remote starter acting weird

paf · Post by **paf** » Mon May 12, 2003 2:05 am

the remote starter on my car will start the car and then i hear a weird loud noise (maybe its the starter that keeps on turning???) and then it shuts it off and tries to start it again and after like 8 times it drains the battery (last time i tried this was a few moths back I have not attemptedt to use it again)

my hunch is that the sensor that detects the rpm's too see if the car is running doenst work well (does this sensor or connection even exist?)

any opinions on how to fix it?

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Mon May 12, 2003 2:08 am

You're not sure the sound is the same as the sound the starter makes when you try to start an already-running engine?

If you haven't ever heard the sound, you might try it once. It's not good for the car, but doing it just once probably won't hurt it. Then you can know for sure if that's what's happening.

Most remote starters do wait for the engine speed to reach a certain number to know when to stop cranking, and on most systems a failure of that detection would result in cranking until a timeout and then repetition, so your hunch is likely correct.

I don't know what you could do to fix it without much more knowledge of the remote starter system itself.

magicmike · Post by **magicmike** » Mon May 12, 2003 1:51 pm

I agree with vgr3. Tell us what remote starter you have. if your not sure describe the remote to me. Most cheap remote starters dont even use a tach detection system. They reley on a voltage sense. This way bairly works but it does work most of the time. the easiest way to find out is to look at your coil pack, thats where they would have gone for the tach wire. if you dont see any wire tapped in there then you probably have a tachless crappy system. Those systems often have the option of connecting the tach but the istaller opted for the quicker method while installing it most likely. Let me know what name rand you have and a model if you can and I'll help you out from there

Mike

paf · Post by **paf** » Tue May 13, 2003 8:47 pm

well I dont remember what kind it is but the remote is rectagular with 2 buttons I and a II (the II starts it) and its marked AUTOSTART

I will try to find out exactly what it is

paf · Post by **paf** » Tue May 13, 2003 8:57 pm

looks exactly like the one here

http://206.47.191.115/autostart-prod.ns ... enDocument

if that link doesnt work goto http://www.autostart.ca goto products > retired products the as1000 one

paf · Post by **paf** » Tue May 13, 2003 10:29 pm

I have the as-1200

Oh the soung is very similar as when you start your car and keep on cranking
so where can I find this tach wire?
I checked all the connections on the box itself

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Tue May 13, 2003 10:36 pm

It looks like they won't let us access the wiring guides on the web page without a serial number... Do you think you could get the guides for us or something?

The user guide on the web page says the AS1200 will retry starting 2, 3, or 4 times, depending on how it's configured. If yours is retrying 8 times and killing the battery, something is wrong.

I have a theory. I just came up with it out of thin air, but it's a thought: maybe your battery is low enough that while cranking the voltage drops too low for the AutoStart unit to function correctly? So it malfunctions and then stops cranking, and then the voltage rises back up to a workable level and it tries again...

Try putting a voltmeter across your battery terminals while it tries to start... See how low it gets.

paf · Post by **paf** » Tue May 13, 2003 10:42 pm

I said 8 at a random number I have never let it retry more than once

it used to be my moms car and last winter she would start it from inside of the house... and never realised this was happening and after a few minutes she would realised it was still off and try again and so on... hence the dead battery...
but could have also been a coincidence as we had alternator problems around that time

My unit does not have a serial number on it!!! just a crappy homemade looking sticker with revision, model, fcc/crtc

magicmike · Post by **magicmike** » Wed May 14, 2003 1:52 pm

Did you look near your coil pack for a tapped in wire? That will let us know for sure if they even hooked up the tach signal at all. I'm guessing they did not but lets get that variable out of the way.

Also another possibility is that the unit is just plain defective. Sometimes I have seen "sticky" onboard relays in the units. There are 30 amp relays in that box for your ignition heat and for the starter. I've seen the heater relay get stuck and it leaves the heater fan running until the battery dies. I've also seen what your experiencing and I'm sure once or twice it was due to a defective unit.

Mike

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Wed May 14, 2003 2:40 pm

Yeah, relays can definitely stick. My ignition relay was sticking, running the ECU and sensors until the battery died.

paf, where did you buy this? Is it "hot" merchandise? :)

Look for a wire going to the coil pack, or to the ECU or gauge cluster. Those would be the three easiest places to get a tach signal.

Do you have access to a voltmeter? If you do, try the measurement I suggested. It may give us a lead.

paf · Post by **paf** » Sat May 17, 2003 3:58 am

sorry bout that I was gone to halifax...

anyways I did not see a tapped wire on the coil pack, there ming be one going to the ecu Im not sure, its a big mess of wires and it hurts my neck to look under there...

oh and about where I bought this... well My father had bought it from the COOP (grocery store in atalantic canada) and had it installed at the place where they told him to (wherever that was, he doesnt remember)

that was a few years ago... when I didnt have the car and didnt even have my licence

paf · Post by **paf** » Sat May 17, 2003 4:00 am

My voltmeter doesnt seem to work... I might goto radio shack and buy one of those digital multimeters whis weekend if I have enough money after gas and such

paf · Post by **paf** » Sat May 17, 2003 4:03 am

about that... this thing has worked for about 3 years (at least)
and the problem started the same time our alternator died... we keeped the same battery, could this mean anything???

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Sat May 17, 2003 4:23 am

Don't buy a multimeter from Radio Shack; it'll cost too much for what you get. If you just want a fairly cheap DMM, get it from an auto parts store or a hardware store. Sears often has decent ones pretty cheap on sale. If yours doesn't work, though, check the fuses inside it.

If the remote starter unit uses the cheap check-if-voltage-is-high-enough method of detecting when the engine's running, then the problem could certainly be that your battery might not be in tip-top condition. If your alternator was failing your battery probably wasn't always fully charged.

See if you can get your battery trickle charged. Basically, you charge it at around 2 amps overnight. You can buy a charger and do it yourself (a good investment), or take it to a chain auto parts store; most of them will charge batteries as a complimentary service.

magicmike · Post by **magicmike** » Sat May 17, 2003 3:10 pm

From my experience with installing remote starters for almost ten years profesionally, I have seen that the voltage drop method is NOT a reliable method period. As far as getting the tach wire at somewhere other than the coil pack, trust me the installer did not go to the ecu or cluster, although they are technically closer it is much more work for an installer to get at those. Anyway, find out which wire on the remote starter should be connected to the tach and get some installation istructions somehow. Once we get your tach wire hooked up, we might need to program the control unit to "recognize" the tach signal.

Mike

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remote starter acting weird

remote starter acting weird