Viper Alarm Question.

[Datagg]

Hello, all.. First let me say great forums and glad to be a part of it. Ok, here goes. I have a 771XV Viper in my F150. Some history. My truck in about 3 days goes dead..It has happened on and off for about a year now. I have an Optima battery, less than 2 years old and it has been checked and they say it is good. I have one of those LCD charges and can watch drain, and it does seem like it goes down a few % each night i have it hooked up in test mode. So there must be a drain somewhere right? Now fast forward to yesterday and my Girlfriend calls me up in panic at her care giver job that the truck alarm wont shut off and truck wont start. I explained to her what to do, turn key on, hit valet to disarm... She tried that, no go.

At this point im scrambling to figure out what was wrong, then thought perhaps the battery died. Fast forward to today. Truck was jumped, alarm disarmed via valet when she turned the key on... Then turned of then on and off, hit again now solid blue in Valet mode. Ok, so that issue resolved. Now i asked her to try to lock the doors with the remote and it didn't work (Chirps on remote went off as it did, yet no lock). She then told me for the last few months, sometimes she had to double hit the lock on remote to get them to lock... This I did not know.. Yet brings me to my final part in this... Could the lock portion of the alarm be bad and thus the power drain on the battery? i know all the lock features worked in valet before perfectly, yet now they aren't and apparently have been a bit wonky and intermittent from what she says the last couple of months. Today, not lock at all. I did have her try the manual lock switch on door to make sure the locking system worked and it did.

So, my issue now is... What do you think. My 2 parts now are

1) Do i buy a new battery in the thought process I just got a bad one (Oh, the place I bought it from went out of business and optima will not replace without receipt which of course i cant find)

2) Perhaps, just maybe its the alarm and the locking system malfunction that is dragging the battery down, perhaps with short or bad relay possibly?

Money is so tight right now, so course to take is my big issue, hence me asking you guys what you think as far as advice. So sorry for the long post, a lot of history to this issue and wanted to be a thorough without hopefully boring you to tears.

Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to your suggestions

Bless

Dan

[Datagg]

Anyone?.. Could really use some help on this one.. Thanks

[WastedTalent]

Kind've sounds like it potentially could be the vehicle and not the alarm. Like having to hit the remote twice for it to work? Just think about it. I don't know the whole setup, how new the truck is, all that jazz but when have you heard of an alarm system draining enough power out of the battery that's less than 2 years old that the vehicle won't start or having to press buttons more than once. So my guess would be somewhere in the truck's electrical system, something's going on. And if that's fine, then I think it'd be something like #2 of what you said, that something is malfunctioning causing power loss. Could be something like the locks but could be something more, not sure.

So I'd take it to a dealer (if it's under warranty still) and get it looked it. Just mention about how you have to hit the remote twice sometimes and explain the whole car alarm situation where nothing would work to make it stop. May not be cheap but they should at least do a free diagnostic to see what the problem is, if any. If they say what it is, can get it fixed (for a boatload of money), or can take it somewhere else or do it yourself.

But that's my noob 2 cents.

[ChevyBoy95]

shouldnt be the alarm. I have a viper and have left it in the driveway, alarm on and armed, for weeks and voltage will rest only .2v lower that 12.9v, and Cranks right up.