Hi It's getting to be cold outside and I'm considering getting a remote car starter. How difficult is one of these to install. Either in my wife's 08 rav4 or my 02 p5?
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Dec. 3, 2011 7:34 p.m. mw HalfDork
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Dec. 3, 2011 7:40 p.m. mith612 Reader
Depends on how comfortable with wiring you are. I know at my old shop, the owner was a Master ASE tech with specialization in electronics and diagnostics and had been doing remote installs for a few years. It still took him at least half a day, and up to a full day to do an install, depending on the car. And that's having all the proper wiring diagrams and tools. From watching him, its not so much difficult as it is time consuming. And if something goes awry its helpful to have the factory tech support hotline number.
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Dec. 3, 2011 7:52 p.m. Taiden Dork
Someone did my remote starter install in my ex-civic. He had been an alarm installer for about 20 years and was responsible for training many alarm places how to do good installs. He worked on the side doing custom alarm installs on civics, his installs boasted proprietary methods that were civic specific. He claimed to have done no less than a few hundred civics, and seeing how he started the work, and his garage, I had no reason to doubt him.
It took him 3 days at about 4-5 hours a day to do my civic.
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Dec. 3, 2011 9:54 p.m. mw HalfDork
Well that settles it. I don't like wiring to begin with. If it wasn't much harder than installing a car stereo, I would go for it, but I guess I'll just go out and start the cars in the morning.
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Dec. 3, 2011 10:03 p.m. Javelin SuperDork
Depends on the car. Yours don't sound too easy, but on Ford's it's stupid easy (thanks to the fender-mounted starter solenoid).
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Dec. 3, 2011 10:07 p.m. Streetwiseguy Dork
The thing that makes them easier or tougher is the vehicle they are being installed into. Factory security is a pain, manual trans adds a bit...The installation is actually pretty straightforward, unless you want to add features.
A pure remote starter into a non-security automatic trans vehicle can be done, nicely, in a couple of hours- no scotchlocks. Deciphering the programming instructions, on the other hand can take a while. Whoever wrote those...
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Dec. 3, 2011 11:06 p.m. Taiden Dork
For what it's worth, most of the reason why my alarm install took so long is because he would integrate every single piece of wiring into the civic harness with OEM spec wiring. He would then pot the electronics and hide them in an undisclosed area. He required all installs to have a battery backup and a tilt sensor at a minimum.
The point being that if a thief ripped open your harness at any point, he would not be able to tell the difference between the alarm wiring and the OEM wiring. I had this done when I lived in charlotte, because it was common for a half dozen civics to go missing on a given weekend. Mine was high profile because it's contents were known, it was incredibly easy to identify, and it was on campus.
The guy who did the install is seriously probably one of the best Civic alarm installers in the USA. Last I knew, not a single one of his customers cars had been stolen.
So if you just want remote start I bet you could probably do it in a weekend depending. If you have a smart key you might need to do some trickery. Alarms are weird.
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Dec. 4, 2011 8:10 a.m. sachilles Dork
The toyota might have a factory option. If so those generally are plug and play. Might cost more up front, but less head scratching is worth money in my book.
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Dec. 4, 2011 9:46 a.m. stuart in mn SuperDork
One thing to remember about remote starters is they don't benefit the car at all...it will be better off if you just get in, start it, let it idle for a minute and then go. The only advantage is the interior will be warm before you get in, and that's what coats, hats and gloves are for.
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Dec. 4, 2011 10:11 a.m. Taiden Dork
I wish my shift knob and steering wheel warmed up. If that were the case, I wouldn't even use my heater all winter long.
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Dec. 4, 2011 12:28 p.m. mith612 Reader
Taiden wrote:
I wish my shift knob and steering wheel warmed up. If that were the case, I wouldn't even use my heater all winter long.
Look into snowmobile grip warmers. I'm sure something could be modded to work inside the shift knob, and possibly mount a couple warmers to the steering wheel itself.
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Dec. 4, 2011 2:15 p.m. vwcorvette HalfDork
Get seat heaters instead.
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Dec. 4, 2011 3:06 p.m. njansenv HalfDork
The P5 should be easy if it's similiar to a 2000 protege (which was an afternoon for me - with no prior remote starter install experience). Cars with immobilizers et al can be a real challenge apparently.
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Dec. 4, 2011 3:32 p.m. vwcorvette HalfDork
Since I work at a shop that makes a living on these things you should have one installed by a professional with a good warranty. We offer lifetime no hassle. Been doing them for 20 years. We work exclusively with one supplier, but truth be told it's the installation that makes or breaks your satisfaction with one. Avoid quick connects and scotch-loks. Immobilisers and passlocks, etc are not much issue these days with flash ready bypass modules. The toyo is fairly straight forward. Domestics pretty easy. Euro very difficult if possible at all.
