Calling for Reinforcements - need HELP on my '97 Alarm

Ok, so here is the backstory.

You all know that we picked up the red '97 GTS a couple of months ago. It's been trouble free. We drove it about 300 miles after it got to AZ off the trailer. Then put in a new battery and tender. Got emissions done, and it passed after adding a new cat. Then drove it another 300 miles. You have hopefully seen the threads I've been posting. It's probably been started, driven, locked, parked, unlocked and repeated around 30 times since it arrived.

The car only came with one original fob and key. Rather than use the existing sealed pin code to get new fob's ordered from Ferrari, (where I have read some stories of unorganized mistakes happening) and incurring a 5-8 week delay or even more costs, I opted to take f-chatter "Gobble" (Mark) up on his offer to have the one good fob cloned to two new ones so we would be able to keep the pin code original and just add two new cloned fob's for backup.

I sent the original fob and an extra purchased one off to Mark and he was very quick, accommodating, and helpful in getting the original and 2 new cloned fob's back to me within a day. I've been very happy to find his service and was looking forward to having this done and going to order 2 extra keys from the dealership afterward.

But as can happen, this did not go to plan...

I went into the garage with the 3 fob's to check and see that each worked. The battery tender was plugged into the rear.

I tried the original 5 or 6 cycles of pushing the button to hear the doors lock and unlock and the lights to blink that the car was good to go. All went well.

Then I picked up the second fob and pushed the button.

The alarm immediately went off with the lights blinking. What a horrible noise that thing makes... I hit the fob button again to try to turn off the alarm. It didn't work. Pushing that button would not unlock doors or do anything else. The light on the fob would light up but it did not have any other function.

So I'm in the enclosed garage with the crazy loud noise and no luck. I picked up the original fob and clicked it. The doors would actually lock and unlock, but the alarm would not shut off.

I put the key in the ignition and the car fully started up. I did that successfully twice, and then decided it was time to hit the master battery switch off. I popped the hood, turned the master switch off, and waited for the alarm to stop. It did stop after about 10 more seconds. Because the battery tender was plugged into the back, there was a whirring sound from between the engine and the cab - that must have had something to do with the alarm still trying to operate...

So I unplugged the tender and the whirring sound stopped.

I turned the master battery back on - and the alarm picked back up in all its glory. So I wasn't feeling very good. It was not a fun situation. None of the fob's would stop the alarm. But the original fob would unlock and lock the doors and allow me to start the engine.

I had a lot of business to take care of so shelved trying to fix this until Friday...

I called Mark to explain what problem that I encountered using one of the new fob's.

Here are his suggestions from him and he also checked in with TAZ. We could not find any posts with similar circumstances...

"In 2012 there was a guy called Texas Turbo that had the same problem. I'm reading the message he said he held down the button on the original until the lights stopped flashing. He then says he pressed the button 47 times on one new fob and 32 on the other to get them in sync. All was well after that. His message said he thought it was caused by a weak battery but he wasn't sure.

The only thing Taz can think of is that maybe the car saw a rolling code that it's already seen before and that triggered the alarm. He says press the button a few times and see if that fixes the issue. We're stumped on this one.

Nothing comes to mind other than I cant see how a remote would set off the alarm and then not shut it off. If it's a rolling code thing maybe try pressing the buttons on both remotes until it goes off? It's possible using the new one got the old one out of sync and it needs to catch up with a few presses?"

So I post his thoughts looking for more help from the group. I'm happy with Mark and his response. I'm not trying to dog him.

My goal is obviously to STOP the alarm first, then be able to use the original fob to get back to normal.

Second goal is to be able to use the new fobs successfully although they will likely be used mainly as backups. DaveRocks advised me against going with cloning but I thought I would get lucky based on how many success stories there have been with Mark's services. I had not read of any problems. I hope this is easily fixible.

So can anyone out there help me understand what the problem is and why the original fob can work correctly on the doors and ignition but not be able to turn off the alarm? I will replace all 3 fob batteries before attempting to use them again but they do light up when pressed.

Please help a brother out! And I will follow step by step instructions if people know what to do. I would much rather do that than "wing it and see what works."

I doubt turning the key to enter the pin manually will work because the original fob and key already work properly with the locks and ignition.

I think my '95 just rose in value today...

Robb
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Ok Carl. I wasn't even aware it had a panic mode but it makes sense. Great to learn. I will try to hold down the original to get it back to normal without the alarm.

After that succeeds, do I just click through a number of times with the new fob til they sync?

Hopefully I don't have to demonstrate this at the stooge fest... Thanks.

Robb.

 

I agree and will plan to use 1 all the time. But I do still want the other two to work. I guess it will be a click fest.

Robb

 

I was too tired to mess with it until tomorrow. But I am looking forward to success.

I wish there was a "standard" number of times to click to get these to sync.

Thanks Mark.

Robb

 

Taz,

Thank you for your input. I didn't hold any fob button for more than one click, but weirder things have happened I guess.

How's this sound?

I'll try to get the alarm and general operation back to normal with the original fob. And then will wait a day and will use a different fob. I'll plan on clicking that until it works correctly with that fob. However many single clicks it takes.

Then would I go back to the original fob the next day or the third fob?

Once I get all three fob's to work, I planned to just store two of them.

Thoughts Taz?

Robb

 

I haven't made my way over to get this sorted out yet. Hopefully around lunch time.

But I'm still not understanding the normal hoops I will have to jump through to be able to pick up any fob I want and go drive the car. Because that was the goal.

I thought cloning the original fob would give me three copies that worked the same way every day.

If the car forgets the other two fobs regularly, I don't want to have to stand there clicking the fob 50 times before it hooks up.

I originally bought the extra red fob just for the outer plastic colored shell to swap to the new fobs bought from Ferrari. If this becomes a pain in the ass after this... I may just go back to that route and pay Ferrari for the 3 fobs - lesson learned.

Robb

 

We'll see how it goes.

I did not read anywhere about this hassle in sync'ing or becoming a manager of fobs in my spare time.

So I'm leaning toward having my brother pay Ferrari for the 3 new fobs and moving on.

First step is to make sure I can just get the alarm to stop once I turn the battery on and I'll go from there.

Robb

 

I'm starting to understand how they work and what is needed to use the cloned fobs. Is it a value? Absolutely. It does save money and gives you backups in case of a loss or in case you do not have the original pin.

But since I have the original pin, this might not be for me over the long run.

Looking forward to seeing what I find at lunch. Wish there was a set of directions for this whole process of using cloned fobs. Maybe someone can write that up and put as a sticky so others don't do what I did.

Robb

 

My '95 Berlinetta is so "easy" that I doubt I would ever consider buying a '96 to '99 ever again...

Robb

 

Just saw this on tv and it made me laugh:

"If you think you're having a bad day, at least you've never been on COPS. Tonight at 7."

That's true... I don't want to be in that show. Lol.

I haven't had any bad days even since the alarm first started going off. Life is good and I'm happy.

Glad to understand the issues and options.

Robb

 

This makes sense Mark.

Excited to see your adventures with the new spider.

Robb

 

Andrew, not off topic,

I wasn't aware of this either. Hence my current situation. I did not realize you needed to stagger uses when first trying out the cloned fobs or the proper way to "introduce" them to your car.

Mark is smart. No doubt. The cloned fobs may or may not be my final choice since the car does have an original pin...

And just so you know - my yellow car is a '95 Berlinetta without the fobs.

My brother's car is the red '97 GTS with the fobs.

The yellow is faster... lol since it starts right up. It has a head start.

Robb