whats the difference in the passive and active in the factory installed alarm?

my car came with the alarm and it added 200+ to the price so does that mean i have the active or what im lost lol

i have been trying to figure out the "roll the windows down" thing and i tryed holding down the unlock buttom and nothing happends,

how long do you have to hold it down?

or does simply paying more for the alarm mean that it has that feature or not?


sorry im so lost on this hahaha :bang:

 

The passive alarm has a microchip/transponder embedded in your keys that enables the starter, as I understand it. You aren't supposed to be able to hotwire or otherwise start the car without one of its keys.

The active alarm honks a horn (there seems to be debate as to if it is the regular horn or a separate horn just for the alarm) if doors or windows are breeched or if there is motion inside the car. It will also sound if the car inclines (as in jacked up or towed).

The global windows-down thing I won't begin to cover here. There is no short answer on this. Do a search--there has been a very busy thread on just this topic for awhile now. Check the build date of your car before you start reading the thread.

Hope this helps.

 

The global opening (windows) apparently was deactivated on cars built from Jan on. My car had the function deactivated, but the key FOB should have worked according to some of the info I read on the boards. Apparently, Ford had issues with the windows rolling down on their own so they deactivated the key cylinder feature for lowering and raising the windows. All I did was take the car to the dealer and they activated the features, both the key cylinder and the key FOB.

Everything else is as stated by IWantMyNewGT

 

I received my '05 around Thanksgiving and haven't had the first problem with it. I got every option except an automatic. The global up-down feature for me works great. It is great to have on a hot day to air out the car before you get in. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I haven't experienced it.

 

build date on mine was feb. 10th so maybe thats the problem thanks for the help

im going back to the dealer wednesday to see if they can make it work

 

Same here. But the other day I had the alarm on and the windows down. I figured I would try to "break in" and see how the alarm works. I reached in and played with the gear shifter, and the alarm did not go off. I tried three times, and all resulted with no alarm. I thought it was supposed to work even if the windows were open.

 

I tried the same thing and my alarm sounded the instant my hand entered the cabin. The manual says...

The system is ready to arm whenever the key is out of the ignition. Any of the following actions will arm the alarm system:
• Press the remote transmitter lock control one time to arm the system.
• Lock all doors using the interior power lock switch while the driver or passenger door is open and then becomes closed.
• Lock all doors with the key in the key lock cylinder (this will not however arm the interior motion or vehicle incline sensing systems).

Did you use your key to lock the vehicle?

 

[quote=Zig-Zag,March 14, 2005, 3:33 PM]
I pressed the "lock" button twice to make the horn honk. Then I reached in.

 

Did you wait 20 seconds?

 

I also have the active system and just want to confirm what has been said. You only need to hit the lock button on the key fob once to lock the doors and arm the active system. Hitting the lock button again, honks a horn to give you a warm fuzzy that it is working and maybe **** off the neighbors late at night. Other then that, no reason to hit the button twice, correct?

 

That was the trick. I read the manual to see what I was doing wrong and noticed that little comment. Works fine. I got as far as a hand in the window, and it went off.