98 Camry, cleaned battery terminal..bad idea
 

Hello,
My wife's '98 Camry would not start today without a jump, then started fine. She got home, and I decided to clean the battery terminals. When I go to hook them back up, the car alarm goes off, I can't get it to stop w/out disconnecting the battery, and of course we can't get the car to start.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Matt

For Toyota factory alarm, try the following:

There may be a push button near the hood latch on lower dash where left knee would be. Connect battery, insert a master key (a key that can open all locks on car) and push button.

Or lock and close all doors. Connect battery and unlock drivers door.

If you have a key FOB there would be an alarm button to push.

If some kind of aftermarket alarm there is typically a button or switch located under the drivers side of dash. Connect battery, insert key and turn to on, press button or click switch.

There may also be a key FOB.

Thank you so much for the reply and suggestions...I will try when I get home from work today.

The key FOB does have an alarm button, but my lovely wife dropped it into water and it no longer works. But I did spy a (recessed) push button where you described on the dash this morning.

Ahain thank you, I will post back this evening.

Keep us posted.

Hello everyone,
Sorry for the delay in answering, it has been a crazy week. We got the alarm turned off and the car started following the directions given by toyomoho. The car has been starting fine ever since, except for one time yesterday. it cranked, but did not start. After a few minutes, it started up just fine, and it started up fine this morning.

One question. The red recessed button is staying lit all of the time now. My wife does not recall it staying lit before all of this happened. Should it stay lit?

We do not really use the car alarm, as mentioned earlier, the FOB buttons do not work, ever since it was dropped in water. The battery in the FOB was rusty, so we removed it, the inside of the FOB does not appear to have rust or corrosion inside. We are going to try replacing the battery, but not sure if it will work anyway.

I tried cleaning up the old FOB battery, but the buttons on it still did not work. After the one time yesterday that the car would not start, I removed that old battery, and everything seems ok so far (fingers crossed)

Thank you so much for the help I've already received. I am looking forward to hearing you guys' advice on the red recessed button staying lit, and whether or not that is normal.

Matt

Red is normal for now.

Repeat the disarm process.
Re-install ign key and turn to ON.
Push reset button, should now turn off.

In the future, just repeat disarm process twice. Removing key between each process.
Light should turn red, then on next process go out.

Thank you very much, we will disarm when we get home this evening!

The dis-arming procedure worked perfectly, thanks again for the excellent help!

Great, thanks for posting back with the fix.

Glad to hear you're squared away!