aps901 in 07 honda civic

I am trying to install an Audiovox APS901 into my wife's 2007 Honda Civic.  I have the wiring for the Honda Civic but the APS901 manual sucks.  I also purchased the PKH34 Honda bypass.  Basically I want to remote start the car and be able to unlock it while is running under the remote starter with the remote starter button.  Its a one button that remote starts and can unlock.  Few questions I have...

Which wires from the APS901 do I use so I can unlock the car with the starter remote while its running under its command?

Do I need to hook up both unlock and disarm or just one and do I need to go into the door?

Is there a wire that comes out of the APS901 that I can use to send a ground while remote started to the PKH34?

Can I use the Ign3 output with a relay to achieve the anti-grind feature?

Sorry with all these quetions but this thing is gonna kick my ass unless I am certain of how to do this remote start setup.  I have done few before but this whole lock/unlock and arm disarm thing with Honda is a bit confusing and the manual for the APS901 sucks.  Unclear which wires to use.  Help will be greatly appreciated.

I might be able to help...I agree the Audiovox documentation is confusing and incomplete. I am not an installer by career, but I have installed a number of Audiovox remote start systems.

As far as unlock, the black with blue stripe 'pulse before start' wire can be used to unlock the doors. This wire will pulse when you keep the transmitter button pressed while the car is running. This signal also will pulse before start, and if wired to unlock the doors, will do so before the remote start starts the vehicle. When this occurs, you would use the black with green stripe 'pulse after start' wire to relock the doors.  Both of these wires can be found in the 4 pin auxillay harness of the APS901.  

If you have a factory alarm, you would use the 'pulse before start' wire to both disarm and unlock the car. You would use 2 diodes to do this, connecting the banded end of both diodes together, and also connecting the joined diodes to the black with blue stripe wire. The unbanded ends create 2 signals; one goes to disarm, the other to unlock.

The red and black wires with the yellow connector are intended to power your bypass, and the black wire from this harness can provide the ground while running for your PKH34.

The light blue Ignition 3 wire can be used to ground a relay for anti-grind. Power the relay from the ignition wire in the vehicle. Cut the start wire from the key cylinder. Wire the key cylinder side to relay pin 30 (common), and the starter side and the APS901 yellow start wire to relay pin 87a (normally closed).


Hope this helps.

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Lectric Guy

Hey, you're in Mass.? Me too, in Malden. Been installing Audiovox for almost ten years now.

Agreed, the manuals with their product are horrendous...basically one step above the eBay stuff from China. A half-blind monkey would have better writing skills. They really should be ashamed.

Anyway, what lectricguy said is totally right. Does your Civic have a factory alarm?

Here you go:

Red and RED / white to Honda constant-white at steering column
Yellow to yellow Honda starter
Blue to blue Honda ignition
Purple to orange Honda accessory
Green........do you want the radio to come on with remote start? I prefer not. You can either leave the green taped off, or, if radio is desired, connect to Honda red accessory and program for "as accessory" in menu.

Either white to Honda thin blue negative parking light wire in column

Second white wire to ground, black wire to ground

BROWN / black to light green brake wire at fuse box. (or get at brake pedal if you want, but be careful wire can't get caught up in pedal or your feet.)

BLACK/ blue "pulse before start" goes straight to unlock wire if no factory alarm. If you have factory alarm, split it with two diodes.....one to factory alarm disarm, other to unlock wire.

BLACK / YELLOW "pulse during start" to lock wire in car

The driver's kick panel is easy to remove but difficult to reinstall. Avoid removing it if possible, and it doesn't help much anyway. The wires that go into the driver's door are right above the kick panel, and your lock/unlock/disarm wires are in one of those two bundles going into the door.

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The small yellow two-pin connector gives you constant power on the red wire, and ground-when-running (with some options in programming too) from the black wire.

Connect the red to constant input on the PKH34, and black to the ground-when-running input on PKH34.

Splice the PKH34 ground wire to the thick Audiovox black as part of your bench prep....or if you want you could run it up to the column and ground it at the Honda immobilizer plug.

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Yes, you can use light blue Ignition 3 to a relay for anti-grind.

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PROGRAMMING:

Change the runtime to at least 15 minutes---I set all mine for 20.

Change from Tach to Voltage, and change Voltage level to the non-default option.

At least that's how I do all of them; the Crank Averaging feature works great.

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Operation:

Press button on remote twice to activate remote start. (Or push and hold for 1 second if you re-programmed in the menu for single press.)

Parking lights will flash, car will unlock because of the BLACK/ blue wire.

As car attempts to start, the BLACK / YELLOW will relock it.

Wait ten seconds for the parking lights to come on; this means the voltage-sensing circuit is satisfied and that the remote starter will keep the car on.

Press and HOLD the remote and it will unlock the doors.

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NOTES:

Yes, it's incredibly stupid that the unit unnecessarily cycles your doorlocks. But what can you do?

When the remote starter is off, pushing and holding the button will activate the car finder feature and activate the parking lights. It will NOT unlock the doors if the remote starter isn't activated.

When you go to test it and play around, keep in mind that if you're in voltage sensing, you can't use the remote to unlock the doors until after the parking lights come back on. If you try too early, you'll just activate the car finder.

The push-and-hold on the remote takes about four seconds to unlock the doors. I've seen customers get impatient, release the button, and try again......and then what happens is now you've pushed the button twice, and the car shuts back off. So, again, just push, HOLD, and WAIT---the doors will eventually unlock.

When you turn the ignition on, the blue LEDs on the antenna will make some double flashes. This indicates that two remotes are programmed to the system. If you program more remotes (up to four), you'll get more flashes.

If you don't like that, you can unplug the LED at the brain. However, you'll then lose confirmation of when the unit is in/out of "service mode," which disables the remote starter for when you plan to do work underhood.

Chris--Wow, I'm totally impressed, excellent reply. 

Snaoum--Just so  you are not confused, Chris recommends the BLACK / YELLOW "pulse during start" to relock the doors.  I replied that the BLACK/ green "pulse after start" could be used to relock.  Either will work, but the doors will lock sooner after unlocking using the pulse during start wire Chris recommends--he is right on the money. 

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Lectric Guy

Wow guys thank you so much, this is greatly appreciated.  Very detailed info here.  Wish I didnt have to use so many damn relays. 

Relay 1:  Will be for the anti-grind

Relay 2: Will be for the lock/disarm

Relay 3: Will be for the unlock/disarm

Did you guys have to change the lock/unlock program?  Double unlock/lock settings or default?

Relays are not needed for unlock/disarm or lock.  As far as programming, I believe the defaults (Single pulse) work fine.

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Lectric Guy

I am from Framingham. 

Wouldn't the anode side of the diode be together and the cathode side each go to disarm and one to unlock?

For the anti-grind setup this is what I will be doing:

Starter key side to pin # 87a

Starter engine side to pin # 30

R/S Starter out will go to Starter or pin # 30

Light blue (ign3 300mA output) to pin # 85

How does that seem?

Ignition 12+ to pin # 86 

The Cathode (banded side)  of both diodes are connected together, and also connected to the black with blue stripe wire (which provides a 1 second ground output pulse when active).  The non-banded side of one diode is connected to unlock, the other to disarm. 

The anti-grind relay wiring you describe will work fine.

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Lectric Guy

I finished the install and everything works like a charm.  I ended up doing the 12+ for parking lights.  The wire I used was 12+ red when parking lights are on and it was location above the fuse box.  No problems, works great. There a reason you guys prefer to do the negative parking lights?  I do notice when I remote start and the parking lights do come but the interior lights dont, and the radio display dims almost to the point its blank.  I did the anti-grind and that works. 

One of the reasons for using the Gray (-) Parking Light wire at the switch connector in the steering column is that it is easy to locate ( already in the area for the bypass ) and safer.  There are two Red wires above the fuses that seem to test the same but if you choose the wrong one it will blow the blue instrument panel lights.

Great AudioVox and Civic info from Chris and letricguy!  Two thumbs up.   

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Soldering is fun!

So should I redo the parking lights?  I just find it weird that when it remote starts and parking lights come on why the interior lights dont come one around the radio, dash... when flicking the parking lights on with the switch all interior lights light up.

I always use the (-) Parking Light wire so I'm not sure what happens when the (+) Parking Light wire is used.   I just remember that warning from KarTuneMan ( thanks, KTM    ) and play it safe.  Perhaps someone else has some insights on the your symptoms.

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Soldering is fun!

Not sure if anyone did it this way but I split the lock, diode isolated to lock and arm. Used the pulse during crank like mentioned but like I said I got it lock and arm same time. Would that be ok? Alarm isn't going off or anything. Regarding the parking lights, do you Gus recommend I swap it from 12+ to negative trigger? Seems to work just fine as is.

I always use the +12 Parking lights at the same location, but there are 2 REDS like mentioned above. The correct one has TWO silver marks on it every few inches. The wrong one either doesn't have those marks at all, or at least it doesn't have 2 marks.

Well why is it that when the car is remote started and the parking lights come the interior lights don't light up, like around the radio and gear selector? The radio display dims to the point it's near impossible to see. Not a big deal just curious if this happen also when using the negative parking lights?

I never noticed.... I would make sure you have the correct red wire. Also, is what happening the lights the same dimming as if you turned on the parking lights by the switch. I know during the day if you turn on the parking lights with the switch and the combination of the lights dimming and the daylight makes it very hard to see the radio. You have to turn up the illumination all the way. Could that be the issue?

Does not dim like that when turn on the parking lights with the switch. When I remote start and the light come on and I get in and turn the switch for parking lights the radio display goes from super dark dimmed to normal dimmed like it should with parking lights and the interior lights come on. I find it weird that the interior lights stay off when remote started.

Has anyone who has done a Civic and used the 12+ parking lights noticed this dimmed radio display and no interior lights when remote started? 

Hey, sorry I haven't been on here for a few days. Framingham is nice; I have some friends who live out there. I also have a lot of Brazilian friends; they tell me you have lots of good food in Framingham!

Anyway, to answer your two questions:

1. Arm wire. It doesn't hurt that you connected the arm wire, but it also doesn't help. When the Civic is running, the factory alarm can't be armed.

Basically, whenever you remote start your car, the situation is this:

---The car itself is still theft-resistant, because the steering wheel is locked, the car can't be shifted from Park without depressing the brake, and depressing the brake kills the engine anyway.

---However, if someone wants to break into your car and steal your personal belongings from the interior, the alarm's never going to go off when they break in. Not a big deal for most people.....but yes, your car has no factory alarm when the remote starter is on.

---How often do you ever remote start the car, but then not get in and drive it? As in, you activate the remote start, but then you decide to stay home instead, and you turn the remote starter back off by remote, or you just let the runtime end?

If you want, you could connect the BLACK/ red "pulse after shutdown" to the car's arm wire......... that would rearm the factory alarm after the remote starter times out or is shut off.

2. Parking lights.

---Short answer is, I'm sure you're just fine and won't break anything.

Examples: Altimas and Maximas have the radio and HVAC panel go dark when the positive parking lights are hooked up. 2001-2007 Caravans have no dash lighting come on at all if the positive wire is used.

---Longer answer:

A. The switch makes a low-power ground when you turn it on.

B. That negative signal goes to some place(s) in the car that vary from car to car.....I'm going to guess probably the BCM (Body Control Module), which is likely part of the fuse box on your car.

C. The BCM takes your command with the switch, and does various things with it: Lights up the dash panels (based on the position of the dimmer switch), and lights up the outside of the car. Many Mitsubishis and European cars even have two separate left and right parking light wires.

So anyway...... you've basically gone around the BCM and powered up the lights by yourself, just like the BCM would have done if you turned the switch on.

Imagine ordering a pizza, but then having your friend pick it up for you instead of having it delivered. You've "jumped around" the delivery driver by having your friend do it, but it's still the same pizza.

The only thing you haven't done is supplied the correct signal(s) to activate the dash lights.

Theoretically, I guess you could, if desired, try to figure out what triggers the dash lights, at what brightness, and duplicate that with relay(s) and resitor(s) and whatnot...... but at that point it'd be easier to of course just use the negative light wire at the switch.

IN SUMMARY: It's probably best to duplicate the car's factory behavior whenever possible, which would be to try to duplicate what the light switch does..... which would be to trigger the negative wire at the switch.

However, there are so many cars where the negative wire is difficult to access (2003-2007 Accord), runs by data that we can't easily interface with (Nissan, Mitsubishi), or needs inline resistors (many Chryslers), that we installers just grab the positive wire as it saves time and energy....and it works fine anyway.

Wow awesome.  This really is great info, thanks.  Yes Framingham is nice and the food is great.