2008 subaru outback, remote start problem

Hi, great forum vibe here. I searched for some sort of answer to my question to no avail. I apologize in advance if I missed anything during my search.

Car: 2008 Subaru Outback

Remote Start System: Prestige (Audiovox?) APS901. Installed by the dealership's third party alarm tech.

Problem: Unless I shut the car alarm off, the horn will sound when I hit the remote start. The specs on the remote start say that there is a factory alarm bypass. I've brought the car into the dealership. They brought in the third party tech. I was informed that ALL '08 Subarus have this problem with all remote start systems. You must shut the alarm off (unlocking the doors in the process) to turn on the remote without the horn going off.

Now...I live in New York City. It is an inconvenience to me to have to go outside to shut my alarm off, turn on the car, then turn the car alarm back on. They only other option is to wake my neighborhood up at 5:30 in the morning! I told them to take it out and I'll have it installed by someone who knows what they are doing They say I'll have to pay a "labor charge." Before I commit myself to fighting the dealership I feel the need to validate my assumptions.

Questions:

1) Is the dealership feeding me a line of BS?
2) Am I being unreasonable about this? My Toyota has autostart and doesn't have this problem.
3) Shouldn't I expect them to warn me about this "problem" prior to purchase and installation or is this a common occurrence.

I thank you guys in advance for your opinions.



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~Rich~

It DOES have a disarm wire in your car, I would ask them to have the installer to hook it up.

usabuilt wrote:

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It DOES have a disarm wire in your car, I would ask them to have the installer to hook it up.

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Thanks. I've asked them to do that and they tell me it's impossible. Is there something I can point them to in order to let them know that I am not buying their explanation and that I have proof otherwise?

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~Rich~

Well I just looked at Audiovox tech sheet and they have no listing on your car, but Astrostart does have a wire which they can use, I doubt very much you can do anything with these guys if they have not looked further into the matter allrady.

I am not going to post the wire because you are not an installer.

usabuilt wrote:

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Well I just looked at Audiovox tech sheet and they have no listing on your car, but Astrostart does have a wire which they can use, I doubt very much you can do anything with these guys if they have not looked further into the matter allrady.

I am not going to post the wire because you are not an installer.

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Thanks for your replies. I'm a bit confused as to why you wouldn't post the wire though. It's not like I'm going to do it myself.

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~Rich~

Nothing against you, its just that the wire is in the BIM module and if they haven't figured it out, telling you the wire and you repeating it to them could possibly lead to them just connected a wire without testing it, and ruining you new Subaru.

From what you are saying its possible they could be just wire connectors instead of techs.

usabuilt wrote:

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Nothing against you, its just that the wire is in the BIM module and if they haven't figured it out, telling you the wire and you repeating it to them could possibly lead to them just connected a wire without testing it, and ruining you new Subaru.

From what you are saying its possible they could be just wire connectors instead of techs.

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I understand. Thanks for all your help.

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~Rich~

DEI lists the wire for 2007 but not 2008. If your installer would have pulled the door panel apart and tested for a disarm wire, normally in Honda's there is a wire that will show negative only while you turn the key in the driver's door to unlock. There should be a wire that might do the same in your vehicle. It quite possibly is in the kick panel or the boot going into driver side of door jam. The installers who put it in should be able to figure that out you would think.

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The wire I'm test'n isn't doin' what it's supposed to be doin'... I am so glad I printed that tech sheet, with the wrong info.
Do it right the first time... or I might have to fix it for ya

Ok...Million dollar question.

Am I correct in insisting that the horn beeping upon activation is unacceptable? Am I being too much of a pain in the "you know what."

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~Rich~

boxofrain,

No, you're not being unacceptable. No one wants to wake up the neighborhood with their remote starter.

Try this:

1. Completely close the car (hood, trunk, doors).

2. Lock car with factory remote. Many factory alarms require 30 seconds to full arm. To be safe, leave the car alone for at least a minute.

3. From outside the car, insert the key in the driver's door, and turn it once to the unlock position (unlocking the driver's door only).

4. Try the remote starter.

5. Did the alarm go off this time? If it didn't, then there's surely what we call a "disarm wire."

Basically, there's a little switch attached to the key cylinder inside the door, and when you turn the key, the switch puts ground to a certain wire, to "tell" the factory alarm to turn off.

The Audiovox remote starter has a wire (BLACK/ blue) labeled "pulse before start," or some installers simply call it "factory disarm."

Regardless, it's just a matter of finding/testing the correct wire inside the car (occasionally it's only available INSIDE the driver's door), and connecting the Audiovox's BLACK/ blue to it.

As the others here have said, this is a basic, everyday installation task. If the installer can't/won't figure this out, that's not a good sign.

The Outback is the wagon version of the Legacy, right? The Legacy has a disarm wire at the car's body computer, under the driver's dash. It's just a matter of connecting ONE easy wire.

In the installer's defense:

A. Older Subarus (and many other older imported cars) didn't have any disarm wire attached to the key cylinder. The only way to disarm the alarm was through the original remote.

It's possible your installer is thinking of older Subarus, or doesn't work on a lot of them, and he doesn't realized they've added this wire in recent years.

However, that's no excuse for not checking out the car, and at least trying.

B. It's also slightly possible that he's correct, and that your car doesn't have the disarm wire. That's why I asked you to make the test described above.

P.S. Do you ever visit Boston at all? I've been installing Audiovox (for new-car dealerships) since 2001. If they can't fix it, let me know and I'll give you a hand. You can buy me a coffee or something.

You also talked about having it removed and getting a refund, and they said they'd charge you for that? Wow! Not cool!

I'm not a lawyer and therefore I have no idea what their (or your) rights are in that case...........but they're fools to not do something to take care of you.

Did you buy the remote start as part of the sale of the car, or was it installed later through their service department?

If you paid by credit card, call your credit card company. There are sometimes ways to contest the charges, when someone charges you and then doesn't deliver the product/service you paid for.

Also, have you received in the mail from Subaru any type of survey? New-car dealerships are always worried about their CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) scores.

It's really important to them that on the survey, you give them the top score in each category. They might even give you a note that says something like "if you can't mark all categories 'completely satisfied,' call us first."

Things like remote starters, pinstriping, and so forth, are what dealers call "aftersell."

When things go smoothly, the dealership makes a couple hundred extra bucks without lifting a finger.

On the other hand, nothing upsets them more than when an aftersell deal turns bad, and the dealer gets a bad CSI score because of it.

So, if you get a survey like that, before you fill it out, bring it to the manager's attention, and tell him about this unresolved problem.

As long as he gets the impression you want to give him a good score (as long as he fixes the problem), he's likely to want to help you.

Wow Chris...thanks for the reply and offer. I don't make it to Boston as much as I like as I'm usually heading up to the slopes in Vermont in the Winter. If all else fails I may take you up on the offer. I'm prepared to take the dealership on with this problem. I bought it when I purchased the car. Someone screwed the pooch here and it certainly wasn't me.

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~Rich~

Is the Outback more like an Imprezza, or a Legacy? I have worked on an 08 Legacy, but not an 08 Imprezza. The Legacy can be remote started without the horn beeping, the Imprezza I'll have to do more research on.

JWorm] wrote:

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Is the Outback more like an Imprezza, or a Legacy? I have worked on an 08 Legacy, but not an 08 Imprezza. The Legacy can be remote started without the horn beeping, the Imprezza I'll have to do more research on.

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It's the legacy outback, thanks.

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~Rich~

lostissues wrote:

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are you still using the factory remote? a lot of times, not sure with the 08's though the subaru alarm is an OEM remote disarm/arm only, so if you are using the factory remote the best thing to do is to stop using it, unlock the doors with it and throw it in your glove box, and just use the aftermarket remote for remstart, lock/unlock.

again not sure if this is the case with the 08's but this is what i tell people whenever i do a subi that is oem remote arm disarm only.

Jonathan

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sorry about not using the quote button right.

Jonathon

i need to work on a 2000 legacy with problems on 2 factory remotes. the problem- the buttons need to be pressed numerous times before they work.  so your saying if i disarm the factory alarm with the factory remote and install a aftermarket keyless entry unit, it should take care of the problem. what if they press the lock/unlock buttons on the door, will this rearm the factory alarm.( i wont see the car for a few more days) they dont mind the car not having any type of keyless entry, but if i can make it work even better. do you think i should try a new oem remote first. i dont think this car has a disarm wire, because the key alone will not turn off the factory alarm, in any door.thanks for any responses.