I assumed that the reason my alarm went off that one time was because the panic button somehow got triggered. I know that making the panic button readily accessible is the entire reason for it's existence, but it's a little too accessible for me.

 

are you sure you guys aren't sitting on the key fob?? The fob has a VERY long range and can easily trigger the alarm if you are not careful.

 

I wasn't carrying my key/fob when the alarm went off.

With so many people reporting false alarms this week, and this being the first spring season for the Camry Hybrid, I can only think we must all be hearing the Camry Hybrid mating call.

 

stevenvillatoro — How does one distinguish the male TCHs from the females? Can they be neutered? If this is a dealer option, it's not mentioned in the Repair Manual.

Stan

 

Turn it over and look.

 

Mine went off on my workplace's parking lot once but there was no indication it had been hit, so it may have been the same bizarre meaningless thing you're reporting.

Japanese TCH if it matters. 16k miles now, but it probably had only a few thousand when it happened.

 

Apparently the alarm problem isn't unique to the TCH. Here's a report from Edmund's own Editor about an FJ Cruiser with the same alarm quirk:

The FJ Cruiser's Alarming Problem

This isn't a new problem, but it's the first time I've personally dealt with it so now you get to hear me whine. The Toyota FJ Cruiser's paranoid alarm system decided to go off this weekend -- for no apparent reason. In the past anything from my own Saab Sonett's exhuast system (gotta love the forceful bark of a 1.7-liter V4) to dogs locked in the car (realax, it was only a few minutes with windows cracked) set it off. The Sonett set it off while driving through the company garage, and the dogs set it off when someone else was on a vacation, so neither incident had me running to quell the noise. But on Sunday it was just sitting there on a typical southern California day (partly sunny and 72 degrees) when the alarm had a tempertantrum. Maybe it was mad at me for igoring it all weekend, as I hadn't driven it since getting home late Friday night. Whatever the cause, I happen to be working in the garage (that's why I know nothing assaulted it) so I immediately noticed it, ran inside and hit the "unlock" button on the remote keyfob. Had I been inside enjoying Adult Swim on Cartoon Network I probably would have thought it was someone else's dumb car alarm and gone back to watching Futurama while it blared away.

This thing needs to relax.
Karl Brauer, Editor in Chief, Edmunds.com @ 23,560 miles
Posted by Karl Apr 2, 2007 3:28 pm

 

1.9k on mine and the alarm went off yesterday. I can't rule out the key phob being pressed in my pocket but not sure.

 

I have the Toyota dealer installed security upgrade. Basically this adds a glass break sensor to the mix, with a warn-away alarm. I was concerned about my alarm - the warn-away wasn't activating when performing the test as described in the manual. So I had the dealer look at when I had my oil change done, and when I came to pick the car up they told me there was nothing wrong. The mechanic even demonstrated the test, performed identically to the way I was doing it before, and it worked. I can even repeat it now, whereas it never worked before. The mechanic swears he did nothing.

So the very next day, this past Wednesday, the alarm goes off by itself with the car sitting in the driveway, and me in the house. Nothing pushing any buttons on the fob. I'm thinking there's more to this coincidence, and the mechanic upped the sensitivity on the microphone (or perhaps connected it the circuit), and didn't want to admit it hadn't been set up properly in the first place. Now I'm wondering if I'm going to have a multitude of repeat performances. Oh well - time will tell.

 

These spooky alarms (it has happened to me as well) remind me of an old Twilight Zone episode about a car with a conscious after it's driver ran over a kid. Was pure fiction at the time, but now these cars seem so smart that it could actually happen.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734694/

Catch it on DVD if you can. I found it so memorable I bought the DVD containing the episode when the series was released.