crazy night in the viper (got locked in my own car)

[Andy 98 RT/10]

Last night, I went to Applebee’s with a buddy of mine, to see his girlfriend, and I got a nice front row spot to keep an eye on the car. As we were leaving, she seemed really interested in the car, so I was happy to open the hood and show the motor.

What I didn’t remember was that the doors were locked (and the alarm was set) when I did this. Normally, I’d think this would just cause the car to beep over and over again, but nothing happened. However, when I tried to unlock the car with the remote nothing happened, and I realized something was wrong. I unlocked the rear glass, and was able to open the car and get in. I figured that I’d just stick the key and twist in the alarm override slot in the center console, and I’d be all set. I did that, tried to start it up, and the fuel would cut off about every three seconds. I couldn’t open the doors anymore, so I had to remove the hardtop, and climb out of the car. By this point, there was a crowd watching, some laughing and pointing, it was pretty embarrassing.

Eventually I got out of the car, and one of my friends went home, got a socket wrench, and disconnected some wires from the positive attachment in the battery (sorry for my lack of mechanical skills, I can’t explain in better details) let it sit for 30 seconds, and reattached them to the battery. After that the viper fired up, and seemed to work fine.

If something like this were to happen again, would there be an easier way of resetting the alarm?

 

[Gerald]

can't you just hold down both fob buttons for about 10 seconds?

 

[Andy 98 RT/10]

I actually tried that, but it didn't seem to work...something was really nutty.

 

[MoparMan]

Andy - my wife and I lived your exact story with our GTS. We took it to a friend's house party and showed the car off to a few people including letting them sit in it and firing up the car. When the party was breaking up we went to leave and our problems began. The fob unlocked the doors and my wife got in, but someone else's car fob must have hosed up my (factory) alarm system and by the time I got around to my door the system would no longer allow the doors to open. At that point, the car would start and run for a few seconds then the fuel was cutoff. This happened about three times before the engine wouldn't fire any more. We tried jumping the car, charging the battery, etc all the while I was catching alot of crap from a couple of vette fans. We ended up waiting for a service truck to show up - the guy tried to jump the car again then I mentioned that it seemed like the PCM was keeping the car from firing. We decided (at 3am) to pull the positive battery cable. After it was off for about a minute and put back on, the car fired up like nothing had ever happened...go figure.

Bottom line is that I now keep a small toolkit in the hatch for this situation. I think another way to deal with this easier might be to put one of those positive cable switches in that Eastwood sells - no tools needed to reset the PCM in this case. I haven't had the time to look into this yet, so in the interim I'll have to rely on the wrenches.

Holding both buttons on the fob won't do anything in this situation because all that does is train the PCM to recognize the fob as valid. In this case, the alarm has already decided to disable the car because of perceived theft so it doesn't care about adding a new fob to its list of valid fobs.

There's something twitchy about the alarms on these cars and once the firmware decides to go into this mode there's no getting it out - the firmware must have some sort of bug that's never been found.

 

[steel snake]

I can see getting locked OUT. But IN? Doesn't yours have the emergency release that my RT10 has? Seems impossible.???

 

[PaViper]

I can see getting locked OUT. But IN? Doesn't yours have the emergency release that my RT10 has? Seems impossible.???

I was thinking the same thing

 

[Andy 98 RT/10]

I can see getting locked OUT. But IN? Doesn't yours have the emergency release that my RT10 has? Seems impossible.???

Yes, it does. Unfortunately, they did nothing when I pulled on them. The windows didn't roll down either, all of the electronics were stopped. Thank God for the removable top.

 

[Gerald Levin]

put one of those positive cable switches in that Eastwood sells - no tools needed to reset the PCM in this case

Not a bad idea. The Eastman "Deluxe Battery Shut-off Switch" part # 25053 is only $10 and usually is placed on the neg. terminal. But I'm assuming to reset the PCM, you would have this on the positive terminal and just disconnect for a minute.
Has anyone done this?

 

[MoparMan]

My only concern would be vibration causing temporary disconnects. I'll let you know if/when I get it done.

 

[Dv8tor]

Interesting. I can see that being embarrassing. Have you called Dodge to see if there's an easier way to fix this? So basically, you need to make sure the alarm is disabled before opening the hood, right?

 

[GTSnake]

What I want to know is: "what are you doing driving your snake in this weather?"

I thought I saw a red RT/10 with a Mopar spoiler drive by the other day. Was that you?

 

[Andy 98 RT/10]

Interesting. I can see that being embarrassing. Have you called Dodge to see if there's an easier way to fix this? So basically, you need to make sure the alarm is disabled before opening the hood, right?

Yeah. Once or twice before, I accidentally opened the hood with the alarm set, and the horn just started going off and I was able to use the alarm override switch. No such luck on Sunday.

What I did, is I went to my local hardware store and got a 5/8" hex socket wrench, so I can disconnect the battery. I've talked to other guys, and this seems to solve the problem.

What I want to know is: "what are you doing driving your snake in this weather?"

I thought I saw a red RT/10 with a Mopar spoiler drive by the other day. Was that you?

Wasn't me, No spoilers on my car. If the sky is clear and the roads are clean like Sunday, usually I'm out in the Viper

 

[PDCjonny]

Wasn't me, No spoilers on my car. If the sky is clear and the roads are clean like Sunday, usually I'm out in the Viper

[/QUOTE]

Good for you, I totally agree. Clear dry roads and I am out driving as well, it's my weekend therapy... Traction is always an issue on cold roads. but the motors love the cold. I wash any residual sand or salt off the car, and put it away till next weekend. I bought the car to drive it, not worship it.

 

[PhoenixGTS]

One morning I went out in the parking lot at work and once the passenger door popped open that was all the battery would do. Come to find out I had left the headlights on. Crawled in the car and used the manual opener to get the driver's door open then I walked back to the building and hit up the group of four co-workers who were on a smoke break for a push. They pushed it and it bumped started real easy. That was months ago and still to this day one of those smoking losers feels compelled to ask once at least once a week if I need a push. Schadenfruede related to Viper owners seems to be alive and well.

 

[AviP]

Check out my old post on this. It came off a TSB for the 97 GTS.
http://vca2.viperclub.org/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB14&Number=35247&Forum=All_Forums&Words=alarm%20&Match=And&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=35242&Search=true#Post35247

 

[Andy 98 RT/10]

Avi -- great post, it will be a valuable resource to many I'm sure.

 

[Gerald Levin]

What I did, is I went to my local hardware store and got a 5/8" hex socket wrench, so I can disconnect the battery. I've talked to other guys, and this seems to solve the problem.

Does it matter whether you disconnect the negative or positive as long as the battery is disconnected?

 

[Andy 98 RT/10]

I'm actually not exactly sure, my mechanical skills aren't all that great.

What I did, is popped the hood and disconnected the wires from the positive.

 

[AG98RT10]

I've had my RT go into the three seconds and die mode so many times that now I just NEVER lock it!

I just keep an eye on it... If someone wants to screw up your car, they'll do it anyway...

Vipertech told me it's probably an intermittent on the hood sensor that's causing mine to think someone tampered with it while it was sitting there locked.