Car Alarms: Car Alarm Issue, gas gauge, dash area

Question
Apparently the car my family purchased a few years ago has a car alarm in it. Once we found out it was there it has never worked and we have never used it. However, this last month it seems to have caused us a problem. My battery cable came lose and I tighten it back up. Ever since then the little LED light keeps blinking, the remote will not turn it off. Now my hazard lights start blinking whenever I start my car and will come on and off whenever I am driving it. We recently found a little clear box with electronics in it that is not attached to anything but does have wires coming out of it. We found it under the dash and found that whenever it gets shaken the hazard lights come one.

I don't know if this is related to that or not but now my gas gauge is no longer reading correctly.

I have to start commuting this week 60 miles to and from a training area for a week. I have to travel along the interstate. I need to found out how to stop my hazard lights from going off. I have not been able to locate the off/kill switch for the alarm I am told should be under the dash. Any ideas?

Answer
The alarm sounds like it is in long tamper
mode. You will need to reset as you assumed.

Put the key in the ignition, and turn forward
all the way just before cranking. Then within
5 seconds, locate, press and hold in the
valet/overide button, found under the
dash area, (push button, spring loaded)
until the installed LED (the blinking light)
in your dash area goes on solid,
and the siren chirps once.

(Your valet switch might be the toggle
(on/off) type. in this case, key on,
flip switch in opposite direction,
then turn the key off.) It may be located
behind a panel, under the dash, wire tied
to an exsisting harness, or part of the antenna
if it is a remote starter as well.
Let's hope your installer put it in
at all, or removal of the entire system
is going to be required.

By the way, the clear blinking box?
This tells me you have a Viper alarm.
This box is the shock sensor. Unplug if at
all possible.

Once you have this all completed,
this should reset the alarm, and reset
the grounded relay on the starter wire,
allowing you to start the engine.

At this point, the only thing working would
be the keyless entry from the alarm,
if it came equipped that way.

Just Repeat these steps to place it
back to usable armed mode.
You may get 2 chirps, confirming it,
and the lights may flash twice as well.

That should do it.
If you want to remove it at this point,
take it to your neighborhood installer
for this, or buy the wiring chart
(Go to: www.vehiclewires.com)
for the vehicle, and reverse engineer it wire
by wire, until safely removed.

If it does not work out this way,
you will have to replace the system
with one you know how to operate
and what to expect. Don't want to
get stuck in another bad situation.

Let me know what happens.

Robert Martin/CEO-ALARMTEK