2000 grand caravan remote starter

Newbie to this forum and I need your expert opinions.

I've never installed a remote starter before but I have installed car stereos for years and have over 20 years hobby experience in cars and electronics.

Add to that, I'm a cheap mustard. I want to add an inexpensive (<$100?) remote starter to a 2000 Grand Caravan for interior cooling and heating. Has no security system, factory or otherwise; does have remote unlock. Would like to have both work under a single remote and need 2 remotes.

What are your opinions?

Yes.

I was looking at the 4300 on eBay but this sounds like a good choice. I really don't need an alarm. Honestly, who steals a minivan?

Didn't realize they don't honor the warranty for a self installed system.

That's interesting! So you're saying that i can just hit the door lock switch 3 times and the car will start?

Looking into this further I realize that the Caravan AC system requires that the cold button (a snowflake? "*") has to be pressed to turn on the AC. Guessing that would need a relay and a trigger out from the starter unit?

That's interesting! So you're saying that i can just hit the door lock switch 3 times and the car will start?

yeap, some units will allow a activation wire, and with a certain ammount of pulses, it will start the car as if u had some1 there starting it.

Looking into this further I realize that the Caravan AC system requires that the cold button (a snowflake? "*") has to be pressed to turn on the AC. Guessing that would need a relay and a trigger out from the starter unit?

well, the car uses a latch output to trigger AC if im correct. Right now, i would want the heat to be turned on no the AC (depending where you live) but a wire from the unit should be able to trigger the AC. each unit has a ground out when running, that wire will be used to sent power to a relay that will trigger you AC button. Its best to run that through a switch so during winter, AC doesnt come on and summer, flip the switch to ON, and turn the heat down. simple, when u get ur system just ask and install should be a breeze.

I'm gonna go with the Avital, seems the best bet. Good price sources? Or should I stick with eBay?

Yeah the AC has to be latched, but the heat just has to be set ahead of time. I live in NY, so yeah, it's cold.

Good idea with the on/off switch.  

I'll touch back here once I get it in.

OK. I ended up getting the Avital 4100 and am in the process of identifying the wiring according to the wiring

Stop me if this sounds wrong to anybody.

The parking lights listing says to look for a light GREEN / WHITE wire and has a negative sign next to it (-).

Looking in the installation guide, it’s looking for it the other way around. So I have a negative (-) parking

Right below that it says the following:

Note: Vehicles that use a (-) signal from the switch to the factory relay may be interfaced directly. (See H1/5 WHITE wire of Primary Harness (H1) Wire Connection Guide section.)

Looking a few pages later, the H1/5 is referred to as: "H1/5 Gray/Black (-) diesel wait to start bulb input", so

I'm guessing there is a typo here in the manual. Further checking seems to indicate they mean the "H1/9

WHITE (+/-) light flash output". So far so good, yes?

So....

I have to switch the light flash (+/-) jumper to (-) light flash output.

According to the wiring diagram, I can directly attach the white (-) light flash output to the light GREEN / WHITE

wire.

Now, whether or not it draws 10 amps or more I don't know yet. Does anyone know this vehicle well enough to tell me? (2000 Dodge Grand Caravan)

I'm going to go test it in the meantime.

Looking forward to your responses.

Addendum:

I tested the current. If I'm reading it correctly it is way below the 10A threshold. Meter only reads mA, and it hardly moved. Guess that it's feeding the factory relay.

Next:

Where is the darn PCM??  It's getting dark here so I'm gonna leave it til tommorow morning.

Step forward a bit.

Parking light wiring is working fine. I hooked up everything I was able to find and was able to get the remote starter working.

I picked up the tach wire directly from the distributor. I bypassed the neutral safety switch by going straight to ground because I couldn't find the right wire for it. (I know it's not right and I want to correct that when I can. Got to find out where the PCM is.)

Also couldn't find the door lock trigger either, so I picked it up directly from the driver's side door switch. Currently it is hooked up direct to the wire and it does unlock. I know it calls for a 250ohm resistor (or a 100ohm perhaps?), and the unlock needs a 1.5K. Do both of those wires get connected to the same point?

Thanks.

every1 grounds the NSS or ebrake wire oon autos. newer cars cant start in gear anyways. as for the PCM, it is located to the right of the glovebox.

Door Trigger: BROWN / Green (-) ** monitors all doors ** located @ the top of the fusebox.

the locks and unlock work on a single wire negative system. so yes both wires will be run to one wire, you might want to use 2 relays and isolate them.

BROWN / Green ? That differs from the chart offered here:

https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/alarmdetail/678.html

Either way, I'm off to get those resistors and then find the PCM. I'm glad there was a place to sound off otherwise I would have given up a while ago. It's good to be this close to the end.

J