I have a 97 rs camaro that I just got and had to do a motor swap in but yesterday we started driving it. We went down to town for dinner and my wife hit the lock button inside and shut the doors about 5 seconds later the horn started to go off I used the key and unlocked the door and had to turn the ignition key on to make it quit. If I lock the door from the key outside it is fine. How do these security features work on these.

 

Depends if you have an after market alarm added or not.

 

No, I am almost positive that it is the factory alarm system, it has the red light in the vent in the dash. I have had the plastic removed from under the column and see no signs or any alarm brains or added wiring.

 

Your car has a door jamb switch that's tied into the anti-theft system. Make sure it's getting depressed far enough with the door closed by taping a washer or two to the switch button to test it. If that's not it, check that the wiring to the switch is connected and working like it should.

 

I understand the switch but wouldn't the dome lite saty on which doesn't?
Also If I lock the door with the key It is fine it will not go off.

 

^ That's a question I meant to ask, if maybe it was during the day where you couldn't see the interior lights on? It's been a few years since my last 4th gen, so I can't remember. Do you have only one door jamb switch, or two (one at the hinge pillar and one on the latch side)? I also don't recall if locking the door with the key arms the alarm the same as the door switch or key fob does? With the window down for interior access, try locking the door with the key and then reach in and open the door from the inside (don't hit the unlock switch). Then try the same thing after locking with the door switch (faster than the 5 second deadline). Does the alarm go off either way?

 

If it's the factory alarm, I'd look in the owner's manual for how to program it. There are several different programmable settings, but if I remember right, the default is for the alarm to sound if you unlock without using the keyfob.

It's also possible that it's not the factory alarm. Usually, when you get an alarm added to the car, they purposefully try to hide the wires and brains of it in abnormal places, or in hard to reach places. That makes it more difficult for potential thieves to disable.

If the owner's manual doesn't help you out, talk to any previous owners (if you know who they are) and ask if they ever had alarm issues or installed new alarms. If you bought it from a dealer, ask them to look in their records on the vehicle.

It's also entirely possible that it could be a bad BCM (body control module). Is this the only flaky thing that's happened? Is it intermittent, or is the situation recreatable under the same circumstances? See if you can get the same thing to happen again under the same and/or different circumstances, and that might help locate what/where the problem is.