I took our 550i on its first ferry ride this past week, a short vacation to San Juan Island. I followed the procedure, as I understand it, to disable the interior motion and tilt alarm features. Didn't work. The procedure I used was: 1) lock the car; and 2) immediately depress the lock button a second time and hold until the light flashed continuously. I was sure I had it, but the alarm went off the moment the ferry tilted a bit.

Any help here?

I know, my owner's manual is my friend... I sat inside the car, reading it over and over again, and did what it said as I interpret it, still with the same result.

Cal

PS: I had a few things to ask for input on today; I posted 1 on this forum and this Alarm post on bimmerfest.com. You guys are the greatest, as I've had several responses here already, and none on bimmerfest. So I am posting this Alarm question here. Thanks in advance,

 

I'll check on some more detail a bit later but I think you just double-press the lock button on the fob and the clown-nose light will stay illuminated for a short period to confirm you've bypassed the interior motion sensor and tilt alarm. After a short time, the clown-nose will begin to flash normally again (so the bad guys can't see that it's bypassed, I assume.)

The key is to watch the light and witness that it stays illuminated for a short time. If you double-press too quickly or too slowly, it won't work. It sounds to me like maybe you didn't time the second press just right and all you saw was a flashing (normal) light...

 

This is good to know. I had no idea you could bypass the tilt alarm. I need to take a Ferry somewhere now.

 

Thanks Rudy, I'll give your technique a try. I didn't really want to "test" other methods than that I'd done while on the ferry! Lots of irritated folks that had stayed in their cars while I had ventured top-side,

Cal

 

I think you'll see the difference in how the clown-nose illuminates right away. Good luck.

 

Ya I believe its double pressing the lock button too.

 

Rudy nailed it . We use the ferry system here in BC and learned this lesson the hard way............. my wife actually had to have her 650 pushed off of a ferry as she virtually drained the battery listening to the radio in the ferry lineup, then when on board she did not deactivate the alarm and while the ferry was moving it set the alarm off and killed the battery, when she came down to get the car started to drive off ............dead . Apparently some guy yelled " you should have got a Mercedes " as he drove past her,, adding injury to insult............... anyway we now now how it works !!

 

Yup, you're right...
It's good to know this if you got the E61 and want to leave your dog inside while shopping.

 

Good to know. Thank you!