'97/'98 Es300 Security

[total1]

1) My wife is in our '97 ES300 and I lock the car from the outside via the remote control. Then she wants to get out of the car. Whenever she attempts to manually unlock the car herself while sitting in the passenger seat, the car's horn-blowing alarm system goes off. Is this normal and how can this be disabled or whatever? How can she get out of the car without this occurring? Why does the '97 ES300 do this? The situation occurred when I just 'ran into the office to get a paper' and then got detained while she was outside one evening during the summer. She couldn't get out because everytime she tried to unlock the ES300 it would automatically re-lock itself.

2) We had our two-car garage door open one evening recently with both our '97 and '97 ES300's in the garage. It was about 70-degrees that evening. My daughter had just driven the '98 and, she said, locked it. My '97 was unlocked. All of a sudden while we were all in the house (about 90 minutes+ later and around 10PM), the '98's security alarm system starts going off. I ran out to the garage about 1 minute into the horn-blowing (I initially thought it was a neighbor's vehicle). I did not notice anyone or anything (or animal) nearby. ANY ideas of why the '98 would all of a sudden start it's alarm blowing security system? I've checked the car and I can't see any place of forced entry or attempted entry. What would have caused the alarm system to start?

TIA!!

[Frankie_B]

Not sure about 2), but what happens in situation 1) is that the car thinks that somebody is trying to stick a hand through an open/broken window and unlock the door, so it goes off! I would say, just leave the key to your wife next time :)

[chadmg7]

1) The alarm system should certainly activate if someone tries to manually flip the lock/unlock switch from the inside when the car is locked. Every car I've owned has done this. It is a basic security measure to prevent someone from smashing the glass and reaching his/her hand in to unlock the door. Like Frankie said, you'll have to either leave the key or leave it unlocked. I know of no way to disable this as you would basically be disabling the primary feature of the alarm.

2) Did someone, by chance, leave against the alarm button on the fob, perhaps if it was in someone's pocket? That has happened to my family/friends before. I do know that the ES will lock its doors if the unlock key is pressed and no doors are opened for about 20 seconds. This is to prevent you from unintentionally unlocking the doors and leaving them unlocked without opening them. It could be that the doors were locked and someone snuck into the garage and tampered with the doors.