Viper Alarm has Disabled My Starter Help!
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Security and Convenience
Forum Discription: Car Alarms, Keyless Entries, Remote Starters, Immobilizer Bypasses, Sensors, Door Locks, Window Modules, Heated Mirrors, Heated Seats, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=17753
Printed Date: June 23, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Topic: Viper Alarm has Disabled My Starter Help!
Posted By: 96Neon
Subject: Viper Alarm has Disabled My Starter Help!
Date Posted: August 18, 2003 at 8:50 AM
I have a 96 Dodge Neon 4 door. It is a base model and I bought it 2 years ago. It came with a Viper Alarm already installed with remote start and power locks installed. A few days ago, I went to get into my car, my alarm went off when I opened the door. I never armed the alarm when I got out. My normal button sequence on my remote transmitter did not cut off the alarm. I started hitting buttons and it finally went off. It then seemed to go into lockout mode and would not let me start my car. I unhooked the battery which I had hoped would clear the alarm's memory, but it did not. Whenever I tried to hook the battery back up, the alarm would go off instantly. I decided that the alarm was faulty, so I unhooked it yesterday. I removed all of the connections that were made with the alarm, I think, and it still is acting the same way. I was thinking that it was a dead battery, but I tried to jump it by hooking jumper cables up from another car and it still did not crank. I must have missed something or not hooked up a wire that I need to. If anyone can shed some light on this situation, I would greatly appreciate it. This is my only method of transportation so I need to get it fixed quickly. Is there something that I need to reset or is there a workaround that I can do? Any suggestions or comments are welcome. Thanks all. Jay
Replies:
Posted By: 96Neon
Date Posted: August 18, 2003 at 1:34 PM
Somebody please.....give me a suggestion on something to try!!
Posted By: jepherz
Date Posted: August 18, 2003 at 2:31 PM
Hey neon,
I am definately no expert, but if I understand you correctly, I am thinking that you just either disconnected all of the wires from the alarm or cut them off or something of that sort. This is how I believe yours works. The ignition to your car has at least one hot wire, with several other wires on the same harness. When you turn the key, the hot wire is connecting to some of the other wires in the harness. For remote start, those wires are spliced (seperated) and they will only work with the key when the alarm is un-armed. I am guessing that you have to patch a few of these wires back together. If you can follow the ign harness at all, they should be the same colors.
Hope this helps you, and if you other guys have any idea, correct me, at least give this guy a starting point!!
just my $0.02
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"Screw nitrous, I'd rather be blown."
Posted By: dyer
Date Posted: August 18, 2003 at 3:45 PM
When you plug the alarm harness back into the alarm it goes off right? This is normal. You should plug the alarm back in and simply disarm the alarm with the remote when it's going off. Also, Most alarms don't lose their memory when unplugged...which in most cases is a good thing. Also, you said that the alarm was armed even when you didn't arm it your self ("I never armed the alarm when I got out". This could possibly be because you have passive arming enabled instead of active arming. Also one more question. Does your car crank and just not turn over, or does it not even try to crank?
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Dyer
Posted By: CutDog504
Date Posted: August 18, 2003 at 4:37 PM
Sounds to me like he cut everything out, including the starter kill relay. In which case he'd have to patch the starter wire back together. Look under the dash and see if you see a yellow wire connected to anything. If not, you might see two pieces of this wire just hanging not connected to anything. If you see them hanging, not connected, patch them together with a butt connector. This yellow wire is your starter wire. It will either be connected to a starter kill relay, or in your case you said you cut everything out, so the two halfes of this wire wont be connected to anything at all. The current for the starter runs thru this wire and thru the starter kill relay and then on to the starter. By removing the relay, you have opened the starter circuit, so you have to patch it up like i said above. Lemme know if this helps.
Posted By: zargon
Date Posted: August 18, 2003 at 4:42 PM
you will have to find the program button under the dash, it will be a black momentary switch, hook your battery back up, the alarm will be going off, get in the car turn the ignition on and press the button under the dash, this will shut off the alarm and allow you to start the car.
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zargon ruler of estranorth
Posted By: 96Neon
Date Posted: August 19, 2003 at 6:24 AM
Hey guys..Thanks for all the help. I did not cut any wires. Whoever put the alarm in used splices to tap into some wires. I removed the wires going into the splices, but did not remove the splices themselves. There was only one wire that I saw that was cut. That was the yellow ignition wire that CutDog504 was talking about. That was under the steering column. I used a butt connector and connected the two ends of that back together. There were wires running from the alarm to other wires under the steering column. These were just spliced into, not cut. There was a wire going into the distributor, I removed that. There were wires spliced into others under the dash and I just removed the connecting wire from the splice. Maybe I am missing a ground or something...I don't understand it. The car does not crank at all. It is silent when I try to start it. It will not turn over once. It acts like the battery is completely dead, but I know this is not true. The battery has never had a problem and I hooked up a charger to it, it said it had a full charge. I must have missed part of the alarm or something. I removed a whole lot of stuff too. Would there be any brains or part of the alarm anywhere else besides under the drivers side dash? Thanks again for your help guys...any suggestions are welcome. Jay
Posted By: jaxman
Date Posted: August 19, 2003 at 11:30 AM
Well it seems the system went into VRS mode !
The remote alone won't help you much ! Find also the ghost switch.
Go here and download one of the manuals , this for example :
https://www.directed.com/guides/manuals/og/viper/381V.pdf
See page 25 for details.
Read also about the ghost switch.
Usually it's a switch with a gray-gray/black wire that will go into the system.
I bet it is the VRS and if you disarm the VRS everything will go back to normal.
All the wires have to be conected before you do the VRS sequence , especially the ignition.
If it does not then try to find the relay that cuts your starter wire and remove it.Then put the 2 ends of the starter wire togheter and everything will go back to normal. But try the VRS first !!!!!
Posted By: ituneyou
Date Posted: August 21, 2003 at 12:06 AM
if you are just trying to get the car started, cut the orange wire coming of the alarm harness, if that doesnt work take the 2 wired off the starter kill relay and tie them together that will totally bypass the startekill. good luck steve ------------- A man has got to know his limitations
Posted By: elrayodesinaloa
Date Posted: August 21, 2003 at 12:30 AM
Yes I think he already did all that was suggested. For what I read there's no more alarm in the car everything's out and the yellow (starter) wire has been butt-connected back to normal. So my question is: when you turn the key over do all the gauges light up and work fine? or nothing happens at all? if the gauges light up but it just doesn't crank my suggestion is remove the butt-connector and simply join the wires by hand. sometimes butt-connectors fail. If not check any other wires that were cut as a result of the install
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