I bought my truck 6 months ago from a Dodge dealer and they didn’t have the factory key fob, just a couple of regular copied keys. We didn’t know that it had a factory alarm when we bought it and assumed that the flashing red light (key out of ignition) was for an aftermarket alarm since there is a cheap looking speaker under the hood.

My starter fried so I disconnected both batteries for the first time since I bought it and replaced the starter and hooked the batteries up again. As soon as I touched the cable to the first battery, a piercing alarm sounded in the cabin and wouldn’t go off, no matter what I tried. It scared the crap out of my wife, who was inside the truck.

We tried seemingly everything we could think of to turn it off with no luck. We tied the cables on each battery together to drain the juice from the system (not connected to the battery in any way), we also tried physically locking the power locks and one person is inside with key on and key off while the other person unlocked the passenger door. Nothing. We tried the same process on the driver side and every combination that we could think of on each side. We tried starting the truck while the alarm was going off...nothing. It ran with the alarm going and shut down after about 10-15 seconds.

Since we have no fob to disarm the alarm and the dealer wouldn’t get us one, said we had to order one and wait three weeks, we can’t use the truck for work, or drive it to the dealer for reprogramming ($220). What do we do? Do we have to get it towed to the dealer and they shut it off and we order a fob or two from eBay and take it to a locksmith to program the first remote and we program the second? Can we shut the alarm off ourselves so we can drive it? We are lost.

When I get home, I will see if my ‘01 has that valet button, now that I know where it should be.

Now, being that I have no fob whatsoever, will the valet button even work to turn off the alarm? I couldn’t find a speaker inside the cab where the alarm sound comes from. It’s definitely in the cab and not under the hood.

The ‘01 drivers door that I removed has two wires going to the lock tumbler. I’m guessing they are somehow tied in to the alarm system? The ‘99 donor door, I’m not sure since I haven’t pulled the panel off. Is it difficult to swap my ‘01 lock tumbler onto the ‘99 door so it will be “original” wiring to the tumbler, just on a different door shell?

Original post photo shows valet switch for 97 or 98

My ‘01, no such luck. Now what?