2013 ford explorer- alarm goes off and car won't start

Punchdrunk Monkey

Punchdrunk Monkey

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So the kids car wouldn't start last night, she was at a friends. They mess around and try to jump it and after a while it starts. She goes to the store instead of straight home. Then the car won't start at the store. It's 9:30 at night and raining. So I go to the store to check it out. Battery is good. The alarm keeps going off and turn the key and nothing happens. No click, no dimming lights...nothing. Ok it is rain and dark. I take her home and I will deal with it in the morning. I disconnected the battery so the alarm would go off. 

Fast forward to this morning. I get her key fob, which she says doesn't work, hasn't in a long time. I put a new battery in it. just in case. Off to the car. I get there and check the battery....12.4V. Ok battery is good. Try to start the car....alarm goes off and nothing. I have a OBD scanner, I hook it up and run it. While running the scanner, I hit the buttons on the fob and the doors lock. Hummm, weird, that was the only button that did anything, I try to start the car and it starts. I unplug the OBD shut the hood and get the car home. Once home I try to start it again.......alarm goes off and nothing. I try hitting all the buttons on the fob. Doors lock again but the car won't start. Eff it. I need to get to work.......so I can check on GD.com :) 

I am guessing it has something to do with the key fob. But the fob has been not working "for a long time". I am afraid to see what the Ford dealer wants for a new fob. Any other ideas on what to check?? I need to run the OBD again when I get home. That was the only difference from when it started this morning, to not starting when I got home. 

 
Its a know  issue from ford. Neighbors use to go off all the time only on cold nights. If i recall it was a sensitivity and metal shrink/expand thing. Was related to the hood moving

 
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Does it do it if you unlock the door from the physical key? 

 
Rockwood said:
Does it do it if you unlock the door from the physical key? 
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This^ 

A lot of times to reset the alarm, you'll need to lock and unlock from the door with the key. (Doors closed)

I also suspect it may be an aftermarket alarm "dealer upgrade" that works with factory equipment. Check very closely under the driver dash for tiny buttons, tiny red lights, modules, mechanism attached to edge of bottom dash panel, extra wires that don't look factory etc. And follow those wires hopefully to an inline fuse. Remove the fuse and should go back to factory equipment only. 

If she said the fob hasn't worked and all they've done is use the key, and someone hit the fob lock (as you discovered that it does lock) then alarm gets activated again. The door locking unlocking thing should do here. Good luck. 

 
It is the ford alarm. We have owned the car for a long time and passed it down to the kid. The key fob hasn't worked for "for a long time" (I am not sure what this really means, I just found out it didn't work) and she has been manually unlocking and locking the doors. 

So I unlock the door (manually), open the door and the alarm goes off. There is no way to turn in off. It will eventually go off by its self. I only messed with it a little bit last night, in the rain. I'll try to reproduce what ever I did to get it to start when I get home. 

I still think getting a new key fob will be required. Not sure if that is the problem but it can't be helping.  

 
Punchdrunk Monkey said:
It is the ford alarm. We have owned the car for a long time and passed it down to the kid. The key fob hasn't worked for "for a long time" (I am not sure what this really means, I just found out it didn't work) and she has been manually unlocking and locking the doors. 

So I unlock the door (manually), open the door and the alarm goes off. There is no way to turn in off. It will eventually go off by its self. I only messed with it a little bit last night, in the rain. I'll try to reproduce what ever I did to get it to start when I get home. 

I still think getting a new key fob will be required. Not sure if that is the problem but it can't be helping.  
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My assumption is the lock’s position sensor has died. Fords have a complete pile of donkey chit for a door latch: all plastic and all sensors are inside of it. 

Most locksmiths can get you a new fob for less than Ford charges. 

 
The alarm will prevent it from starting, somehow the alarm is being activated.  Even manual unlocking the door, the alarm is still activated.  I had this problem one time on a 2009 Ford F150, I can't recall how it went away or how I figured it out...........

 
You can try this as well.... this guy is adding a new key, so you don't need the chingadera he's using, you're just accessing alarm and fob functions. Maybe this will help. This is actually how a fob is programmed in. No scanner needed. 



 
Hell pickup a new fob from VatoZone and maybe it'll all be good once programmed in. 

 
So if I pick up a new fob, do I have to take it to the dealer to program it??

 
Update: I got home and jumped in the car. The alarm goes off and it would not start again. I hit the door lock button on the fob and then tried to start it and it fired up. Then it started like 5 times in a row. So I drove it over to the local locksmith to get a new key made/programmed. All he had was the programmable key (no door locks/unlocks, etc..) So I bought the new key, he used the scanner thing to program it and IT WORKS!!! He said there were around 18 error codes....all related to the original key not being able to be read. So if the kid wants all the buttons on her key, she will have to buy it herself. 

Thanks for all the help!

 
Sausage450r said:
Its a know  issue from ford. Neighbors use to go off all the time only on cold nights. If i recall it was a sensitivity and metal shrink/expand thing. Was related to the hood moving
Click to expand...
my aluminum bodied truck did that crap all the time... sucked @ 3am

 
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