VTA and Hood monitoring

[Moe-Jave]

On my Gladiator, I can see that Jscan values for VTA System and VTA Hood Ajar/Monitoring are active/on but does not seem to ever trigger the alarm when opening the hood without first deactivating the system. I can simply open the hood and the vehicle remains silent. It was my understanding that hood monitoring/alarm was a feature on Gladiators.

Are there other values to enable here? Is this something that is supposed to be enabled by default?

I know there are a variety of hood locks and aftermarket mechanisms, but I just want to use whatever the factory anti-theft system provides. I'm trying to sort out if my Mojave just doesn't have the system or just isn't enabled somehow. I can see the plunger type sensors in place.

Something I just thought of is that I have ESS disabled. Would that somehow interfere with the hood monitoring? I'm not sure I tried it before that (and prefer to keep ESS off). Thanks!

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[Mr._Bill]

It's capable of activating the alarm when the hood is opened, but that feature is off by default.

How did you 'disable' the ESS system? That can affect activating the hood alarm.

 

[Moe-Jave]

It's capable of activating the alarm when the hood is opened, but that feature is off by default.

How did you 'disable' the ESS system? That can affect activating the hood alarm.

Thank you. I used Jscan to disable ESS by toggling the values for both ESS menu display and ESS active (to inactive).

What made me think about ESS here is that with my JL, I know that ESS would not function if you disabled the hood sensor physically (i.e., removed one of the plungers). I never did that, but figured there was a chance Jscan used that function logically. Is that the case here?

 

[Moe-Jave]

Okay...

I re-enabled ESS (both options) and reset the ECU. Sure enough, that's it. Open the hood while the alarm is armed and it sets off the horns. Those are louder than I remember.

While it isn't a factory default for hood monitoring/detection, I really like that feature. I suppose I value it more than having ESS off. So it goes...

 

[AustinLonghorn]

Figured this would be as good a thread as any to tack onto for future reference.

On my '24 in AlfaOBD, the hood ajar monitoring setting is under the BCM / CBC Features section:

CBC Features:
Vehicle Theft Alarm (VTA) Hood Ajar Monitoring 2: Yes/No

I'd also recommend some ear plugs if you're inclined to test the hood alarm inside a garage, yeesh!

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