Anyone reccomend any decent ones that arent that expensive? I wanna get one for my 89 MK3T. Are they hard to install yourself?
Alarms/Automatic starters
- Thread starter Fastway135
- Start date
My remote start kit is from a company called Bulldog Security. I picked it up at a yard sale for $5. The guy said it was to complicated and he gave up on it. Figured why not it would be a neat new gadget to try out and if it don't work I’m out only $5.
Needless to say I got it installed. It took about 4 hours of wiring work. I was in no hurry, so I was doing it slow and taking my time. Also I did it while I was in the process of an interior swap so there was no dashboard in the car at the time. This made accessing the necessary wires easy, and believe me there are a lot of them. I hooked up all the options, Remote start, lock/unlock, auto window up. If you only hookup the auto start you might, and I stress might, be able to do it with the dash in. But to make your life easer I would recommend removing the dash. There are a lot of wires you need to access. It is not a difficult job if you understand how to read a wiring diagram, just very time consuming.
If you don’t understand diagrams very well, then I guess your up a creek.
The remote start is a very handy feature. I get the most use out of it when I'm working under the hood and want to start the car, I don't have to go around and turn the key, yes I'm lazy. It also gives me the opportunity to watch and make sure nothing is wrong or in the way as the engine is starting, and I find that very helpful. Also while I was in Colorado I was handy in the winter, I would just leave the defrosters on from when I was in the car last. Then in the morning I could just say inside and remote start the car, ten minutes later I would go out to a warm, defrosted car. It was great.
The biggest down side to it is that I have a manual transmission, so you have to make SURE it is neutral, otherwise, away the car goes down the road! Minus one surprised driver. Not a big deal for me as I have turbo timer and leaving the car in neutral before I get out is second nature. But if a friend drives it, he usually forgets about that.
I had one friend get out of the car and try to show off to his cousin.
He said “watch this”.
I should have been scared at this point. He proceeded to push the remote start button.
I looked at him and said, " it's in netural right?".
Then he looks at me with this puzzled look on his face and says "no, why?".
Then it dawns on him, and he gets this Oh SHIT look on his face. I tell him to hit the red button to stop it. So while he is trying to find the red button. The curb and I are trying to keep the car from going in to the local corner store. I have got to say, our starters have a hell of a lot of torque.
After the event my friend was scared as hell, and refuses to use the remote start ever again. As for me, I thought it was funny as hell and ended up laughing may ass off as there, was no harm done.
Moral of this story is that a remote start is potentially dangerous if not used right. Also don't keep the remote in your pocket while your leaning over, working on the car, this is a bad idea too.
Needless to say I got it installed. It took about 4 hours of wiring work. I was in no hurry, so I was doing it slow and taking my time. Also I did it while I was in the process of an interior swap so there was no dashboard in the car at the time. This made accessing the necessary wires easy, and believe me there are a lot of them. I hooked up all the options, Remote start, lock/unlock, auto window up. If you only hookup the auto start you might, and I stress might, be able to do it with the dash in. But to make your life easer I would recommend removing the dash. There are a lot of wires you need to access. It is not a difficult job if you understand how to read a wiring diagram, just very time consuming.
If you don’t understand diagrams very well, then I guess your up a creek.
The remote start is a very handy feature. I get the most use out of it when I'm working under the hood and want to start the car, I don't have to go around and turn the key, yes I'm lazy. It also gives me the opportunity to watch and make sure nothing is wrong or in the way as the engine is starting, and I find that very helpful. Also while I was in Colorado I was handy in the winter, I would just leave the defrosters on from when I was in the car last. Then in the morning I could just say inside and remote start the car, ten minutes later I would go out to a warm, defrosted car. It was great.
The biggest down side to it is that I have a manual transmission, so you have to make SURE it is neutral, otherwise, away the car goes down the road! Minus one surprised driver. Not a big deal for me as I have turbo timer and leaving the car in neutral before I get out is second nature. But if a friend drives it, he usually forgets about that.
I had one friend get out of the car and try to show off to his cousin.
He said “watch this”.
I should have been scared at this point. He proceeded to push the remote start button.
I looked at him and said, " it's in netural right?".
Then he looks at me with this puzzled look on his face and says "no, why?".
Then it dawns on him, and he gets this Oh SHIT look on his face. I tell him to hit the red button to stop it. So while he is trying to find the red button. The curb and I are trying to keep the car from going in to the local corner store. I have got to say, our starters have a hell of a lot of torque.
After the event my friend was scared as hell, and refuses to use the remote start ever again. As for me, I thought it was funny as hell and ended up laughing may ass off as there, was no harm done.
Moral of this story is that a remote start is potentially dangerous if not used right. Also don't keep the remote in your pocket while your leaning over, working on the car, this is a bad idea too.
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