# How to INSTALL A REMOTE CAR STARTER a beginners guide



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*Beginners Tips for Installing a Remote Car Starter*
from CarAudio&Electronics

‘Tis the season! With the holidays upon us, and Santa’s elves shining up the sleigh, lets take a look at what to do once us “northerners” have unwrapped that remote car starter we have been dying for. At first glance you may wonder what you have gotten yourself into when looking at all those wires. However, when you are the only person to leave work without scraping icey windows in a toasty warm vehicle it will be worth while.

Depending on the vehicle, remote car starters can be very complicated to install (American cars). If you have little or no 12 volt experience, then this is definitely not something you want to tackle yourself. With the complexities of modern vehicles, the computer modules, the resistances of data bus wires, or even the dangers of some of the hybrid vehicles electricity, a novice really should trust a competent and QUALIFIED shop. As a former professional installer for ten years my philosophy is simple for choosing a shop: If they solder all connections and offer a lifetime warranty on their installations you should be able to trust them. There is a never ending debate online about soldering connections vs. solderless crimp connectors, but I can tell you this; in all my years installing, I have never had to fix another shop’s install that soldered their connections. Moving on.










^An installers best friends.

1. The average vehicle is going to take 3-4 hours for a professional to complete a thorough install, so plan accordingly, it will take you longer. You will need to know the make, model, and year of your vehicle. Next we will need to obtain wiring information for your specific vehicle. You can find this information online at a variety of sources from the12volt.com or mobile.audiovox.com. Print out your wiring information, and we will “prewire” our start for a professional look after identifying the location of our wires inside the vehicle.










^2008 Ford F-150	










^Disassembled interior

2. After venturing into the vehicle and ripping panels apart, such as the kickpanel, knee bolster, steering column, a-pillar, etc, we want to identify each wire we need in the installation. Do not use a test light, use a digital multimeter. Test lights can harm delicate components in today’s vehicles. If your wiring info sheet says your parking lights wire will show a positive current, this means we will test it by grounding our black lead of our multimeter to a bare metal surface, touch our parking lights wire with the red lead, and operate the light switch to activate our parking lights. When the parking lights turn on, our multimeter should read positive current in the neighborhood of 12 volts. You will test all of your necessary wires in the vehicle this same way. Operate the particular device, whether it be trunk release, horn, ignition, etc. and see if the polarity matches your sheet as you perform the action. 










^Testing ignition wires functions

3. Now I like to “prewire” as much of the components on our workbench as possible. This is where we can do a nice, neat, job of plugging all the wiring harnesses into the remote start’s “brain” and tape all wires for a more factory look.  We can figure out, after reading the installation manual, which wires we actually need for our vehicle, and which ones we do not.  If the polarity of our starter’s trunk release, or parking lights, or door locks need to be changed to positive or negative to match our vehicle, we can do that now by hooking up relays. Also, we can “prewire” any security bypass modules if we know where in the vehicle we intend to mount them. My goal was always to make the wiring appear to be factory. Use electrical tape, wire loom, whatever your vehicle uses for its wiring.










^Stripping our remote start wires	










^Prewiring our remote start on the work bench










^Prewiring completed

4. Now that we are “prewired” lets head into the vehicle. First you will want to throw down an old towel on your floor board. The last thing we want is to drip solder onto our carpet. Next we can take the remote start system and loosely mount it with zip strips where we want it to go. You can plan a stealth install, so no mechanics at the garage will see the unit, or you can make it easily accessible for future programming needs. 

_*Installation tip._ Regardless of the method you choose;
DO NOT MOUNT THE UNITS OR RUN THE WIRES WHERE THEY WILL INTERFERE WITH THE OPERATION OF PEDALS, STEERING WHEELS, PARKING BRAKES, OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT MOVES.

5. Typically I begin by mounting the *antenna* on the windshield, hidden by the rear view mirror. DEI teaches installers to avoid the tint and the “dot matrix” at the top of the windshield. You do not want any signal blocked by metal. Then run the antenna wire neatly up to the headliner and across to the a-pillar. Route the wire neatly down to the brain and plug it in. Fold up and zip strip your excess wire someplace hidden.










^Antenna mounted and hidden by the rearview



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6. *Ground* the unit. Even when using a crimp terminal, we still strip off the insulation, crimp, and solder the wire in the terminal for a permanent and professional connection.

_*Installation tip._ DEI teaches installers to ground low in the driver’s kick or the floor pan to avoid interference.

Determine a safe spot where the screw will not penetrate outside the vehicle, or damage any wiring. Scrape away paint down to bare metal about the size of a quarter. Use a self tapping screw and ground the system. Route the attached valet switch into your fuse box, or mount it someplace safe that it will not accidentally get bumped or kicked to “off.”










^Soldered grounds 










^Grounded in the vehicle










^Valet switch conveniently mounted behind removable dash panel

7. Move on to the *ignition harness.* Here you will connect your 12 volt power sources, ignition wires, accessory wires, and starter wire. If your remote starter unit has multiple power wires, make sure to divide them among the vehicles 12 volt wires. You do not want to hook all of your 12 volt leads to draw off of one leg of your ignition harness. 

_*Installation tip._ In some of today’s vehicles the ignition harness wires are too small. Anything 22 or 24 gauge in size should have a completely new 12 volt power wire run in from the battery. Make sure this lead is fused less than 18 inches from the battery - if it is a route you must take.

To maintain the integrity of the vehicle, and to return it to stock if you choose, do not cut your vehicle’s wires (except the vehicle’s starter wire, if you plan to hook up the anti-grind starter kill wire). The method we used was to take your wire strippers and crimp two cuts into the wire using the size just big enough to penetrate the wires insulating sheaths. Make the crimp cuts about one inch apart, then use a blade to slice and peal off the insulating sheath between the crimp cuts. Now we have bare wire in the vehicle to wrap our remote starter wire around. Solder your connections. When you heat up the wire enough your solder will get sucked into the wire and flow with it. You will see the wire strands. Make sure solder is visible the entire circumference of the wire for a good connection.

_*Safety tip._ Remember, a roll of tape is cheaper than a car fire. Make sure no wire strands are poking thru, and do a thorough job of taping your new connections.










^Staggered and stripped ignition wires	










^Finished ignition harness


8. Move on to *additional connections* such as parking lights, horn, door locks, etc. Use the same method as stated above for locating and testing these wires if you did not do so already. Strip the wires, attach your remote start wires, solder, and tape.

9. Next is the *tach wire.* Here we need to be very careful. Find a good location in a rubber grommet on your firewall. Make sure to check under the hood to verify what is on the other side of the grommet. Run your wire thru. Route the wire using common sense. We need to worry about heat as well as engine movement. Cover your wire with loom to match other wiring. Securely zip strip your loom in solid and safe places. Follow the location instructions for your tach wire, or go to the fuel injectors. When you look at each of your coils or fuel injectors you will notice one wire in each injector that is always a different color, this is the wire we want. Strip the wire and wrap ours around it. After we test and program the tach successfully, then we can go back to solder the connection. If possible use a water proof sealant tape for this connection.










^Tach wire

10. Once all connections have been made and verified to be correct, we can move on to the *security bypass.* There are a variety of different modules and manufacturers for each vehicle. The module used in this application requires us to securely mount a wire ring around the key cylinder. If your module requires mounting something near the key cylinder, they can be very picky and require lots of trial and error to get just the right spot, especially in some of the Fords. If necessary, once you find the right spot where the remote start has performed correctly on several tests, zip strip or even hot glue the module securely into place. Also pay particular attention that the steering column’s panels can be reassembled when finished. If your module hard wires into the vehicle, you will have far less headaches getting it to work. Just read and follow the manual for installation and programming instructions.










^Security bypass ring

11. Lastly, when you have tested the remote start system and all its extra features several times, finish taping and zip stripping all your wiring for a quality finished product. Try to make it look factory. Nothing should interfere with moving parts, and everything should be mounted securely. Program the unit for appropriate run time, additional accessory outputs, passive locking, etc. With DEI we typically used 24 minute run time, active door locks, flashing parking lights, double pulse activation, and turned security features off (just because customers are not too bright). Reassemble your interior. Now you can enjoy those bitterly cold days, and sweltering heat waves...well maybe not.



















^The only visible wires are the factory wires


As a side note. If you run into trouble with a dealership over a remote start system, print out and take along to quote that dealership the Magnuson-Moss Act to resolve the discrepancy.











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## mennitti

As a side note. Before beginning we need to test if your vehicle has a factory alarm system. Most customers don't even know they have it. Roll down your window, shut off the vehicle, hit the power lock button, wait a few minutes, reach inside the vehicle and manually open the door either with the internal handle or by pulling up the door lock plunger, and open the door. Did your horn start honking?

If so, you need to hook up your factory alarm disarm wire. This will be coming out of your door boot. To test it: use your digital multimeter on the correct wire listed from the vehicle's wiring sheet, turn the key in the door to unlock. When unlocking the door with your key it should register the correct polarity on your meter.


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## DaveRulz

Another note on taping wires: 99c rolls of tape are enticing, but spring for the good 3m stuff that stretches. You'll be thankful when it doesn't goop up and fall off!


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## Low_e_Red

On top of that. HIDE THE BRAIN! This is important as it makes it much harder to steal the vehicle. NOT IMPOSSIBLE just harder. And by hiding that doesnt mean under the knee bolster. Hide them, Ive hidden brains in the overhead console and in the trunk before. 

Tape your wires the entire way and make it look factory, this is hide and go seek in the dash except you know where things belong and are routed. It also looks cleaner.


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