jants13

I've been setting off my factory alarm on accident by smashing the Panic button against other keys in my pocket and it usually takes me a while to realize what the beeping is. The factory alarm is way to quiet. The car is parked right outside the window, and if the TV is on, I can barely hear it.

I was wandering what my options are. Is there a way to turn up the volume on the factory alarm? Maybe replace the horn with something louder?

triplecore

I agree the Audi anti theft is a joke. Have you heard the alarms on the Volvo and BMW so much better. I think SAAB has the best anti theft.

am_ver

BMW's (atleast the 3 series) does not have the alarm as standard equipment. Major sore point with bimmer drivers; spend $50-60k on a car and no alarm - WTF!

audisport1

To be completely honest who looks around when an alarm goes off anymore? To me living in the city they are quite pointless. I often set them off with the sound of my motorcycle's exhaust not one person cares to look around. If you care about your car LoJack is the only way to go.

jants13

Yea I used to do that with my Fiero.. on purpose. I used to drive through parking garages, revving my engine to see how many I could set off.. I think I hit double digits.. I was a bit of an *** back in high school..

As far as the usefulness of the alarm goes though, I live in a fairly quiet suburb and if my alarm goes off at night in front of my house, I would like to at the very least hear it. My Fiero has an aftermarket two way alarm, with a fairly decent range and its loud as f... The two way is great too. It'll tell me what sensor set off the alarm. Ideally Audi should move in that direction with their factory alarms..

Back on topic though, where on the car is the alarm speaker? Can that be replaced for something louder? Is the sound that an alarm makes part of the speaker unit generally or is it part of the brain? Would it be possible to simply replace the factory alarm speaker with an after market one?

chuckee98

As best as I can tell from my initial research: The alarm speaker is located under the plastic cowling by the firewall. The speaker is a self contained unit with battery back-up with three wires - power, ground, and input signal. Input signal is a pulsed signal, so replacing it directly with an aftermarket siren won't quite work as intended. Most aftermarket sirens are two wire units, power and ground, where the completion of the circuit activates the siren. I think that DEI makes a converter that changes the pulse to a constant so that an aftermarket siren may work, but from what I have read, it will latch closed when any input signal is given however brief, so that when it chirps when locked will trigger the siren.