Another Saturn Alarm Problem

I have an '06 Saturn Vue that I purchased in Sept. '06 with 28k miles.
Last week at around midnight the alarm activated. After checking that
no one had opened any doors I reset the alarm but the dome lamps
wouldn't turn off. It was the first cold night we'd had here in
Houston, around 38 degrees, so as I sat in the vehicle I cranked the
engine to warm it up as I read the owner's man. While sitting I noted
that the when I put it in drive to move it a little the auto door locks
didn't activate, as a matter of fact I tried to manually lock them with
the lock button and they would unlock themselves almost immediately.
After the vehicle had warmed up I moved it into drive again and low and
behold the auto door locks activated and the dome lamps went off. I
shut it down and went back to bed. Took it to Saturn Southwest the
following day & got it back with "could not duplicate problem" noted on
my copy of the service receipt. The service writer said they
reprogrammed the ecm & that should correct the problem. That night
around 4:30 AM, which was in the 40 degree range...well, you guessed
it, same problem. This is our 4th Saturn so I'm pretty familiar the
the product. Any ideas out there?
Thanks, Richard

Turns out that one of the door pins (the door light actuator switch)
was slightly bent and when temp would drop below 50 degrees something
in the pin would contract enough to make contact thus fooling the alarm
into thinking that a door had been opened. New pin, problem solved.
Many thanks to Kenny "Sherlock" Harper, 4-Star Tech at Saturn Southwest
in Houston.
bboy327 wrote:
> I have an '06 Saturn Vue that I purchased in Sept. '06 with 28k miles.
> Last week at around midnight the alarm activated. After checking that
> no one had opened any doors I reset the alarm but the dome lamps
> wouldn't turn off. It was the first cold night we'd had here in
> Houston, around 38 degrees, so as I sat in the vehicle I cranked the
> engine to warm it up as I read the owner's man. While sitting I noted
> that the when I put it in drive to move it a little the auto door locks
> didn't activate, as a matter of fact I tried to manually lock them with
> the lock button and they would unlock themselves almost immediately.
> After the vehicle had warmed up I moved it into drive again and low and
> behold the auto door locks activated and the dome lamps went off. I
> shut it down and went back to bed. Took it to Saturn Southwest the
> following day & got it back with "could not duplicate problem" noted on
> my copy of the service receipt. The service writer said they
> reprogrammed the ecm & that should correct the problem. That night
> around 4:30 AM, which was in the 40 degree range...well, you guessed
> it, same problem. This is our 4th Saturn so I'm pretty familiar the
> the product. Any ideas out there?
> Thanks, Richard

In article .com>, "bboy327" > wrote:
>Turns out that one of the door pins (the door light actuator switch)
>was slightly bent and when temp would drop below 50 degrees something
>in the pin would contract enough to make contact thus fooling the alarm
>into thinking that a door had been opened. New pin, problem solved.
>Many thanks to Kenny "Sherlock" Harper, 4-Star Tech at Saturn Southwest
>in Houston.

Glad to hear the problem's solved. For future reference, when taking any car
in for a problem that appears to be related to cold temperature, have the
garage keep it overnight, either outdoors or in an unheated building, and
check for problems first thing the next morning. You're much less likely to
get it back with a "cannot duplicate" note.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.