Possible electrical gremlin

[Jeepr]

I hope I'm not in a position of having to chase an electrical gremlin in my truck... hopefully one of you have had this, and can point me in the right direction. 2005 2500 48RE, Laramie (so it has sentry key):

The other day, I unlocked it with the remote and when I opened the door the alarm went off. I thought perhaps I accidentally hit panic and didn't think much of it. But, since then, I've noticed that I'll turn the truck off, pull the key out, and open the door, it will chime 2 or 3 times as if the key is in the ignition or the lights are on, but neither is true, and it stops after a few chimes.

Then today, it did the alarm thing again... I unlocked it with the remote, and when I opened the door, the alarm went off.

Any ideas? Do you think that it's the switch in the ignition tumbler making it think the key is still in there? Would that even explain the alarm going off though?

 

[Crunch]

I don't have the sentry system, but I'd suggest turning the ignition on three time (without starting the engine) and see if any codes pop up. You can also take to Autozone and they will check with their code reader for free.

 

[Jeepr]

My Bullydog can read codes, there are none. I also did an experiment, I removed the key from the fob, left it in the ignition, locked it with the fob... the waited a few seconds, unlocked and opened the door... the alarm did not go off. Thus, the presence (per perceived presence) of key in the ignition will not cause the alarm to go off. That somewhat rules out the idea of the ignition switch.

I'm removing the Bullydog program and will see if that changes anything, but I doubt it as nothing has changed with it for quite some time, and this problem just started recently.

 

[Jeepr]

Nope, removing the program didn't help. And, someone else with an 05-ish... isn't the radio supposed to stay on when I turn the key off until I open a door? 'cause it's not now.

 

[Ozymandias]

I had that once when my wife opened the truck at 4AM., I told her she for sure pressed the Panic Button - but she insisted she don't for sure.

Later on i found that the fan of the aircon didn't stop with key removed, checked this and found a melted contact in the electro part of the ignition switch. So the vehicle wasn't completely offline all the time.
The reason for this fault was a bad pin on the 10pin connector behind the ignition switch, this heated up the copper contact until it melted into the plastic case of the switch.

Installed a new one and never again had a false alarm.
Check it out, its an easy task.

 

[Jeepr]

A non-conclusive update: Two of my friends said I needed to change my batteries as strange things like this can be caused by bad batteries. Well, my batteries WERE the stock original ones from 2005, but at this point it had become a game for me to see how long they would go.... it still cranked fine and all.... but I did have them load tested at O'Reilly and they failed, so I bought 2 new ones.

Well, right after I installed, it still did the extraneous "ding" thing once or twice. But, now I've not seen it in like a week. So, maybe something has cleared out with the new batteries. We will see.

 

[Blu-meanie]

My radio never stayed on until the door was opened.

 

[Jeepr]

My radio never stayed on until the door was opened.

Yeah, that's why I asked, I couldn't remember... I get the members of my fleet mixed up. I know my friend said his 06 does, but that's CANBUS, so things are different.

 

[mfurrh55]

My radio never stayed on until the door was opened.

My radio and everything else stays on until i open my door, always has,But mine is an 07 , and might be different, Monte