Remote starters

medicrn

medicrn

New member
So I work in a hospital and a few coworkers have a viper smart starts. They start there trucks through an app on their iPhones.
I have lived in very hot Las Vegas and now in the teens cold nj and love my iPhone but have never gone w remote starters because I assume that:
A) a non-moving truck does not warm up or cool down very well

And
B) remote starting does not help gas mileage because though a warm truck runs better, it sits and burns gas at zero miles per gallon.



Thoughts?
 
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I love my remote start system. I don't have the smart start, but my key fob has a range of a half mile or something similar. When I get up to leave the house at 6:50 in the morning for work, I start it up 5-10 minutes before and have the heat on. By the time I get inside the truck, it's nice and warm. I only do it in the early mornings though or if it's covered in snow or ice, otherwise, like you said, it just wastes gas.
 
I'm from Michigan & while I've never had a remote start my grandmother always had them on her cars & the car actually heats up & cools down a lot better than you'd think...I'm actually thinking about getting one just to be able to start my truck & circulate some oil before I start driving ....I live in va beach now so winters are pretty mild & the a/c cools the truck down in about a minute in the summer so I don't care much about the climate control aspect
 
My 4runner is toasty warm after about 10 minutes of remote start in -40F/C... So it should work great in your climate. If you have the stock heated seats the added bonus is they remember where they were last set.
 
out of the two concerns you have the only one to worry about is the gas yet it will be very minimal. most remote starters are programmed to automatically shut off after 14 minutes. you can program them to shut off later or earlier.

when an engine idles it actually heats up faster. the air does not move around the engine compartment sitting as it would if you were driving.

hope this helps.
 
My brother and I work out of O'Hare, leave our cars there for days at a time. A few Winters ago we were on the employee bus, passing the parking lot where we both parked. He pulled out his keyfob and started his car. The bus continued on, picking up and dropping off, finally got back to our cars. His had shut off, but was all melted, while mine was just a heap of snow over ice over 4R. I had to chip ice just to get the door open, without a scraper, while he was a few rows over doing a quick cleanup.

I'm not sure how much fuel is burned in 14 minutes idling, but it can't be a dollar's worth. My time is worth more than that, and my aggravation and frozen fingers much more.

I love my Viper remote start this time of year in snow country. I bought it on eBay for $50 and had it installed for about $170. I didn't have keyfobs, so this saved me buying at least one $50 keyfob.
 
I LOVE my remote start. Mine is a simple.one.button one but it does the job great. Had it installed by the dealer. I only use it on cold days for not more than 5 mins. truck is warm inside, snow n ice melted. on the windscreen.l, mirrors nicely defrosted just jump in and go. I resisted it for a couple of years but my wife u
ses hers as she doesn't want the kids getting in a freezing cold car and I just had to get one. worth every cent.
 
I own a couple of remote starts, both are avital. I'm pleased with them and as others have stated you can change the default shut off time. I have mine set at 15 minutes. I also really use the valet mode more than I ever thought I would. Its nice to be able to remove the key and let the truck run when I just need a drink or bathroom break. Easier on the engine than restarts, but as mentioned it would use more fuel than stop/start.

One last benefit no one really mentions is especially in cold weather its easier on the engine to let it warm up before you jump in and go. Yes I know that's contrary to what the owners manual says.
 
Can people list the models they have? I see some get great reviews and some get poor reviews on sonicelectronix, even under the same brand name seems some are just hit or miss.
 
I have a remote start in my 4runner and love it warm in the winter and cool in summer so I got a alarm and paging remote start for my work van and the paging remote went dead and had to send it back in one month
The one on the 4runner was put on when we bought it in 05 still works great both are crime stopper
 
dido here...
love my remote start. I have the compustar two-way in both of my vehicles. A buddy of mine is in the instal business and did both of mine. I'm a Alberta boy myself, like Netwon above, and when it gets cold here it can get really cold. While sitt'n at work its real nice to start the runner now and again to keep it from freezing up too far.
You pay more for the two-ways but I like that the key fob will give you feedback that confirms a start up, count down to auto turn off, and It will tell you internal temp and run time among other things I don't use. It also does everything the stock key fob will do as far as functions. I don't even have the stock fob on my key chain anymore.

I find I use it more than just super cold day tho. I'll start it where ever I am just as I'm on my way out to it just to get the juices going for 20 seconds before I jump in and go.

I went years never having one just to avoid the expense, now I wonder why...love it!
 
I have a 1 way AutoStart AS-1775 in the 4R and a 2 way AS-2372 in my wife's Yaris. They both work well but if I could do it again I would put the 2 way in the 4R too. It's not a very suffisticated 2-way but it's all I need. The remote beeps once to confirm doors locked, twice to confirm doors unlocked and 3 times to confirm that it started.
 
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Once you have remote start, you won't want to be without it. I have a higher end Viper in my 4Runner. From now on I am going to be using Compustar in my vehicles. Who cares if it wastes a little gas, well worth it!
 
Has anyone figured how to install a remote start and use it with their stock toyota key fob? I would like to get one but in my past experiences with aftermarket key fob system. They usually suck.
 
i have an AVITAL system and it f'ing SUCKS.

short range, sometimes won't start blah blah blah

its awful

don't buy it
 
I have the Encore E9. It is made buy a smaller company that was started by an electrical engineer who used to design systems for Autopage. The features are very similar to the Autopage RS-915 system. I think the remote is of higher quality, and the white lcd looks less gimicky than the blue one the autopage unit had. I bought mine on Amazon for $160 and installed in myself. (Disclaimer: I work on nuclear electronics systems for a living, so I had a fairly good idea of what I was doing when I started.) It took me about 12 hours all together. Doing it all over, I would buy the same model and pay a local (reputable, not best buy) install shop to put it in. If you move around a lot for work, best buy may be a good option as they provide a lifetime warranty for labor/screwups.

Product

My unit has a range of between 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile, depending on the remote battery freshness. I work on a large compound and typically start my car as I leave my building. It is about a 10-15 minute walk to where I have to park, so I have tested the range a few times. I have been very satisfied.
 
If you get one, I would never go cheap.

My brother is an insurance claim adjuster. He says the number of car fires he sees that were started by cheapo remote starters is pretty high.

I'd love one for my work truck. The F150 seems to take forever to get warm. But both my 4Runners heat up so fast that I've never felt the need.
 
Make-zine had plans for one using a burner phone and some wiring tricks. You just call the number and your truck starts up.

I wont post it here, just in case it does catch on fire, but if I ever have the time I'm gonna do it.

I'll try to get the month of the issue.
 
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