alarm short/issue?

Greetings,

I am new here - first post! I have an Automate 552 installed in my 2000 Town Car, with a 514T DEI Viper alarm speaker installed under the hood that, appears to be, wired into the HONK (brown) wire of the Automate 552. My issue is that the siren goes 24/7 all of a sudden and sounds like its under water, very low audio. I thought it might be the alarm speaker, so I purchased a new one, same type, off eBay and installed it - no difference. I re-terminated the wire mating they original guy did with MOLEX connectors rather than those crimp connections (I wanted to ensure I had a tight connection). Still no change!

At this point I am not sure what the issue is here. For now I have disconnected the spaker. The alarm is not tripping on the car, so not sure whats going on. I would appreciate ANY help on this matter. I have listed a link to the Automate 552 installation manual for your reference should it aide anyone in providing me with next steps or a solution.

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/40067/Directed-Electronics-Automate-552.html

Good info thanks!

Since the alarm is tied into the DEI Automate 552, and that unit works fine (remote start works, features associated to the unit work, etc), should I only need to check the ground(black wire) that connects from the alarm speaker to the DEI Automate 552 unit?

I found the Automate ground, when I disconnected it the already diluted tone of the alarm got quieter. I suspect the issue is not the ground, thoughts? I re-terminated the ground cable just for the sake of trying, and bolted it to the other vehicle OEM chassis grounds (the original installed gave this wire it's own hole with a screw - something the Automate manual even tells you not to do!.

Next steps? If no one can suggest anything else I am thinking of taking it to Best Buy for them to resolve. I would like to avoid this though, it costs money :)

Looking forward to your responses :)

Thanks for the response!

I am not sure what you mean by battery backup. I did replace this siren with a brand new one, same exact model number, as I thought it could be a defective unit. The result was the same, which is what lead me to the12volt for expert guidance.

If however you ask if the 514T has a battery backup built in, the answer is no. It pulls power from the car battery via the DEI 552 system. It connects to the brown and black wire from the H1 harness out of the DEI, normally intended for connetcing to the horn.

Will try that today and report back.

What is the shelf life of these units? I found a new DEI 552T brain, like new, 20 miles north of me for sale. When the alarm was working, I used to have issues with it going off randomly, then stopping after a short period (1-2 minutes). I found this problem was more prominent during cold winter weather. I question if the brain unit has become defective, though it could just be a grounding issue I suppose.

As a side note, last night I was under the steering column where the 552T is placed, and the relays to the right I noticed one of the thick red wires with an inline fuse has a melted fuse. The inline fuse and fuse were literally melter together, forming this ugly "thing" of plastic with metal sticking out. Not sure when that happened or what. I am also not sure what effect this has on the system as a whole and/or the alarm issue. I cut the inline fuse out last night and there was no effect on the ystsems functionality. Not sure what it's for?