neutral safety wire? where can I find it?

Anyone knows if the TOyota Highlander 03 has a neutral safety input wire? This lets the car not start in any gear other than Neutral and Park.   If yes, where can I find it and what color is it? I could probably ground it directly, but then I won't have the safety of not starting in gear or reverse. I would like to do it right. Thanks.

just connect the wire to a toggle  switch so you can disable the remote start when car is being service. The car already has the safety device built in. Try it, shift car gear while car is off. the car will only start in neutral or in the park position. Good Luck.Luis

Sound Waves

Is up to the installer to test all wires with a DMM whenever possible.

thats true that the safety is "built in". however that safety is in this form: you cannot turn the key from "on" to "start" unless the shift lever is on N or P. It says that on the repair manual vol 2 page 40-41 on how to test this while adjusting a new switch assembly. This seems to be a physical limitation of preventing you from turning the key. So it looks like this does not prevent the car from being started by a remote-starter which doesn't have to turn the key from "on" to "start". Have you tried starting with a remote-start? If so let me know your results/testing. thanks. About the "disable while in service" idea, does the hood pin switch not serve that purpose? Just thinking out out. Correct me if I am wrong.

yes the hood switch serves that purpose. Good Luck

David

Ace Security

813-376-9778

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If you read closely, what the instruction manual probably says or should say is that specific vehicles (namely most pre-1997 rear wheel drive GM vehicles, and pre-1997 Dodge Dakotas) have mechanical(as opposed to electric) neutral safety switches like what you described. Toyotas, and almost all other vehicles have an electric switch on the transmission which will not allow current to flow to the starter unless the car is in park or neutral. You do not need to worry about hooking the neutral safety wire up to any wire on this vehicle.

so do I connect the neutral-start wire (remote-start side) to ground? I got to check my manuals again to make 100 percent sure. i think it has to go to ground if I don't want to connect it to the car. and yes you;re right in regards to the starter being wired through the safety switch whereby it won't close the circuit unless its in N or P. just read it in the manual for the vehicle. i will post any useful/interesting details if i find any, after actually doing it. thanks.

You can connect it directly to ground; if your remote start came with a 2-wire toggle switch, you can also hook one of those wires up to the neutral safety wire, and the other to ground. That way you can manually disable the r/s without having to open the hood. BTW, have you done the doorlocks yet on that highlander? Fun fun fun if you haven't(the car's a dream other than that though).

I did not get a chance to do it today as I began after 5pm and it started to get dark. Im going to do it tomorrow morning. About the door locks, I will have to see what I do tomorrow. I did think about it for a long time and it did worry me a bit. If I screw up anything in the car, it will be a problem since I am doing it on street-side and not in a garage.    I guess having the repair manuals might help me a little bit.   I will let you know after I do it. thanks. When you said fun fun fun, were you saying it is going to be a pain or were you serious? Just curious.

I was being half serious...it's more difficult than old Toyotas where they were always negative trigger and you never needed relays, but it's less difficult than on cars where you need to go inside the door for the wires. On the Highlander and a lot of other late model Toyotas, there are 3 wires you need to interface with to lock the doors. One gets grounded to lock, one gets grounded to unlock, and the third gets cut to lock and grounded to unlock. If you don't have wiring color info on those locks, PM me and I'll look it up for you.