Hi - I was just putting in a new battery on my 94 Saturn SL. While tightening the negative cable (positive already connected) the car alarm battery went off. I can't recall if I've ever heard this car alarm go off before--if it has, it was over 10 years ago.

There doesn't seem to be any way to stop it. I was able to start the car okay (with the alarm going, continuously) but I can't find any switches or mechanisms to stop it. I can't find anything in the owner's manual either.

Any suggestions?

 

for now pull the horn fuse so it wont drain the battery.

Is it a factory alarm or aftermarket?

 

I'm not very experienced with car repair and the little I've done was years ago. I thought replacing the battery would be within my skill level! (Bought a suggested replacement from local O'Reilly Auto parts.)

As far as I know, the alarm is the original. We bought the car used about a dozen years ago. Were surprised to discover it had lowjack, but I know nothing about how that works. Just mentioning it in case that suggests previous owner made changes to alarm system.

I currently have the battery disconnected at the negative cable.

Where do I find the fuse for the car alarm? I can see where the cable comes in, underneath the dash to the left of the steering wheel, but not where it connects after that.

There is a red light that blinks quickly, situated between the radio and the vents in the center. As soon as the battery is connected it starts blinking and continues to blink even if the alarm stops. (The alarm, but not the blinking light, stopped for a while when I closed all doors and hood and sat inside. Soon as I opened the door it started blasting again.)

 

it sounds like your dealing with an aftermarket alarm, none of the saturns that I know have a red blinky light.

check the fuse panel - Theres one under the hood near the battery and the other one is behind the pull door in the center stack (the left side of the passenger foot area, if you were sitting in the passenger seat) - look for fuses that are listed as ACCESSORY or something similar. one of those may be the aftermarket system. You may be lucky enough to find the box under the dash or hood and pull fuses/wires

 

Thanks. It's getting too late to try running the car and risking the horn going off. But I did examine the fuses. I found both fuse panels, but nothing that looked like "accessory" to me.

Under the hood, directly connected via the + line, was a panel with three types of fuses. The small ones are in a grid 5 X 7 and have various names and numbers, ranging 5 to 15 amps fuses. Not all slots are filled. On one side is a row of 8 30-amp fuses (not all slots occupied) and on the other side are five slots for larger units marked "Potter & Blumfield" These slots are labelled. "horn", "a/c control" "cool fan" are occupied and "fog lamp" and 'a/trans" are empty.

I'm wondering, also, if there was something I knocked in the horn. It is very close to the battery, and the battery was difficult to extract. I could have moved the horn or its wires somehow. I can try jiggling to test the connections tomorrow (daylight hours, less disturbing to neighbors).

The panel on the passenger side has two parts. One is a grid of 20 small fuses (5 x 4) and there are four slots for the larger types, three holding the same "Potter & Brumfield" black units and one slightly larger grey unit marked "Lucas / Flasher / Turn Hazard / Saturn / <bunch-of-numbers>". This grey one has a sort of latch on the side and seems like it could be pulled out if needed.

Is the plan to find the appropriate fuse, pull it, and thus disable the alarm horn, and leave things like that?

I'm curious what might have changed in the course of my replacing the battery, especially since I did not mess with the fuses at any time. I guess as long as a battery is in, a "state" could be maintained, and disconnecting the battery would have disrupted that state.

No red light in the center dash area above the radio below the vents? It looks so official! But I can see, under the hood, where the hole cut for the alarm horn wire looks hand-done, as it is a slightly irregularly-shaped slit.

Looking forward to continuing this tomorrow if you are available! Thanks for help so far.

 

I'm in agreement with Octavious -- this appears to be an after-market device. Examine the box/module closely for any labels/numbers/names that might give a hint to the manufacturer ...

 

Sounds like you have an aftermarket alarm in which there is no standard way of wiring. If the alarm is the problem your more or less on your own in trying to figure out how the installer has wired it.

As far as the factory horn goes I thought it was behind the bumper cover down low on the drivers side of the car, not in sight from the battery area.

 

Thank you all!

The horn had no company name, and was on a different circuit than the steering wheel horn. (Pulling "horn" fuse had no effect on the car alarm siren.)

Tracing the wires underneath I found a small black plastic case with the lettering "Sensor" "SAE PP-T20" and a white ****. The **** doesn't seem to do anything related to the alarm going on or off. Perhaps this is a point where other car sensor mechanisms connect to the alarm circuit?

I did find another button (small black) under the steering wheel. It didn't seem like pressing it did anything, even when holding it for a second or two.

However, a search on "Sensor SAE PP-T20" led (eventually) to a site that explained one needs to start the ignition, THEN hold the button down for several seconds. I think it took something like 10 seconds before the alarm stopped. But it did stop.

Just took my wife for a drive around the block. Everything seems good now.

 

Talk about the long way around to get to the result ... glad you got it under control