1998 volvo s70 alarm

I believe my alarm correctly senses security violation conditions, but it only flashes the lights and does not sound an alarm when activated. Any ideas whether this is a problem I can correct myself?

Check the polarity of the siren wire. Make sure that you have the proper wire on the siren.Jeff

Velocity Custom Home Theater

Mobile Audio/Video Specialist

Morden, Manitoba CANADA

Where is the siren? Is it easy to explain, or can you direct me to a diagram? How would polarity likely get reversed? When you write "the" polarity and "the" wire (both singular) I picture a two-wire connector that can be connected backwards, although most automotive electrical connectors I've seen would not allow this. Is this what you meant to convey? As should be obvious, I've never worked on this connection before. Thanks for attempting to be of assistance!

looking in your engine bay, you should see a siren or horn like device. there are 2 wires that come outof that siren. a black and red. balck goes to ground(chassis) and red will come from the alarm. you might want to test the output of the unit to see if its working. take a volt meter connect black to ground and red to the siren wire. arm your car and open the door or kick it. if the wire is still ok the volt metr will show 12v. if not the output is burned.

I can't help but wonder whether respondents really know this car, or are merely dealing in generalities. Although I've never heard an audible alarm from this car, it seems to me that similar cars sound like the security system uses the regular vehicle horns for an alarm device. I don't see anything under the hood that looks like a "siren" to me. And the horn does work, which would eliminate the possibilities of either incorrect connection or faulty audible warning device. Any other suggestion?

You haven't told us what make of alarm or model so please stop being so pedantic. If you only deal in generalities so must we Velocity and Tedmund are both good guys and are only trying to help you. 

The make and model of car is in the title, and it is a factory alarm.

I may be mistaken, but I had assumed that this alarm is standard original equipment for this model vehicle. I apologize for not identifying the alarm, but this is the reason I didn't believe it was necessary.

then we might be talking about a FACTORY alarm OR aftermarket. can you take a picture of the remote? . if  there is no siren, most likely you will end up hearing the HORN. the only way that it wont make a sound is if you set it to flash lights but silent trigger meaning on 2way units the key fob will alert you but the car will do nothing but flash. This is only 2 ways units, if we are talkianb obout factory, then maybe if some1 has the factory alarm information then they would be glad to share. Also, dont think that putting the make in your title means that we all here suddenly know what you drive. not every1 reads the title, just the info you give us is what we try to work with.

It is a factory alarm. I don't believe I have a 2 way fob. There is no indicator light, and I have replaced the battery and don't remember seeing anything that looked like an audio alarm. If there was a way to set the alarm to silent/lights-only from the fob, I don't believe it's likely that I would not have changed it back just by accident at least once during the time I have owned this vehicle, as I have accidentally activated all the known functions with the fob in my pocket.