Senior Home Alarm

Hello, I have a 1999 Saturn SL2 and recently, the electrical system has been screwy. I bought the car a few years ago, and it’s been great. About 1 year ago, the alarm system just kind of stopped working properly, and I just stopped using it… no biggie, I didn’t need it. About a week or two ago, I came home from doing errands (in my fiancee’s car) and we noticed that my Saturn’s trunk was open and all the doors were unlocked. Then while driving it a day later, the doors unlocked themselves and the horn beeped randomly. A few days had gone by, and still the same symptoms – doors unlocking themselves, horn beeping by itself, trunk opening on its own. It also had a small, mechanical-sounding click coming from the rear passenger-side wheel well.

We took it to a mechanic and he cleaned the battery terminals (we had a brand new battery put in only 3 weeks prior) and he drove it and said it sounded fine… hoping the dirty terminals was preventing full-battery power. Well, I sat in it when I went to pick it up, but still heard the clicking noise. He took it back in and finally pinpointed the sound (and probably the problem) in the alarm terminal. He said that it had "gone bad" and it was messing everything up. He explained that we can’t just rip it out, because it would send the car into a security mode and would essentially disable the car.

So, I’m here looking for a second opinion and some possible solutions. I will call a Saturn dealer and see if they know how to remove the alarm terminal and bypass the security "lock-down" feature, but I’m afraid this will be expensive. Another option is just to have the alarm replaced, but this is also expensive.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Edit: I have been told by a few "car smart" people that it must be possible to bypass it… but the trick will be to find someone to do it. Do you think that it’s possible? How can I find someone who CAN bypass the system?

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