help on installing remote car starter

MOgeeks

Senior member
Jul 12, 2001
427
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Did anyone ever try to self install a remote car starter from those available kits in kmart that includes a video?

Weather is really cold, esp in the morning and I am thinking that a remote car starter is a great idea.

Is it difficult to install one? I am a geeks at PC but not great on car.

Thanks.
 

notfred

Lifer
Feb 12, 2001
38,241
4
0
It;d be hard to remote start a car that's parked in gear, so, no I've never tried to install one.
 

Theslowone

Golden Member
Jul 30, 2000
1,779
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0
It isn't the easiest thing, and you can get bogged down fast. Just remember patience is needed and stay away from short cuts.
 

MOgeeks

Senior member
Jul 12, 2001
427
0
0
I will pick a fine sunny day to start the installation.

price at kmart : 44+ tax

a package with installation cost around 150-200 in my town.

For 100 big buck, I guess I will try it out.

Thanks.
 

Ornery

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,022
17
81
First of all, I would definitely get the starter. They are great! Second, I'd have it installed. I got the Valet 552T installed at BestBuy for $189 back in December 1999. It's a better unit than Kmart sells for sure.

The guys that installed it on our conversion van had a HELL of a time. They couldn't find one wire in the harness that they needed to patch into. Sucks to be them. Glad it wasn't me! :D
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,391
1,780
126
My dad bought a used Cadillac a few years ago that had a remote car starter......and umm....we didn't know it. We were working on it one day to swap out some relays for the A/C and the thing just started!!! We were dumbfounded because neither of us were anywhere near the ignition switches. So we ended up tearing the dashboard out until we located the unit. We kept turning it off and it would randomly start cause someone must have had something hitting that frequency......heh... ;)
 

dbcrossfire

Senior member
Sep 3, 2001
670
0
0
first off, and this is just my opinion, I wouldn't buy a kmart brand, spend a few bucks more and get a good name brand one like astro start or something like that. who knows, maybe you sped 6 hours installing it and it dosen't work cause it's kmart crap. Second, does the car your installing it into have an alarm? if it does, the alarm has to be disabled, unless it's an aftermarket alarm that will work with a remote starter. for the remote starter to work the alarm must be disconnected because of the starter lockout on most alarms. also, your going to need all sorts of crimping connections (if you want to do a good job) a wire stripper and crimper. a wiring diagram would help a lot if you can find one, otherwise your going to need the manual to the car, and a wire tester (to find all of the different wires to crimp into) and I don't know if you've looked at the box that you have to hook up, but there are like 30 wires comming out of it. it's definatly not the easiest job in the world to do. I tried installing mine in a 96 explorer last fall and about 7 hours later it finally worked, and a few phone calls to a local car store where i bought it. If I were to do it again though, I would've definatly paid the extra 100 bucks and had it installed. my .02 tho.
 

perry

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2000
4,018
1
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My cousin is a mechanic, but wouldn't touch the remote starter on his mom's Accord. He had her take it to a car stereo shop to have it installed. You don't wanna mess it up, let someone who has experience in that area do it.
 

MOgeeks

Senior member
Jul 12, 2001
427
0
0
There is no car alarm. :)

I wouldn't want to go for a mechanic because the package cost too much and you wouldn't know what kind of car starter they are putting in.

I just thought that I should try it out first and if it does not work, just send to the car mechanic to install. :D

Kmart is the only store I can locate a car starter kit, so far, may be I should try more stores.

What's the price range for a car starter?

Thanks.