omega mars 22 remote start no start

In December I purchased a '99 Mitsu Montero Sport.  A previous owner had installed an Omega MARS-22 remote starter.

The remote start feature has worked fine until now.

I recently removed the wires from the (+) battery terminal to remove some minor corrosion and apply some anti-corrosion grease.

After reconnecting the wires the truck won't start by remote OR CONVENTIONALLY.

I get a series of clicks when I try to start it by remote (just like it's going to start), but it doesn't crank.  Using the key gets the same results.

I'm not going to accept that it's a low battery, at least not at this point - all the accessories work fine and the headlight shine bright.

Also, since cleaning the batt. terminals - opening a door, or attempting a remote start causes the parking lights to flash continuously for 30 sec or so.

I'm trying to find something in the manual about a reset procedure, but nothing's jumping out at me.

I'm lost, and my wife is without her truck because of this accessory I don't really need anyway -- VERY frustrating.

I have a DMM.  I'm fairly well versed in basic electronics. 

We just went through a brutal winter with a LOT of mornings in the 00's to 10's.  It has NEVER shown signs of a weak battery.

It has a $90 800CCA Duralast Gold battery that isn't more than 2 or 3 yrs old.

Voltage drops from ~12.4 to ~12.2 when the pkg lights are flashing.  I realize that's less than ideal (12.6v), but there's no evidence telling me it's not capable of cranking the engine.

At the end of the remote starting sequence (the point where it should try to start) there's no voltage drop at all.  This tells me the starter is being disabled, THAT is the problem I need to solve.

Get under the dash and see if you have a starter kill installed. your starter wire is blk / YELLOW.

Disconnect it from the relay and put the starter wire back together. This should at least let you start with the key.

KarTuneMan wrote:

---

Get under the dash and see if you have a starter kill installed. your starter wire is blk / YELLOW.

Disconnect it from the relay and put the starter wire back together. This should at least let you start with the key.

---

I got a similar response from someone at Sounddomain.  That sounds like the next logical step.

"go into the factory ignition harness and remove the relay that acts as a starter kill. Reconnect the starter wire and then you won't have this problem. Disconnect the power from teh alarm, this is your quick fix. This will allow you use of the car while you troubleshoot the issue."

So from your advice, and the above quote --

The "ignition harness"?  Would this be in the steering column?  (That's where it was in my old T-bird)  I need to find a blk/yel wire - trace it to a relay (I assume this wire will go into and out of the relay).  Take them off the relay and connect them?

I was able to get in touch with the tech at caralarm.com (Omega's site)...I was told to cut the orange wire coming off the remote start unit.  It is the starter kill and cutting it should allow the starter to work.

I suppose I could also trace this orange wire to find the starter kill relay?

I've accumulated some more info - hopefully it will help someone help ME get this stupid thing figured out.

It seems I have the MARS32, not the 22.  The 32 is basically a full featured alarm with remote start.

What's happening is the alarm will not disarm.  Which is disabling the starter.

I can enable the starter by following KarTune's so the truck will at least be functional.  However, if the alarm never disarms it appears I'll be driving around with flashing parking lights all day. 

This is not fun at all.