing to use my car as test subjects 2 :slight_smile:

3

Thanks for replying and offering to help.

I’ve had issues with the keyless entry since buying the car seven months ago, sometimes it unlocks other times it dont when walking towards the car.
It always beeps and locks when walking away.
Same with the welcome lights, sometimes they come on when walking towards the car other times they dont.

I’ve always ASSUMED that the beeps when walking away were confirmation of the alarm being activated, but after reading the manual again and testing it on the car, by putting my hand in through an open window the beeps alone are just to confirm that the car has locked.

However, if I use the fob to lock the car, the beeps still happen but with the indicators flashing at the same time, if I put my hand in through the open window this time the alarm sounds.
If I walk to the car after locking with the fob the locks open and the indicators flash, and welcome lights come on, confirming the alarm has been de-activated, however, the next time I walk away, it locks and beeps but no flashing indicators, so again no alarm is activated.

My theory is either the alarm is being effected by the ongoing keyless entry issue or the alarm is in fact the root cause of the keyless entry issue ?

In all the times the car has been looked at over the last seven months the service department have never mentioned that the alarm is not activating without using the fob.
so either, like me they’ve just not realised it or they are putting it down to the keyless entry issue and thought I already knew ?

4

Having had a further play around with the key fob , I’m now more inclined to think the alarm is not activating when walking away from the car unless the fob is used because of the issues I’ve been having with the keyless entry & welcome lights.

Everything works fine if the fob is used to lock & unlock the car, the alarm activates/deactivates, the indicators flash to show activation/deactivation, the welcome lights come.
Its only if the fob isnt used that all of the above don’t work correctly.
How DS cannot find a fix for this is after 7 months just beyond me !

5

So it turns out that the alarm is definitely only activated/deactivated by using the remote fob, this is confirmed by the indicators flashing.

I’ve had my car sat next to 3 DS4’s at the dealership and they are all the same.
If you lock with the remote fob it activates the alarm, 2 beeps and flashing indicators, when you return to the car it will unlock, and flash the indicators WITHOUT having to touch the remote fob, (keyless entry).
However, the next time you leave the car if you dont use the remote to lock the car, and walkaway you’ll hear the beeps and the doors will lock, but the alarm will NOT be activated.
(This depends whether you have keyless entry).
The manual does say that the beeps only indicate the doors have locked.
You also get full welcome lights by locking with the remote on your return.

My son has a PHEV Vauxhall Astra, its built on the same platform as the DS, his does exactly the same, but the big difference is that the Vauxhall manual explains everything so much clearer.

The naughty thing about all of this is that when you walkaway from the car and it locks automatically, you hear the beeps and think the car has activated the alarm, but those beeps are just confirming that the car is locked, they have nothing to do with activating the alarm.