viper smartstart in a 2nd gen mdx

We had the Viper SmartStart system installed in our MDX (5101 remote starter and SmartStart module).

After install, power tailgate buttons in the vehicle wouldn't work (factory key fob and phone were fine), installer had us take it to the dealer. A control module was fried. After a week of troubleshooting, waiting for parts, replacement, we've got our vehicle back. The dealer couldn't test the remote start before we picked it up since they didn't have a fob. No fobs came with this unit and I don't think they knew they could have called me at work and had me start it from there via my phone. Anyway, it doesn't start with the remote start anymore. I get a message the command was received at the vehicle, then the lights flash 5 times I think it is, then I get a message on my phone that there was an error with the command at the vehicle. The locks work, the power tailgate works (from vehicle and from phone), the panic works (well it flashes lights, but doesn't honk like they key fob, but that's fine by me).

Obviously I'll call the dealer on Friday (holiday here tomorrow) to let them know. But, I'm wondering if there's anything I can check in the meantime? We tried the switch under the dash in case it was off or needed to be toggled to reset something, but we get the same response no matter what position that switch is in. I'd really like solve this ourselves as I fear the dealer is going to say to take it back to the original installer now, who caused the over $1000 bill of repairs and means I have no vehicle for another day, and I'm not confident they won't break something else in the meantime.

If anyone can point me in the direction of what to check for, connection not plugged in securely, loose wire, whatever, I'd be eternally grateful. Both of us are competent technically so can follow directions. I'm pretty sure that if I have to take it back to the original installer, we'll just ask them to pull it and refund our money and get it installed elsewhere, but that's yet more time out of our day and more time without our vehicle and it's our only vehicle.

Apparently I can't edit, argh. If more info is needed, just ask. I'm a newbie to this forum so not sure what info is required to aid in troubleshooting.

I looked up the code in the manual. Lights flashing 6 times (not 5) and it means that the hood is open. When it is not. The same thing happens when the hood is open. We don't have a manual hood pin switch, I think it's built into the MDX's computer?

Any advice?

What year MDX? And what kind of bypass module was used?

The hood pin switch is a gray wire on the 5101 system. This wire does not need to be hooked up at all. Make sure its not touching ground or anything.

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cerulean~blue wrote:

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The locks work, the power tailgate works (from vehicle and from phone), the panic works (well it flashes lights, but doesn't honk like they key fob, but that's fine by me).

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Is there really a panic button on this system? The 5101 is just a remote starter, not an alarm.

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godd dan it wrote:

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What year MDX? And what kind of bypass module was used?

The hood pin switch is a gray wire on the 5101 system. This wire does not need to be hooked up at all. Make sure its not touching ground or anything.

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'08 (sorry thought saying 2nd generation would be specific enough). The bypass in an iDatalink canbus according to my receipt, do you need more specific info than that?

godd dan it wrote:

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cerulean~blue wrote:

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The locks work, the power tailgate works (from vehicle and from phone), the panic works (well it flashes lights, but doesn't honk like they key fob, but that's fine by me).

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Is there really a panic button on this system? The 5101 is just a remote starter, not an alarm.

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There's a factory alarm in the MDX. The current key fob has a panic button on it that sounds the horn (and flashes lights too maybe? Can't recall right now). I assumed the 5101 would tie into that button feature as well since I was under the impression it could do anything the key fob could do? Is that not correct? The lights flash when I hit the panic on the phone app for the SmartStart right now, not sure if they did before we took it in to get our tailgate module replaced. So maybe something is wrong there too? Although I'm fine with the lights flashing as it makes it nice to find the vehicle in a dark, busy parking lot but without the horn blasting away.

godd dan it wrote:

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What year MDX? And what kind of bypass module was used?

The hood pin switch is a gray wire on the 5101 system. This wire does not need to be hooked up at all. Make sure its not touching ground or anything.

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A question, if the wire isn't hooked up, how does the vehicle know not to start via remote start when the hood is open? I thought that was safety feature?

Im not that familar with Idatalink, so the model of the Idatalink would be helpful. Theres 9 different ones for your vehicle.

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Ok I was wrong. The 5101 does have a panic mode. I guess if the installer hooked up the factory horn, then it should work. Horn function says its for both "confirmation honk and panic" according to the manual.

I just installed a Viper 5901 system not long ago. Basically the same system, but with an alarm. Didnt hook up the gray wire at all. It still works. It is a safety feature, but if you dont want to use it.....you dont have to.

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godd dan it wrote:

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Im not that familar with Idatalink, so the model of the Idatalink would be helpful. Theres 9 different ones for your vehicle.

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That may be difficult. Nothing on my invoice says what it is and I still don't know where the unit would be installed (under the dash, under the hood?) so not sure where to look. And would the model # be easily readable once I locate the unit?

This is frustrating that this forum doesn't allow multi quoting.

godd dan it wrote:

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Ok I was wrong. The 5101 does have a panic mode. I guess if the installer hooked up the factory horn, then it should work. Horn function says its for both "confirmation honk and panic" according to the manual.

I just installed a Viper 5901 system not long ago. Basically the same system, but with an alarm. Didnt hook up the gray wire at all. It still works. It is a safety feature, but if you dont want to use it.....you dont have to.

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Then my guess is he did not hook up the factory horn as we have no honk confirmation either. I do not actually *want* a horn confirmation as our vehicle doesn't do that from factory. We have a nice soft beep. But I've lost that when I use the phone app. The factory fob still causes the beep though. So, I'm fine without the horn confirmation or in panic, but wonder where the beep went?

So with the 5901 you did, did the vehicle start with the hood open? I'll have to track down this gray wire, maybe it's touching something it shouldnt be and making it think the hood is open.

It should be under the driver's side dash. The bypass module should look like this. https://store.idatalink.com/index.php?l=product_list&c=1  Its not that big. I dont know if it will have a model number on it or not.

Yes you can still remote start it if the gray wire isnt hooked up. And it doesnt matter if the hood is open or not. You said there is no hood pin switch installed. Its either touching something or (read below).

Its possibly that the Idatalink bypass module has a "hood pin status output". If the gray wire was hooked up to that and the bypass isnt working correctly, that could be your problem too.

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godd dan it wrote:

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It should be under the driver's side dash. The bypass module should look like this. https://store.idatalink.com/index.php?l=product_list&c=1  Its not that big. I dont know if it will have a model number on it or not.

Yes you can still remote start it if the gray wire isnt hooked up.

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I'll see if I can locate it although it might be too cold in the garage already to spend anytime in there after recovering from being sick the last 2 days.

What I meant by the grey wire, was did your 5901 start with the hood open? The guys at Acura told me that the systems are supposed to have it set up so they do NOT start when the hood is open. I would like mine to be set up this way and want to know if it can be without the grey wire hooked up.

Read my post above. I added more info.

I used to work at a Honda dealership installing. Worked on a few Acuras while I was there too. I remember when I installed Flashlogic CAN modules (same thing as Idatalink) and they had the hood pin status output if I remember correctly. Ive hooked it up on a Pilot before, popped the hood while it was remote started, and it didnt work. I think it did work once on a certain model Pilot....I cant remember. So its possibly that your MDX doesnt support the hood pin status output from factory. If the installer hooked up the gray wire to the Idatalink bypass....maybe thats the problem? I dont know.

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Thanks. I am understanding more how this works now.

The unit worked once it left the installer's place, this is just since Acura did the work fixing the module the installer fried. They had to unhook the units to do their work and they hooked it up again after and obviously made an error.

I believe I found my iDatalink module on my receipt. The ADS-AL CA https://store.idatalink.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=20 Funny thing is, if I browse by vehicle on iData's site, that model doesn't come up for the MDX, but when I find it manually it does says it's compatible with my vehicle.

Sorry, didn't realize this forum didn't automate links and I am not allowed to edit so here is the link again https://store.idatalink.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=20

cerulean~blue wrote:

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I believe I found my iDatalink module on my receipt. The ADS-AL CA https://store.idatalink.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=20 Funny thing is, if I browse by vehicle on iData's site, that model doesn't come up for the MDX, but when I find it manually it does says it's compatible with my vehicle.

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Yup...the ADS-AL CA does have a hood output. Im guessing the installer hooked up the gray wire from the Viper system to the ADS-AL CA. Like I said, if the MDX doesnt support this and its hooked up, it might not allow you to remote start the car. I could be wrong though.

So if this is the problem....have your installer install a hood pin switch and hook the gray wire to it. Then you will have your saftey feature that you want.

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I haven't been able to get inside the vehicle and look around as the kids would be alone, but I've confirmed that our vehicle does have a hood sensor. Our manual specifically states that the alarm will not arm if the hood is open and if the security system is armed, opening the hood will set off the alarm.

This means to me that the grey wire should be connected, correct? I will verify that tomorrow. That wouldn't explain why it won't start when the hood is closed though.

cerulean~blue wrote:

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I haven't been able to get inside the vehicle and look around as the kids would be alone, but I've confirmed that our vehicle does have a hood sensor. Our manual specifically states that the alarm will not arm if the hood is open and if the security system is armed, opening the hood will set off the alarm.

This means to me that the grey wire should be connected, correct? I will verify that tomorrow. That wouldn't explain why it won't start when the hood is closed though.

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Like I said before, if the gray wire isnt hooked up at all, the remote starter should still work. If the gray wire is hooked up to the Idatalink module and theres a problem with the module, then that could keep it from being able to remote start. Or if the gray wire is touching ground.

Seems like the installer really messed up. You said he fried a control module right? Thats not something I would do. So my only guess is that the gray wire on the Viper system is not properly hooked up.

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godd dan it wrote:

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Like I said before, if the gray wire isnt hooked up at all, the remote starter should still work. If the gray wire is hooked up to the Idatalink module and theres a problem with the module, then that could keep it from being able to remote start. Or if the gray wire is touching ground.

Seems like the installer really messed up. You said he fried a control module right? Thats not something I would do. So my only guess is that the gray wire on the Viper system is not properly hooked up.

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But the remote starter worked originally, so it was hooked up right. It was our power lift gate that did not work from the buttons in the vehicle because the module ipfor the lift gate got cooked during the install (how he did this I am not sure as that control module isn't even needed for the remote start, itis only for hard button inside the vehicle, the factory key fobs and remote start key fobs use a different interface).

Acura unplugged the remote starter to install and test the new lift gate control module. Once the lift gate module was working, they plugged in the remote starter again. Now it thinks the hood is open and won't start. Acura said they did not touch his wiring.

We looked, there is no grey wire connected to the idatalink. According to the install manual for the bypass, which I read today, it says that the hood output doesn't need to be connected if there is 2-way communication on the idatalink cable. I have no idea if ours is set up with 2-way communication. And the idatalink manual confirms there is hood communication with our vehicle.

We're not going to touch anything. was just hoping it was something easy like a loose connection or something unplugged. Maybe the bypass has to be reprogrammed.

My main worry now is that we have to take it back to the installer tomorrow and I'm not sure if he's a bonehead or if his mistake that fried the module was just a mistake. I don't want a bonehead doing anymore work on this so if that's the case I want it pulled, my money back and I'll go elsewhere. If it was an honest error and he's not normally incompetent then I suppose he should have the chance to get this sorted out.

Its possible that the bypass needs to be reprogrammed and/or flashed again. I didnt know the remote starter orginally worked before.

Im pretty sure Viper isnt compatible with Idatalink bypasses. That means you cant connect using the data cable (I think thats what they call 2-way communication), so you have run the gray wire to the Idatalink bypass or wire in a hood pin switch.

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