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MK8 Alarm issues?

Gio_57

New member
Hey everyone,

Aside from the usual issues faced by many I get an unusual amount of anti theft alarms triggered on my MK8 Life.

The neighbours really aren’t amused. Anyone else had this before I go speaking with the dealer?

58A0B4C0-11A6-497F-AE81-B94F61FE5F0F.jpeg
 

tos

Go Kart Newbie
Do you have something in OBD port? I just check Erwin service portal.
They says if something external device trying connect to car when car is locked, alarm will activated
 

Martinbury

Passed Driver's Ed
Hi Gio, I have a MK8 GTD and have also had 5 instances in 3 months of the alarm being activated incorrectly. The message I get is that ‘Activity was detected on the outside of the vehicle’. I asked the dealer about what would cause this and they reckoned someone trying a door handle when it was locked. This turned out to be absolute rubbish, like most of the info the dealership gives out. I’ve tried this myself many times without activating the alarm. I’ve had it go off 10 minutes after a 150 mile trip and also after being in our locked garage for 4 days without use, so cannot pinpoint anything there. The issue is still with the dealer to investigate but like most things, they just say it’s a software error! Considering the other software errors currently under investigation I guess this won’t get resolved anytime soon. Do mention it to your dealer though as the more people who do so might help to get a fix from VW. Fortunately for me, I haven’t upset the neighbours too much yet!
 

SRGTD

Autocross Newbie
Hey everyone,

Aside from the usual issues faced by many I get an unusual amount of anti theft alarms triggered on my MK8 Life.

The neighbours really aren’t amused. Anyone else had this before I go speaking with the dealer?
Do you have a dash cam (or other electrical accessory) fitted that’s hard wired? I’ve read of instances where a dash cam can cause excessive drain on a car’s battery when the car’s parked up if the dash cam is set to continually record in parking mode, and that could trigger your car’s alarm. Alternatively, your car battery may be defective - maybe worth getting it tested as it’s not unknown for a battery on a relatively new car to fail.
 

Gio_57

New member
Hi Gio, I have a MK8 GTD and have also had 5 instances in 3 months of the alarm being activated incorrectly. The message I get is that ‘Activity was detected on the outside of the vehicle’. I asked the dealer about what would cause this and they reckoned someone trying a door handle when it was locked. This turned out to be absolute rubbish, like most of the info the dealership gives out. I’ve tried this myself many times without activating the alarm. I’ve had it go off 10 minutes after a 150 mile trip and also after being in our locked garage for 4 days without use, so cannot pinpoint anything there. The issue is still with the dealer to investigate but like most things, they just say it’s a software error! Considering the other software errors currently under investigation I guess this won’t get resolved anytime soon. Do mention it to your dealer though as the more people who do so might help to get a fix from VW. Fortunately for me, I haven’t upset the neighbours too much yet!
Thanks for this info Martin, really appreciated. Weirdly mine is saying an activation internally. Yes like you its tough to pinpoint it happening after any specific drives as some can be a few days parked some can be a few hours parked. Guess it’s time for a chat to the dealer. Not holding out too much hope either…
 

Gio_57

New member
Great r
Do you have a dash cam (or other electrical accessory) fitted that’s hard wired? I’ve read of instances where a dash cam can cause excessive drain on a car’s battery when the car’s parked up if the dash cam is set to continually record in parking mode, and that could trigger your car’s alarm. Alternatively, your car battery may be defective - maybe worth getting it tested as it’s not unknown for a battery on a relatively new car to fail.
Great reply as I thought it was also battery drain!! I don’t have a dashcam but it does have a company car tracker on it. I had the company who installed it come out to check it was wired right to confirm this wasnt it. All was fine their side but will definitely investigate a possible faulty battery. Thanks for that idea.
 

Gio_57

New member
Do you have something in OBD port? I just check Erwin service portal.
They says if something external device trying connect to car when car is locked, alarm will activated
Nothing in the OBD port as far as I am aware. The car has a tracker but this is just GPS and not telematics. Great shout though, appreciated!
 
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Gio_57

New member
Just an update in case anyone is having this problem. Car went in to the dealer 2 days ago. They claim to have done a software update that had interior monitoring updates so we will see. If this doesnt resolve it then they will be replacing the sensor units.

Car was also meant to have another update for the 91CM recall but VW put this on pause the morning it went in… not sure why though??
 

Martinbury

Passed Driver's Ed
Gio - My GTD is back with the dealers again for them to attempt to fix multiple issues, one of which is the apparent incorrect alarm activation. Checking in the vehicle logs, they reckon it’s gone off about 20 times, although I only believe it’s been 6 or 7, according to the notifications I get from the We Connect app. However, they seem to think that some are being caused by communication faults/interruptions. Not totally sure myself how this would be the case but they also said that low battery levels could cause this to happen. I am consistently having low battery problems including the car failing to start 3 times in 5 months, particularly if it hasn’t been used for about a week. It also seems to me that a lot of the error messages displayed when the car is first started are as a result of the battery not having enough power to start the various assist systems. Interestingly, having used it most days for the last week, the initial error messages have stopped being displayed. Not sure if you’re still having the problems with your car, but maybe this might be worth mentioning?
 

Gio_57

New member
Gio - My GTD is back with the dealers again for them to attempt to fix multiple issues, one of which is the apparent incorrect alarm activation. Checking in the vehicle logs, they reckon it’s gone off about 20 times, although I only believe it’s been 6 or 7, according to the notifications I get from the We Connect app. However, they seem to think that some are being caused by communication faults/interruptions. Not totally sure myself how this would be the case but they also said that low battery levels could cause this to happen. I am consistently having low battery problems including the car failing to start 3 times in 5 months, particularly if it hasn’t been used for about a week. It also seems to me that a lot of the error messages displayed when the car is first started are as a result of the battery not having enough power to start the various assist systems. Interestingly, having used it most days for the last week, the initial error messages have stopped being displayed. Not sure if you’re still having the problems with your car, but maybe this might be worth mentioning?
Thanks for this Martin!
A really useful insight. The frequency of mine seem to have slowed down which is correlated to me using the car more as we come out of lockdown so your theory of battery drain problems does still hold some merit. I have however never had a problem of insufficient power to start the car like yourself which sounds rather frustrating!!

Mine did go back in again last week for a new interior monitoring sensor unit so fingers crossed that is the last of this gremlin….
 

Eric of Ayr

New member
I have had battery problems with my 16 month old me 8 Golf after 1 week in garage they have (they say) identified the problem
it was the “phone home “ component which was continuing to phone home intermittently when the car was switched off and locked
will wait and see what happens
 

Martinbury

Passed Driver's Ed
I have had battery problems with my 16 month old me 8 Golf after 1 week in garage they have (they say) identified the problem
it was the “phone home “ component which was continuing to phone home intermittently when the car was switched off and locked
will wait and see what happens
Eric - Another interesting take on the problem of battery power loss. I’ve just got mine back after a week with the dealers and they can see nothing specifically causing the loss of battery power. They’ve updated the software as required by VW, but are not told what the update fixes! So, I’ve got it back for a few weeks to see if the update resolves the issue or not. One thing they did mention is the location of the keys when the car is not used. Apparently, if you move a key you will see a red light on it start to flash. This is the key trying to communicate with the car. If successful, the car then starts to get some of the systems ready for anticipated use. Obviously, this uses power from the battery, so if the key is in your pocket and you move around the house with the car either close by on the drive or in a close garage then this could be occurring multiple times. In my case, the car is regularly not used for 6/7 days at a time, so this could exacerbate the issue further. So, if the software update doesn’t resolve the issue, I’ll try storing the keys in Faraday pouches so that they cannot communicate anywhere. It’s not what you should have to do, but might be worth it short term to see if it helps to identify the cause of the problem, then at least it can go back to VW for a formal fix (or am I being too optimistic?!).
 
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