viper 160 xv + remote programming issue

Hi All,

Need some help with an old Viper 160 XV rem start/keyless.

Picked up the unit 2nd hand; no remotes and the antenna was kind of messed up in so far as two of the pins were pulled out of the plug of the antenna itself. Everything else was fine. Soldered the pins to the antenna, using caution of course, but did so in a way that I never touched the circuit board (basically threaded the wire through the opening on the female side of the antenna plug and soldered the wire to itself. Of note, during my install, I checked the circuit board of the antenna and brain and ensured there was continuity between the pins on each to ensure that my soldering was correct and that the pins were functional).

I installed the unit into my base 95 Impreza L over the weekend; purchased a DEI 474T remote after researching that that remote worked for all remotes with the 474 imprint. (For the 160 XV, DEI recommends the 474v, 473v, 471c, 7141v, and 7142v remotes…all of which aren’t readily available anymore or are far too expensive). Anyway I was able to program Tach and heard the appropriate click from the brain/horn honk correlating to that programming. I then moved onto the auto learn programming for the remote and despite being able to access the menu to do so, once I pushed the button on the remote itself to program, there was no confirmation honk and in fact the 15 second no activity horn honk was heard. So basically I am having an issue with the antenna not pairing with the remote. My thoughts are that I have the wrong/incompatible remote, a defective remote (despite the fact it came new from amazon in the original blister pack), or the antenna is jacked up from either my soldering or the way in which I found it. As an aside, it appears the XR Plus antennas are either hard to come by or are much more expensive than I initially thought to spend.

I do want to mention that I was, as of 2012, MECP certified and am quite handy with a multimeter. I am more willing to try to diagnose the exact issue than throw money at it to replace things.


Best,
Alan

Any advice or guidance at all would be greatly appreciated. I also could have boiled down my original post to, "Remote won't pair"/"Potential faulty antenna or remote".