Brigette

I bought my '97 4Runner four years ago, and it came with no alarm remote (key fob). At the time, I didn't even realize it had an alarm, and I've never used it.

Yesterday, I got Zippy detailed, and when I got back in, I noticed that the LED light on the center console, where it says Toyota Security, was illuminated for the first time since I bought her. I thought, "Cool." She was broken into a couple months ago. I bought a Club, but otherwise was unable to do anything expensive to secure her better. I figured this new red light might deter thieves.

At about 11:00 last night, I heard the worlds loudest continuous car horn sound outside. When I looked out, I realized it was mine. WTH? Opening the car doors did nothing to silence the horrible noise; same with starting the ignition. Fortunately, one of the neighbors that I'd woken up brought over a wrench and disconnected the battery for me until we could get the horns (why are there two?) disconnected.

I've Googled a ton since last night, and I haven't found anything that will help me to turn off that damn red light and disable the alarm. Yes, I can probably unplug the black box under the seat, but I don't know how that's going to affect the system. I'm really interested in finding out how the auto detailers managed to activate the alarm that I haven't in four years, as well as why the damn thing went off in the middle of the night on its own.

I can get the LED to light up in program mode, I believe, by turning the key on and off a few times, but nothing I've done turns the LED off completely. The alarm I have is the one described in this post: http://www.4runners.org/writeups/rs3000/index.html

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Much of what I've found on here and through Google is old, and most of the links are not functional.

eric924run

many factory alarms are turned off my using the driver door lock cyl. try playing with key in the door cyl , locking and unlock. also the 2 horns are for different frequencys.

drpdmazda

If the alarm is the vip factory alarm, i think i still have the owners manual down in m y garage, will look tomorrow. not really sure how they activated the alarm on the truck, unless they locked it with the key in the door and that somehow activated it. as stated before, you can sometimes disarm the alarm by using the key in the door to unlock/disarm it. If you unplug the black box under the seat, you will disable the alram as well as the keyless entry features. The alarm is basically a t-harness plug in style alam, with a few wires t-taped also. it can be easily removed all together if you wanted to. And adding a new aftermarket alarm is not too dificult in that runner either if you wanted to keep an alarm/keyless entry feature on the rig.

hope that helps a little

Jason

Heather_Jade

I read u can disable it by disconnecting the tbox under the seat but I don't know what it looks like. Please help!!!