Two days ago had Mazda shock alarm installed via dealership. I understood service person to say that this alarm was to sound when someone attempted to or actually "broke a window."

Alarm has sounded four times in two days for piddly things: truck rumbled by; knocked broom against wheel when sweeping driveway...etc. Talk about overkill..

I read the threads and see there is a range to set sensitivity. I don't know where the sensor resides or the button I'm looking for. If someone will draw a diagram I'd much appreciate you.

Thank you for helping me.

 

Look in your passenger footwell, up by the HVAC blower... you should see something like the attached picture. I don't remember which way lessens the sensitivity, but play with it and you'll figure it out.

 

The sensor is under the glove box, behind the panel in front of the door.

There is a little **** on it, roll it left to decrease sensitivity.

The instructions call for it to be strapped to a wire bundle behind the kick panel, but as you found out, that makes it 'difficult' to adjust.

I brought mine out and secured it with tie-wraps to the glovebox frame.
This makes it accessible, but still out of normal view, and has the added benefit of being more 'in touch' with the car - on the wires it had to be set more sensitive because it was insulated from vibrations.
Now it goes off with a much more predictable amount of force.

Sorry for the crappy pic, it is too close for my digicam. The plus sign is for me to remember which way is more sensitive - I'm getting old fast.
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doc

 

Here's a picture of the sensor from the Trussville site so you know what you're looking for, but you should find it as described above.

Doctorr, I like your thinking about placement. I think I'm going to reposition mine as you describe.

 

you guys are all posting the same damn thing :D at the same damn time :D ...I got good insurance so I'm not installing this thing but it is great for when you GF leaves her purse in the car accidently

 

Easy there Magellen, the pictures may look like the "same damn thing" to you as you've indicated but I find them ALL very helpful :D I've been to the car and back to computer screen more than a few times trying my best to accomplish a bit of "self help." Takes a half tank of gas to travel to dealership and back. If I can turn the thing down by myself that means I get to spend the gasoline and my time elsewhere...

Doctorr...can relate to "getting old fast." Crawling around so I can see under the glove box makes my sinuses puddle very fast. This bout of less than intense exercise probably cost me 6 months of my life

Still haven't found the right ****. But, I'm NOT giving up for at least another hour.

Thanks guys, one and all!
Hes

 

I was just saying that it is funny you guys posted within minutes of each other

I thank them for their info and pics...there was no ill will with my post just pointing out funny

smile

 

:p No problem, Magellen. Thought for a moment there you were going to put a chill on the flow of pictures. I needed every one I could get.

Crawled under the dash and back to computer too many times to count. Finally found the right button. Turned it a little to the left. Got out, primed the alarm (locked the doors) and shook the car. Alarm didn't sound. I played with the thing for quite a while and could not make the alarm work again. Probably means back to the dealership for mechanic's magic touch. Sinuses can't take any more gyrations for the day. I quit messin with it.

At this juncture no alarm is better than one which is too sensitive. Could imagine 20 trips to the parking lot tomorrow to shut off the horn just because some student nudged the fender with his/her book bag.

Thanks guys for your kindness and assistance. The pictures did the trick!!
Hes

 

If you still want to fix it yourself:
1) Go to an empty parking lot or somewhere you don't mind the alarm (horn) going off

or

2) Remove the horn fuse if noise is a concern during testing and you don't want leave the comforts of home

3) Set the alarm, then hit one of your tires with your hand. If the alarm did not go off, try adjust the sensitivity to max. Once you get it to go off at max sensitivity, then you can try smacking the windshield or side windows to see how much force it takes to set it off, then back off the senstivity to suit your needs.

Don't forget to put the horn fuse back in if you decided to take it out.

I had a difficult time setting mine til I found that hitting the tires worked the best to set the alarm off and hurt my hand the least . Hope that helps.

rx8cited

 

Cool... glad you found it.

 

A day or so after turning the shock alarm sensor button a bit to the left, I noticed a new wrinkle: the head and tail lights didn't flash when pressing the lock button on key fob. I wondered if there was a connection between fooling around with the sensor controls and loss of the light flashing feature. Was going on a trip and wanted everything in order before starting out.

I called the service garage at dealership and asked if two events related. Mechanic said yes, quite possibly--bring car in for assessment. Turns out there was no relationship between sensor button and lighting failure.

Cost me two hours out of my day --plus a half tank of gas in transit-- to learn the trunk wasn't closed.....

Yup....thought you'd get a kick outta that.
Hes

 

your trunk is probably ajar

 

sounds to me like the trunk was open!

 

Don't feel bad - this has to be a top 100 posted "problem"... what you did wrong though was ask the dealer instead of us :D