B5 alarm siren - does any one know of an alternative

S

sun and kath

Registered User
Joined
Oct 25, 2006
Messages
85
Reaction score
0
Points
6
I had a thread on the VAG COM section trying to fix my alarm. It turned out to be the siren not the coding. I replaced the siren with a second hand unit. It is so quiet !! and from what I can gather these sirens fail a lot.

I understand a normal siren can not be used and we need a digital one. Does anyone knoe of an altenative that is louder?


For anyone whose siren has just failed - you may be able to fix it. They are easy to take out. I put mine in a vice and Chisled at the visible seam. it opened up easy, with no damage from the chisel .But the battery acid had leaked all over the circiut board and bits fell off when i tried cleaning it. THe batteries themselfs come out so I image you could just replace these then seal up the siren case and re-use
 
Hope you get an answer m8.
Where do you locate the siren anyway and do you have to pull out the cd changer etc to get at it?
 
Maccatax - the siren on mine - an s4 avant 1999- is on the right hand (drivers) side. The other side to the cd changer. Open the side cover, where the triangle is stored, the bottom of the compartment is fake, it is a piece of sound proofing that just pulls out and the siren i under held in by 1 nut.

Like the under bonnet idea - i might copy that.
 
i like the idea of changing the siren anyone done it for a different one
you can buy just sirens for £30
 
we got one off fleabay that seemed ideal, when you conected it to 12v it made a lovely whoop whoop sound and had a battery back up but................

we tried it on an S4 that had a duff one. the alarm controller seems only to send a signal to the siren to tell it to trigger, after that the siren takes over and generates the pulsing siren sound for a predefined length of time. we couldn't even get it to make the confirm beep to signal the doors were locked. that's not to say that there isn't a compatable siren out there, just that we didn't find one.
 
It would seem that not much research has been done about the sirens that will work on b5s. Surely there is one that will work well!
 
Come on guys somone here must have found a siren which works with an Audi alarm system!
Btw sun I took mine out last night and the batteries inside were also corroded white powdery stuff crusted on the batteries and connectors but I tried shopping for the N3H 160 battery which is 3.6 V 160. Cant find battery anywhere.

Cmon guys speak up if you know of anyone who found a siren that works!
 
Do all A4s that have central locking have a siren?

when I lock my saloon remotely, the indicators flash but thats it. And Im sure that when the alarm went off last time, it didn't sound like much of a siren, certainly not loud anyway.

I did look under the bonnet for the siren, but couldn't see it. So am I right in saying its in the spare wheel well?
 
I give up im jus going to have to take a trip to a breakers yard and see what they have got for me.
 
"B5 alarm siren - does any one know of an alternative?"

A ****** big dog?!
 
Haha very funny! Well I do have a german shepard but nah he would wreck the upholestry!
 
Sorry. Been in a funny mood today. There is always the aftermarket option of Cat 1 upgrades I suppose. Clifford & Toad do stuff like that or used to. Don't think my siren works properly, but it does do something if the windows are left partly open, but I thought it was a pre-siren warning to be honest, like a high-pitched but not very loud alternating tone.
 
I got a siren from the breakers its from a passat but has same connector as the a4.
I fitted it but still no joy as vag com still says no communications GRRR!!!!!.
The passat siren is a lot easier to take apart cos it has 2 screws instead of welded plastic!
The circut board has 4 soldered connections for testing the voltage of the batteries.
I tested the 3V batterys and one had a healthy 2.9v on one and the other was 2.7v but that should be more than enough.
So if its not the siren that is at fault what else could it be?
 
the Passat has the plug wired in a different order. if you check the colours and terminal numbers you'll see the differences, i found this out when i tried the alarm out of the wifes Passat 1.8T broomstick in mine.

so saying that it should work with a bit of re-wiring and since i moved mine to a location under the bonnet it's just as loud as the passat one. i'd re-wire it and extend the wires to place it somewhere the noise can actually escape into the outside world
 
Go aftermarket and get a full closure CAT1 alarm immobiliser you can actually hear and doesn't die every 5 years because it's located in such a stupid position.
 
Cheers Dave how did you go about rewiring did you just match up the colours.
What I did was I cut small notches into each wire to expose the bare wire I was given the connection plug in with the passat alarm so I just splinted that cable onto the the original wiring ( eg. Ground splinted to ground etc).
So in the end I have two connectors on the one wiring.
Please tell me if this is completley wrong as it didnt work for me as I still get no noise.
 
just checked both cars

Audi terminals
1. brown 2. black/yellow 3. red/blue
passat terminals
1. yellow/brown 2. brown 3. red/yellow

the wiring diagram only shows 2 wires going to the audi alarm siren, the black/yellow and the brown which goes to earth. the red/blue seems to be a 12v feed to charge the backup battery which isn't shown but i know it's got +12v on it.

the passat diagram shows exactly the same thing, same wire colours etc so i'm at a loss. if i was to take a stab in the dark i'd say test your passat alarm terminals to see which has the 6v or so from the batteries on it and connect the wire to that terminal that has a permanent 12v on it, brown should be brown and the remaining wire goes to the last. errrrr...... i hope that made sense
 
Well I got no where with the passat siren I have a feeling that one was dead too.
I managed to track down the original type B5 alarm on ebay for cheap at only €35. I installed it yesterday and hey presto it works.
I was worried that it could be something more serious than the siren but thankfully I was proved wrong.
Yes I know the siren is on the lame side noise wise but it seems to be the only one that will work for the B5 .
I have peace of mind now that it is doing its job (as crap as it might be).
I would be interested in relocating it like shine Dave had mentioned above. Has anyone done this who can give me a few pointers such as relocating the wiring harness where it feeds through etc. .
 
so does the siren work off of a latch?
The clifford siren is also a coded unit, maybe that could be used
 
I am not sure what you mean by a latch.
Does the clifford alarm have three wires?
The B5 siren has 3 pins which connect to the wiring harness via a connector which has 3 wires coming out of it.
 
yes the clifford has 3 wires, a latch is where the signal from the alarm is sent momentarily and the siren triggers and then sounds until the time has expired. As opposed to the alarm telling the siren to sound from start to finish.
 
Well then yes it is a latch.
Interesting hmm this may be worth looking into a bit more.
So long as the wiring is the same on the clifford then it should work in theory.
It would just be a case of connecting the car wiring to the corresponding wiring on the clifford siren.
Can you give me the link to the clifford siren your talking about?
 
Of alarms dyin' has sent my one up the swanny!
Just spoken to a auto 'leecy mate of mine to confirm all this, an a trip my beloved audi dealer is due!!!
I will in due course sacrifce mine in the name of science to see what type of batt it has... see if I can find out wasssup!
Me thinks the idea of extending the wire to visit the engine bay could be in order! as the siren is pitifully quiet
Cheers
Michae
 
I sacrificed my old one to see what was what but tbh its not worth it as the batteries used cannot be located anywhere on the net and I have tried a few electronics shops too but the bstteries are too specialized.
The batteries start to corrode over time and in most cases also corrode the connectors.
I got my replacement on ebay for only €30ish euros.
It is doing its job but I wouldnt call it the most secure sounding alarm siren I ever heard.
But I am very intersted in this Clifford alarm a4quattro spoke about.
I wonder has anyone fitted a clifford siren to the original B5 alarm wiring harness and has had success?
 
Oh dear! £70 from the stealers! but without it no alarm! :(
FYI They have changed the design as well and you will need to drill out the braket as it is M8 rather than M6 and fit a M8 nut.
The alarm in mine was below the central door locking vac. unit. in the OS rear quarter on a 2000 avant sport.
Just to let you know that the battery needs to charge up and will go off when you arm it afterwards to check it. It will need a good drive to charge it up.
 
Sorry for opening an old thread but it is relevant to those people who have the crappy audi siren.
So has anyone actually fiited a clifford siren to a standard audi alarm system?
I have just got off the phone to a clifford dealer who said that the G5 siren (code number 515u) could possibly work but he said it has 4 wires coming out of it and that it cost €67 euros and that he would not be willing to return it if wires are cut obviously lol.
But I would love to know if anyone has tried this and had success or not.
 
Unlikely it will work, the siren on the Audi only has 3 wires I think, and the Clifford siren is coded.
 
Macattax, with reference to you not being able to find batteries for the OEM alarm, I managed to source some appropriate cells from Maplin - part number BN24B.

Despite being oval rather than round, the BN24B cells do fit, if a little proud from the wells in which the original batteries sit, but to prevent too much rebound from the contacts when reassembling I did the following:
1. There are 3 posts in each well (around the inner edge, about 3mm high) that can be cut off with a knife.
2. I removed the metal bridging contact from the bottom of well and bent it with my fingers to make it flatter, then replaced.
3. Using scissors I carefully bent each of the 3 prongs on the 2 contacts on the circuit board side to flatten. There is also a cone of black plastic sitting under one of the prongs that I trimmed off, again with scissors.
4. The two halves of the body then went back nicely together, with minimal 'rebound'. I then simply wrapped plenty of black electrical tape tightly around the join. To my mind this should seal things up nicely, and make replacement straight forward in the future.

After a few runs out to get a good charge into the new cells, the alarm works fine, and seems loud enough to be annoying. I can't see that with the apathy the majority of people show towards car alarms it's worth upgrading just for the sake of a louder siren. :shrug:
 
Good find for the battery source

I reckon worth replacing after 7 years before the old cells leak and wreck it
 
Well I only payed €30 for a new audi siren the same as the old one. TBH its so silent that I cant hear it when I am in the house (double glazing) so it wouldnt wake me up if somone tried jacking the car in the middle of the night. So perhaps I should move the siren to under the bonnet?
Has anyone got a write up or can tell me whats involved (step by step) on moving and fitting the siren to under the bonnet?

Much appreciated.

Mac.
 
i just cut the plug off the wires, soldered on three pieces of wire long enough to reach the front of the engine compartment, wrapped them in insulting tape and fed them through to the nearside headlamp, once i had them through i soldered the plug back on. i used a piece of flat steel to make a bracket that i could attach through one of the wing mounting bolts at the side of the headlamp.
 
Where did you route all this cabling through the boot into the cabin and out again?
 
And would you say its a lot louder now?
Would you hear it from a good distance like?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

fatal8446
any one know of??
Replies
12
Views
975
Markey
Markey
Adam-D
does anyone know of,
Replies
16
Views
1K
Broken Byzan
Broken Byzan
Markey
Any one know about these
Replies
9
Views
1K
imported_VaulterTim
I
Markey
Any one know about these.
Replies
3
Views
765
GregC
G
filipharvey
Does any one have....
Replies
8
Views
996
filipharvey
filipharvey
Top
Back