Suburban Won’t Start With Remote

Hello!

I have a 1997 GMC Suburban and threwnon a remote starter. It’s a Avital 5305L and it’s driving me nuts. When I hit the remote start it will turn on lights and my electric fans, then after a couple seconds shut off and try again. It’s like the starter is not engaging. I have checked and double checked my connections. I have used a test night at the starter wire to the ignition and lights up upon turning my key. However the wire that goes to the starter has no voltage lighting up the tester. My truck will start when I use the key so the circuit is complete there. If I unplug the harness from the brain it won’t so again this shows it has a complete circuit. Also I can arm and disarm but this does not lock and unlock my doors. Again used my test light and figured out which wire was the lock and unlock wire and notta. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I feel like this has to be something simple I am just missing.

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David
1997 GMC Suburban K1500 4x4 5.7 350

Sounds like the remote starter is seeing a door as being open.
Have you made a connection to the dome light or driver door closed/open switch?

Yes, I have both the done light hooked up and the door trigger hooked up. My Suburban has a dome light over ride that I have tried with on and off. I tested both wires that I tapped into for the dome light and door trigger to make sure my test light lite up (have wire colors and diagram) but still tested them when I tapped into them. Also used the test light to test my taps too. Lights up like a Xmas tree

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David
1997 GMC Suburban K1500 4x4 5.7 350

Can you list it your wiring connections so we can get a better look at things.

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If i Can't Install it    I Don't need it   Joe

Over years of watching "doesn't start" threads on here, I've learned it is often one of the shutdown inputs isn't connected properly. Especially the blk/wht neiutral wire. Check these three wires:

blk/wht neutral safety wire must BE grounded.
brown brake wire must NOT have 12V on it. (If you have installed LED taillights in your 97, this WILL be the problem).
grey hood input must NOT be grounded.

There are shutdown diagnostics that tell you why it did not finish the start sequence. How to access and read them are in the install manual.

Here is my wiring for the Avital - https://f01.justanswer.com/TqJV2BKZ/N5X05+2016-01+web.pdf
Here is my Suburban's wiring - https://www.alarmsellout.com/support/diagrams/vehicle/CHEVROLET%20SUBURBAN%201987-2005.pdf

I know its not the hood pin, that was an issue at one time, but the parking lights flash a number of times like a check engine code so got that taken care of.
The blk/wht neutral safety wire, forgive me for sounding stupid but want to make sure its the same, on my kit its a parking brake wire. I do not have that one hooked up at all as I thought that was an option incase you had a manual transmission. Since I don't I never set my parking brake, honestly on a 21 year old truck I don't like using it unless needed out of fear of it getting stuck. My dads 80 Ford did all the time so always worried about using it ha ha.

The brown brake wire doesn't have 12V on it, tested it to make sure. It only does when I press the brake. Also when the truck acts like it is about to start if I press the brake it aborts like it should. HOWEVER! One thing that struck my interest is you said LED taillights. I did install LED Taillights.



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David
1997 GMC Suburban K1500 4x4 5.7 350

As Dave said, the black/white wire must be grounded. Directly from the manual:

"Black/White: (-) PARKING BRAKE/EMERGENCY BRAKE INPUT
This input wire connects to the parking brake/emergency brake wire in the vehicle. This wire must have a
ground for the remote start to operate."

Since your vehicle is an automatic, don't worry about connecting it to the emergency brake, just ground it.

Then try your remote start. If that doesn't do it, unplug your LED taillights and try again.

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My ex once told me I have a perfect face for radio.

Blk/wht MUST be grounded.
The light flashes were indicating the shutdown code. IIRC, neutral (the blk/wht wire) is 7 flashes.

Sounds like the LED taillights aren't an issue, as you have tested, and the behavior changes if you touch the brakes.

It's the blk/wht wire almost every time in these "won't start" threads.

first things first, if the black/white neutral safety wire isn't grounded the RS would do nothing, not even turn anything on. Try a ignition take over, turn the key to on but do not start it. Hit the RS sequence and see what it does. If it start and runs there something with a accessory or ignition wire (did you hook up all 3 ignitions?). If i remember correctly they didn't use the pass lock 2 in a suburban till 1999. Could always do a shut down diagnostics, let is cycle the 3 times trying to start with the RS, push the black programming button and hold it, turn ignition to on, release black programming button, count the flashes. Should be a number from 1-11



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33 years as a installer now just a retired old guy. Favorite thing to install/topic are remote starts/car alarms. Stop using test lights!!!