How to disable your car alarm panic button non-destructively
If you’re like me you have a janitor’s key chain with twenty things on it. At least once a week I set off the panic alarm on my truck by accident because one of the gadgets on my key chain presses the button. In fact the only time I ever intentionally use the panic button is when I’m trying to locate my truck in a parking garage. But I’ve realized I can get the same honk and light flash by clicking the arm button twice and since I rarely panic anymore I now have zero use for this button. Here is the trick I came up with this evening to eliminate the annoyance of accidentally triggering the alarm:
On these cheap remotes the button is not pressure-sensitive, it’s activated when the metal on the rubber piece closes the circuit. By putting something in between the contacts you prevent the circuit from closing and you can take the paper out if you ever decide that you need the panic button to work again. A non-destructive, 30sec fix to a weekly annoyance. It’s the simple things right?
It’s always the simplest of things we never think about…
“since I rarely panic anymore”
Thats great.
Thank you.
I have been meaning to tear into my GM remotes since I got this darned truck. Thanks for posting this info!
You are a godsend! Thank you!!! I have cussed that damn button so many times, wondering why the hell the manufacturers still think anyone wants it. At least they could put a cover over it to prevent accidental execution…
Linking to you right away!
Doesn’t work with my Ford remote. The buttons are not of the type described in which a metal plate on the back of the button connects the metal contacts. In my Ford remote, the plastic buttons press a metal button built into the electronic circuit board. I’d love to disable the panic button, but there is no way that I have the savvy to mess with the circuit board. Good idea though and I wish it would have worked for me.
I did something similar for my G4 iBook. I wanted to use the Caps Lock key as the Control Key to make it easier to use Emacs. The only problem is, the light still went on and off, which is distracting. I tried to find a BIOS hack, but to no avail. After that I tried putting a little piece of mailing label on it, but it changed the way the key felt when pressing down on it. That would be more annoying than the light. So I flipped off my caps lock key and pushed down on the LED with a flathead screwdriver and jiggled it a bit. It disabled it permanently.
I thought a bit about any possible problems it might cause before doing it, and concluded that it was unlikely that anything would go wrong. Sure enough, it worked!
Thanks, Sean! I’m linking to this nifty tidbit. Especially handy when you’ve got kids that like to handle car remotes.
tanks, nice work on a get around for your car alarm
Works great I was setting off my alarm all the time on my Jeep Cherokee, although it had an extra contact layer of plastic between the button (rubber) and the circuit board, so I had to put the paper between the contact layer and the circuit board.
My Camry’s fob has the kind of tiny metal button Allan mentioned. I used a kitchen knife to slice a 1/8″ piece off the tail end of a Bic pen casing (a cheap white one) and laid it around the button like a collar. Now the outer button presses the collar before it hits the contact.
i guess mine is the “expensive” kind, cuz the metal contacts are integrated on the circuit board. it was worth a shot, though. Thanks.
I had another type of controller where it had a literal button. The rubber piece would push the button in a fashion that adding a piece of paper just over it would “amplify” it’s sensitivity. My solution was to cut 5 layers of business cards in a donut like shape to surround the button, then to have a piece of tape to act like a drum head over the top. This effectively enclosed the button and would not cause the circuit to close. In addition, the button would not push in, giving it a nice “rejected/disabled” feel.
This did not harm the circuitry.
Took me 30 minutes to do.
I’ve got the Ford one with the switch on the circuit board. I just covered the button on the outside with a piece of business card and wrapped electrician’s tape around it. The black tape matches the black case, so it looks OK. Problem solved.
I fixed mine today as well. It was 5:30 a.m. this morning going out to my car, I had a few things in my hand while I eas locking the house and the darn thing when off and woke the neighborhood. It was dark and I was panicing to turn it off and could not hit the right button right away. Needless to say I was very unhappy at that moment. I ended up throwing my key as hard as I could against the car which broke the remote. The problem is now fixed.
Quite the neat trick there. Thank you for sharing. I hit the panic button, oh way too often.