I bought this vehicle (99 Blazer LT 4WD) used; it was beautiful & looked like (still does) new. It had 38,000 miles showing; with new tires, new shocks, new brake pads, new battery etc,. Doing research, every thing I read shouted STAY AWAY FROM IT!!! I had to have it;--BIG MISTAKE!! My stupidity led to to buy it, but thankfully my doubtfulness led to to buy a 5 year extended waranty. This vehicle has spent more time in the dealers garage than it has my garage!!!! I'll bet that the waranty company has paid the dealership at least $15,000.00 to repair and/or replace A/C, Transmission, rear main bearing, electric seats motors, rear wiper motor etc.,
Waranty expired 5 months ago; vehicle now has 82,000 very easy miles; still looks new, but theft alarm sounds off for NO REASON. Vehicle parked inside garage, middle of the night; wakes me and most neighbors before I can jump up and run inside garage to turn it off. NO REASON FOR IT!!! Three (3) hours later @ 5:30 AM same thing, did it again. This has happened 6 times in past 4 months, AND NOW-- today I am driving downtown on busy 4 lane street; following traffic @ 45mph; the friggin thing just died, just like the ignitiion had been turned off. So here I am, 3 car lengths behing a string of traffic; with no brakes & no power steering. Fortunately the road was straight and no one stopped in fron of me, and I managed to pull off to the side & stop. I knew that the loss of power would cause minor steering difficulty and that brakeing would be sluggish, but I did not expect either to require so much effort. I could hardly turn the steering wheel, and with me standing on the brake pedal, I still traveled at least 10 car lengths from 45mph to stopping. I thought it was never going to stop. I didn't expect this, as my first 45 years of driving was with NO POWER BRAKES.
Now that you have read my sob story, tell me what caused it to quit at 45mph (what if I had been doing 80mph on the freeway????) What is causing the theft alarm to activate for no known reason??? I'm thinking that the two (2) problems may be related; that the theft alarm may have caused the ignition failure. Looks like I will have to take a beating a $75.00 per hour dealership fishing trip, or a beating in attempt to trade this dog off.

 

Is there an aftermarket alarm?

 

It is GM factory installed.

 

Have never had a built in alarm from any automobile factory. If I had ever had one from anywhere do what yours did, it would have been just once. I value my sleep.

Are you thinking the alarm shut your car down? Did it start right back up afterward or were you towed or what. I need to know "the rest of the story".

One more question; do you still have this alarm system in your vehicle? Any alarm with a test by remote control frequency can be set off with a similar frequency, even if everythig is normal. Your neighbor could set it off with his remote alarm if unlucky enough to have this feature. Seems like all of them do these days too.

An alarm sytem with automatic engine disable if the darn thing is stolen can also be activated and set off by strange frequencies.

If you have an alarm system doing this junk, your sytems reception frequency is way to wide and has become a receiver for just about anything close to it. IN MY OPINION, YOUR ALARM HAS BECOME DEFECTIVE, if this is what is going on. All receivers are fully capable of becoming bad in this respect and having alarm systems able to disable the car without real physically operated overides installed to negate any alarm error while actually driving is a very badly installed system. Most are now being installed with absolutely no regard to this problem and I wouldnt even have one if it were installed by anyone other than ME. While a simple switch located in an unlikely place is a good way, I like more complicated sytems.

Being able to receive remote commands in the park position is a really nice feature if shopping and wishing to impress the whole parking lot. But an override that disables any possible reception of anything has got to exist somewhere. I install a key system located on the outside of the car that cannot be seen and it will turn alarm back to a second system not capable of working with ANY radio reception. (for parking long term/ at home or airport, etc) A purely physical alarm system that does not have any way of being interferred with by any radio waves. If I wish to impress or start car by remote in locations around the city, thats how it functions when parked normally. Remote operation as long as I am not driving. A relay turns off the alarm through the use of a combination of my electric antenna ckt on the radio and turning on the map lite. (same time) It locks through its own other set of contacts and will stay that that way till the key is turned off. No matter where the radio or the map light go, then it resets.

Wont go much further than that cause Id rather not write a diagram for the whole world. Suffice it to say that there are two alarm sytems if I need one. The radio/remote operated system is NEVER fuctional while driving and cannot turn my car off. The simple one can keep car from starting but cannot be operated by radio frequencies.

Dont know if this is where you are going with this post, but thats where I went. More info will correct the paths chosen??

 

Ok! The rest of the story as per request.
The alarm system is factory installed, and to complicate things it is tied into the vehicles computer system. Yes, it restarted. Something just temporarily zaped the ignition system. After I got it stopped I turned the ignition off and just sat there for probably 2 mins trying to decide what need be done. I did not expect it to restart, but tried it and it started as if nothing had happened, and has not failed since.

Now regarding the mysterious alarm, and the possibility of stray and/or unintended signals setting it off... I don't think so.. The first time it happened was last November; when I was sitting 40ft up a tree in my deer stand, and there was no one within 6 miles of me... I'm up this tree; the friggin thing went off. I was about 1/2 mile away, but it sounded like it was parked under my tree. I got down as quickly as possible; ran through the briers & vines to get to it and to get it turned off. Naturally, the horn blowing & lights flashing coupled with the noise I made running thru the briers frightened all the deer & other wildlife out of the county.

Bottom line....the alarm is sounding; caused by unknown reason. The ignition failed, as if turned off; for reason and/or reasons unknown.
If someone knows how to completely and permanently disable and/or remove this theft system; without causing other computer complications, I will quickly & gladly get rid of it!!!

 

It completely sounds like your alarm system is causing your problems.
It sounds like your alarm system is tied into the ignition circuit, and when it decides to have a bad day. So do you.

I am not familiar enough with aftermarket alarms. Vehicle theft isn't to common in my neck of the woods. In any case, get someone to disable the alarm system. Might even be a company or two in your area that specialize in installing them. Even if they don't deal with your brand they should be able to identify it and recommend a shop who does.

I also take my Blazer hunting. I don't have to drag them near as far anymore. Now I can pretty much drive to where they dropped, at least to where I gutted them. It's a tight fit, but we get all the gear for my two sons and myself and 2 dear in it at once. Thought about getting one of those reciever mounted baskets to haul the deer in.

 

My alarm system is factory, and tied into the computer. No one willing to attempt disengagement due to computer.

I have one of the receiver baskets you refer to. Bought it for a bear hunt in Canada back in 03. Works great; sure keeps blood & guts out of vehicle.

 

If I had it the factory would make sure it didnt work any longer. If you suspect the moving failure to be caused by your alarm, then visit the dealer. Visit a second dealer and have both of them write their refusal to disconnect this thing down on paper. Send the whole mess to GM and I'll bet they solve your problem.

Anyone using two way communicatins in those woods?

Heck I learned my fiirst electronics on tubes and wire recorders, but have also worked with a great deal of digital stuff. I remember when the electromagnetic radiation around our equipment was so strong it would raise our hair and stop our electric watches (not digital) and also remember when vacuum cleaner motors would wipe memories of tape drives. I had to deal with fog destroying microwave communications, lighting hitting the same place 6 times and travelling dowstream to accomplish this. Having sprinklers installed just to get a good ground on a 20 ft rod. Having to bond a whole building 200ft further down the mountain cause nothing else worked.

Wont even begin to mention all the strange coincedental things that can happen to anything digital. Heck a cb, fm, even shortwave transmission from a trucker could have turned your car off. Stranger things have happened. You can all call me nuts, but you havent been where I have and seen what I have. Not only that, had to fix it too.

 

I have a Goodwrench VSS-350 Alarm system, new, never installed and was agoing to have someone put it in my 2000. Do you know what model your alarm is? I didn't have to pay for this one and it is the top of the line (at that time anyways) from what I was told. siren, motion sensor etc.,.. BUT, I don't want to have the same B.S. problems that you have been dealing with. What is a good alarm system these days? The last time I had an alarm put in, it was a Viper with all the bells and whistles, power door locks, etc. Had the remote start too but it was a carbed car and couldn't install it.
tia

 

As I was writing, two nice simple alarms is all one needs. The more complicated the more trouble to install and the more likely it'll have strange failures.

Any alarm that hooks directly to anything having to do with the computer is a no-no. Yes an ignition interrupt can be built, but a physical one is better than an electronic one. I still like a good old key/switch that no one knows is there. Bells and whistles dont have to go off just to interupt the ignition when you get out of the car do they?

Even a simple relay operating, or not, is better than hooking to parts in an alarm box that can fail anytime. A relay that IS NOT OPERATED in order to run the car is the best kind. Yes some electric is in use all nite long to keep the relay operated, but what does an alarm do anyway, bet its also drawing electric, right? Anyway, its not the power of the winding that is important so a low draw winding can be used. Only the rating of the normally made contacts matter.

Put your bell and whistle alarm in to activate when the car gets motion or something. Use it to do your bells and whistles, set of the alarm horn and such. DO NOT HOOK IT to the lights in your car. USE seperate lights if you want them. Use your fog lites or something. Anything but the regular lights. I mean, how are you going to deal with the lights flashing all of a sudden at 60 miles an hour on a rainy road?? If you're nuts enough to use the regular horn built into the car, you may have to deal with it when it goes off at an in-oppertune time. The horn relay may give you fits afterward. But at least you can drive with a little noise, right?

I hate auto start with a passion so I wont even go there. Automatic door locks and such are a nicety as long as they can be opened once inside, MANUALLY.