e2helper Posted July 5, 2022 Share Posted July 5, 2022 Hello, I am occasionally making food deliveries with a 2012 Transit Connect XLT owned by a charitable organization. 2 weeks ago I noticed that any time the ignition is turned on (with ignition key) that the vehicle horn "chirps" 5 times. I have never noticed this happening before and had been driving vehicle for several months. I don't see any warning indicators in cluster and so the horn chirps are just an annoyance at this time. I didn't see anything in the owner manual which would explain why this happens and didn't see any other posts in forum asking about this. This vehicle was original purchased by United Way before being donated to this charitable organization. There is a possibility that it might have had some type of aftermarket equipment added when it was new such as an anti-theft system based on what I see in the CarFax service history on the vehicle but no one at the current organization knows that much about history of vehicle although I am pretty sure this is the actual vehicle horn that is chirping and not some aftermarket siren on vehcle. The chirps do remind me of an aftermarket anti-theft system I had on a previous vehicle which would give the owner a "heads up" if there was an intrusion attempt on the vehicle. I was curious if anyone has any other ideas on what might be causing this. THANKS!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSJBSJ Posted July 6, 2022 Share Posted July 6, 2022 Wild guess. Does the key fob have a battery that could go bad? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e2helper Posted July 7, 2022 Author Share Posted July 7, 2022 Thanks for reply! It does has a battery (because includes buttons for remote keyless entry) so I plan to measure the key fob's battery voltage with a DVM next time I drive vehicle and if even looks a bit low will replace the battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e2helper Posted July 26, 2022 Author Share Posted July 26, 2022 (edited) I checked key fob battery. It was probably OK (measured 3.0 volts) but I replaced it anyway (new one 3.3 volts) since it is a bit of pain to access and I don't know when it was last replaced. That didn't fix the "horn chirp" issue. In looking at vehicle further I noticed a small, obviously aftermarket red LED mounted to left of steering column in dash. It flashes rapidly when horn chirps. So I figure the "horn chirp" is due to a dealer-installed aftermarket alarm system which was put in by original owner of vehicle and current owner doesn't have documentation on. I plan to look up into dash to see if I can locate the alarm control module to find out brand/model to research further what the "horn chirp" is indicating. As an example I did find an owner's manual posted online for a Karr Security Systems device (which looks to be a common type of dealer-installed system) and see it uses 7 different horn chirp patterns to indicate different conditions. So once I figure out what system is in this vehicle I hopefully will be able to locate an applicable owner's manual posted online. Edited July 26, 2022 by e2helper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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