Techincal Bulletin

Is your Falcon keeping you awake at night!

Complaint

Vehicle horn/alarm sounding at night intermittently, door locks cycling, or the vehicle mysteriously unlocking at home?

Cause

Long thought to be a body control module issue (some of these issues are due to defective BCM keep in mind) the problem arises at home usually of an evening.  Long forgotten is the spare key fob unit, usually thrown in the cupboard or dresser drawer in the bedroom, never to see the light of day for months, if not years.  Remember there is a battery in the spare remote, usually alkaline in design, containing an electrolyte which is susceptible to leak over time right?  After months go by, the electrolyte decides it’s time to leak, all over the internals of the key fob.  Now the fob is a transmitter after all, so short circuits happily begins, and the transmitter does what it is supposed to do … transmit.  House wall are not effective enough to block key fob transmissions, where is the car …. in the garage!

Hence the car horn sounding, door locks cycling.  Keep this is mind not only for Falcons, as all of the models with batteries are at risk.