virtual tach avital 4113

Got an 06 Ford Explorer 4.0L V6. Have a tach wire hooked up to the fuel injector on passenger side of engine first one from the front of the car. When the temperature is cold outside for the first start it does not always start on the first attempt. Usually for the second attempt it will start. Sometimes it will barely catch and the car will start, but not always. I have changed to voltage, it will start, but then the issue with the starting comes when the car is warm it will over crank it a little. Changed to virtual tach and it programmed itself for 350 milliseconds. I have played with it a little and set for 500ms. Now I bumped it up to 600ms. I don't know if its in my head or not, but it seems to work a little better than tach. Time will tell. Do the adjustments with the bitwriter for the virtual tach fine tune actually work? Does virtual tach crank the car a little more the second time if it doesn't start the first time? It does not seem to have a issue staying running or grinding the starter. I am surprised on this car that the tach is an issue. Anyone else experience this or similar? The car does not have factory over crank protection. My other Explorer (2006 V8) does have it and its set for a 2 second crank on voltage and works great every single time without fail with a Avital 4113. The newer 4x03 DEI module is installed not the older units that have the Avital name on it. I have relearned tach at various rpms. Normal idle, 1000, 1500, 2000. All give the same result. Not as much worried about the over rev protection, more the start the first time problem. This is the only car I have issues with tach. Any other cars I have done do not have this type of issue. Any car with factory anti grind get a 2 sec voltage setup. Works perfect.

Where did you connect your tach at? Based on your description I'm assuming either a coil or a fuel injector - the first thing I would do is swap the tach wire to a different tach source (ie if you are using coil go to fuel injector). It is impossible for virtual tach to work better then a correctly wired and learned hardwired tach. The tach signal sends real time RPM data to the remote start. Most motors crank around 300 RPM and idle around 1000 RPM making it very easy for a remote start system to know exactly when internal combustion takes over spinning the engine. Virtual tach, much like voltage, is still a guess. It may be a step better then relying solely on voltage, but it is still guessing and has no way to know what the motor is actually doing. Some installers/shops swear by voltage / virtual tach. I swear by hardwire tach signals. Sure, it's harder, takes longer, and sometimes requires you try multiple signals before you get a signal that works, but it is hands down the best way to go.Kevin Pierson

KPierson wrote: Where did you connect your tach at? Based on your description I'm assuming either a coil or a fuel injector - the first thing I would do is swap the tach wire to a different tach source (ie if you are using coil go to fuel injector). It is impossible for virtual tach to work better then a correctly wired and learned hardwired tach. The tach signal sends real time RPM data to the remote start. Most motors crank around 300 RPM and idle around 1000 RPM making it very easy for a remote start system to know exactly when internal combustion takes over spinning the engine. Virtual tach, much like voltage, is still a guess. It may be a step better then relying solely on voltage, but it is still guessing and has no way to know what the motor is actually doing. Some installers/shops swear by voltage / virtual tach. I swear by hardwire tach signals. Sure, it's harder, takes longer, and sometimes requires you try multiple signals before you get a signal that works, but it is hands down the best way to go.

100% agree!

I have it on a fuel injector. I have tried the coil and still no luck. It has me puzzled. I tried Virtual tach as DEI said. It does actually work. It programmed for 350ms and I set to 600 for a better crank. It starts every time so far. I am so surprised. I cant believe the tach issue this is having. But after playing with the virtual tach settings, it works great so far. I would rather a tach wire, but cant get it to crank properly. First time with virtual tach, still a little nervous, but we will see what happens.

I have experienced that exact same thing you have when it comes to dei products and fords learning tach and starting reliably.  I have had a pile of fords(f150, escape, fusion, mustang, explorer) that would learn tach and not start when it's cold out.  99% of the time on fords I use virtual tach when it's an avital or viper product I am installing.  It just seems that it is the only way to get it to remote start everytime.  I have had a few early 2000 ish taurus's that would hang up on virtual tach so I did run a tach wire in them.  I have used injectors whenever possible.  I have used coil just to try even though most of the time it isnt reliable in fords.  I have not tried a sensor like cam or crank.  I wonder how it would pan out using one of those.  I agree with Kevin's statement that a hardwired tach signal is the best and most reliable approach but it has been my experience, using avital/viper products, that virtual is the way to go on fords.  I have asked tech support and spoken with a dei rep about the situation and they said they have never had a problem.  I have used different products(omega,compustar)and they will learn tach just fine.  They also start first try when it's cold out.  Advanced

no. Its the newer one with the 1 jumper for parking lights only. I thought about that too, but I think the older units had it.

BTW- smokeman1-- I have the 4 button version on my 2001 Taurus and it works fine in tach mode. Never an issue. I do have it connected to the tach wire at the cluster not a coil or injector.

Did you enable the shutdown diagnostics to see what it is reporting as the cause? There are a number of things that can cause this issue. Dose this symptom occur when you use the key and crank for the same amount of time when cold. If so could be fuel preasure bleed off and drain back to tank and it takes a second time to purge the air from line. Another thing is a slow response from the ANTI-THEFT FORD'S SECURILOCK ANTI-THEFT TRANSPONDER SYSTEM. For this as a test turn on the wait to start for 15 seconds and see if any change. Had a 95 Chevy Monte Carlo that wouldn't start unless the wait to start was enabled as the key read was slow on the key provided for programming, if you put the key in and turned it right away to start starter wouldn't engage, turn it to on and wait 5 seconds and then turn to start, it started everytime. As the default time of the 4103xv was too short for the key to read in time to bypass the security and enable the starter relay.

It does not shut down. It may or may not start the first time, but usually it kicks over the second time. It does not happen when starting with the key. It may need a slightly longer crank because it is cold but starts right up. The remote start with the tach wire will not give it the longer crank it may need. It acts like it is on a preset crank time like voltage, but it is not. Virtual tach so far has started the car every time the first time for the last few days. Here in NY it has been colder temps around 25-30.