Car tried starting itself

[gettinthere]

This is gonna sound wierd, so I'll try to explain it as best as possible.


This morning at about 6:00 I thought I heard my alarm (panic button) going off. At first I thought someone may be trying to steal my car, but then I remembered that b/c of where I parked on the driveway it was blocked in by 3 cars. Then I didn't hear it anymore and fell back asleep. A few minutes later my dad woke me up and said that my car was trying to start. I had both sets of keys on my nightstand.

So I go downstairs and sure enough, the panic alarm is going off and my starter keep trying to crank the motor. It's try for about 5 seconds and then stop for a few more seconds. Then try again. And each time the panic alarm would go off. I got in the car and there were no keys (I still had both) and the ignition was off. So then I started it up and shut it down. Everything seemed to stop. but just to be safe I desconnected the battery and the trottle cable. And no I don't have a remote start.

Has anyone ever heard of this? And if so, what is causing it?

It was also raining a bit if that matters. And I just finished an M6 -> A4 swap last week, but I don't see how that would have had anything to do with it seeing as how it's been a week and this is the first time it's done it.

Can anyone help?


cliff notes - Car tried starting itself with no keys

[Chris 96 WS6]

Did you hook up the A4 starter interrupt stuff? The starter shouldn't get power in Park. If you didn't hook that up and something shorted in the ignition switch....its going to try to crank it in P.

[gettinthere]

I hooked up everything that was there. I also made sure it was fully in P when I got in it.

[CamTom12]

...freaky

[NXSLT1]

My boat did that once. I was working on it one day, had the hood laying in the yard upside down, it started to rain a lil bit but not much so I just kept working, but it was enough to get the hood wet. Well late that night I was sitting on the front porch and all the sudden it started cranking all by itself, scared the shit out of me. My first reaction was "oh shit somebody is trying to steal my boat" then I realized they couldn't drive it away. lol Anyway, what happened was the foam lining on the inside of the hood got wet and when I put it back on it was touching the starter solenoid and shorted it out. Could be something of that nature, or it could be possessed.

[gettinthere]

Well, I just replaces my crap ass dying battery with an Optima red top and so far so good.

I'm still gonna check a couple of wires though.

[GTP231]

Did you hook up the A4 starter interrupt stuff? The starter shouldn't get power in Park. If you didn't hook that up and something shorted in the ignition switch....its going to try to crank it in P.
Starter isn't supposed to get power in R D321. They're supposed to start in nuetral or park via the nuetral safety switch;) Maybe its the car's way of saying get out of Chicago.:dontknow:

[BLACK KNIGHT]

Oh good, he didn't see me playing with those wires under his dash! Whew!!!

[gettinthere]

Oh good, he didn't see me playing with those wires under his dash! Whew!!!


I thought something looked a little funny........ :dontknow:

[loudmouthzls1]

wow and i thought i was the only one with a possed f-body....mine did the panic thing for a while were it would come on randomlyy...turns out there is and adjustment for how sensitve it is in ur trunkk and i turned it by accident...now it will just beep at night when it feels the need...cant explain it

[motrctyman]

When I was in high school (25yrs ago) I installed my first exhaust system on a 72 Nova. I got the starter wire too close to the exhaust and it started by itelf. I grabbed a rag and put out the fire on the wires. No prob!