starter grinding with remote start, 03 xterra

So you're saying that if my wife hits her remote start (DEI) button on her remote and the unit never sees a tach signal it will crank the starter until she leaves the house 10 mintues later and shuts the remote start off?  I find that impossible to believe.

If you consider tach signals AC then you would have to consider CAN bus signals AC as well, and even ignition and headlight wires, as they all switch between 12vdc and ground.  That being said, I have seen one vehicle that actually had an AC tach signal - it was a WRX that was using some sort of magnetic pick up that created a perfect sine wave (complete with - voltage).  Most cars these days use crank angle hall effect sensors that are a pulsing DC square wave.

When does the starter start to crank?  DEI units turn the ignition on and then wait a few seconds before turning the starter on.  So, if you have the starter wire hooked up correctly you should see the ignition turn on and then a few seconds later the starter should start to crank. 

Interesting I'll have to try it out tonight.

In all my years of installing I have never seen this happen.  In all my years of engineering I don't see how a reputable company would allow this to happen.  Running a starter for 15 minutes while grinding the starter can cause substantial damage to a car - there is no reason a starter should ever crank longer then 30 seconds.

The tach wire controls the starter out signal - if the signal is shutting off the starter should be losing power and the bendix should be retracting.  Do you ever have problems when manually starting the car?

i know with all the vipers i've had that have had the tach wire cut they only crank for a second or two then retry two more times

i have never seen one crank and crank

i think the max crank time on a viper is 8 seconds

also measuring the tach wire i found that my fluke with frequency measurement is more reliable than trying to measure ac voltage

Now that you got it working time to upgrade to a remote start that you'll actually like!

I spent 45 minutes today trying to reprogram a remote to a BOA system.  Once the remote was finally programmed I got to enjoy the amazing 12' range.

How is the range on your unit?