Clifford System not found

Intelleguard 8000 + Intellestart 4
Installed by myself.

The system ran fine for a few days, no problems, remote start worked, alarm functioned.

I left my headlights on one day. Came back to the car, remote start did not respond. Drove home and parked. Set up for remote start. Next morning, remote start did not respond. Went to run errands. Set up for remote start. Came back to car, no remote start. Sat down in car, turned over ignition but no start at all. Car seemed dead as a doornail, completely immobilized. Jump-start, all systems go. Or so it seems. Get home, set up for remote start. Next day, no remote start. Get into car, no response....is the battery dead again? Jump Start, car starts fine. Turn key back to accessory position, every thing shuts off. No clock, no lights, no nothing. The only thing that gets this thing to start is a jumpstart.

Is it a current drain? I tested for parasitic current drain which shows about 50 mA which is not out of the ordinary.

Time to hook up cliffnet wizard pro. Plug cable into com port and other end into 8000 unit. Start up Wizard Pro and I keep getting the message "Port Available but System Not Found"

I'm at a loss...any suggestions?

sounds like your battery is shot.

your car will jumpstart but it won't hold a charge from the alternator.

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Shaughn Murley
Install Manager, Dealer Services
Visions Electronics
Red Deer, Alberta

That was my first thought as well. However, after replacing the battery with a Yellow Top, the condition still persists.....

Maybe a faulty starter kill relay?
Is it turning over with the key fine after you boost and let it run a few minutes to give the battery a quick charge?
Maybe you blew one of the fuses in the engine compartment?

Set up for remote start...means what? Is it a manual? What are you setting up?

What is the vehicle?

After jumping the battery and letting the car sit, as soon as the key is rotated back one notch to ignition, it reverts into the problematic state.

When I say "set up" for remote start, it's because its a manual transmission that requires a button to be pressed before turning the car off.

This is a 1996 Honda Civic EX

After jumping the battery and letting the car sit, as soon as the key is rotated back one notch to ignition, it reverts into the problematic state.

When I say "set up" for remote start, it's because its a manual transmission that requires a button to be pressed before turning the car off.

How can I determine if the starter kill relay is faulty?

This is a 1996 Honda Civic EX

Pull the starter kill relay out of the socket and jumper it so that it is temporarily bypassed. Another words the starter wire will always be connected, unaffected by the alarm.

After the first time the battery went dead...did the system go into Valet mode. Solid LED on the dash?

I cannot remember if the unit went into valet mode or not. It was very hard to get the alarm to respond to the remote as if there was not enough power. I was able to access settings however using the valet code. The starter kill relay is within the alarm module. Do you recommend that I open the alarm module to bypass the starter kill relay?

At least temporarily reconnect the two ends of the starter wire that you originally cut if you want to test the starter kill problem. Might be easier to disconnect the heavy gauge remote start wiring connector and jumper the starter and ignition wires that you originally cut there. Another thing it might be is a bad ground. Try double checking that. Where did you grab all your constant 12 volt power from? White wire at ignition or all the way back to the battery? did you break any copper strands when you tried to attach your wires to it?

You can try going through the troubleshooting steps on page 12 of the .pdf file below.
https://directechs.com/techtips/pdfs/resources/security/clifford_techtips/49000313.pdf Look for "The system seems to be draining the car's battery"

This mornings findings:

Sat down in car, put key in slot, normal key in slot sounds (beeb beeb ba beeb....), Key to accessory position, accessories come on, key to ignition, no problems, key to starter position, dunk...Starter tries to initiate.....power drops. Key back to accessory, no accessories, key back to initial position, no normal car sounds......cannot repeat. And this is how its been acting since the problems first began.

I took my volt meter out and probed the ignition harness at the key. Everything is switching properly based on the position of the key but the voltage is 1.5V. This measurement was taken after the above situation.

So even if I bypass the starter kill, the voltage is still only 1.5V.

And after checking for parasitic drain, 50 mA. Not enough to drain the battery....its something else...

Is your Alternator outputting 14 volts when the engine is running?

Okay, I went out and jumpstarted the car, everything started fine. As soon as I closed the door, the doors locked. The only thing I have is the remote which will not open the doors when I press the button. CRAP!

Okay, nevermind the last post, I got in and turned off the instant lock feature (not sure why/how that was set). I tested the output from the alternator and get 19V. I tested the voltage across the battery and got 19V. I tested the ignition harness at the key cylinder and got 19V. I tested a 1.5V AA battery and got 1.8V. I turned the car off. I tested the battery and got 16V. I tested the ignition harness and got 16V. I tried to start the car.

Something is really wrong.

Everything seems to wark fine after jump-starting until the next time the starter is engaged. Then everything shuts off and 2V was measured at the ignition harness.

You need to double check all the wiring that you put in at the ignition harness. Sounds like something is backwards and a relay is engaging and shorting your battery to ground or something. If your meter is reading 16V acrossed a 12v battery and 19V when the alternator should be putting out about 14V then you need to either recalibrate your meter or get a new one. Is it digital or analog?

Did you try hooking the Ignition and starter wires back up the way they were originally before wiring in the intellistart. It may suck to have to redo it but you can't leave it the way it is. Something in the wiring of the ignition kill or starter kill is backwards or your intellistart unit is defective.

The meter is digital. I'm not sure if I can recalibrate it. I'll have to open it up and look. When I test a AA battery I get 1.8V which is not accurate.

I'll jump the ignition and starting wires after lunch.

Thank you very much for yor help!

Well, the day is over....most of which was spent working on this car. I unplugged the ignition and starter harness on the main module as well as the intellestart. I then jumpered the ignition and starter wires. But still the problem persists...

After do more research, I have narrowed my search down to the starter relay of the car. I just cant seem to find it though. There must be something whong with this relay because the problem happenes when the starter circuit is initiated. All I have to do now is find the relay and test it out...

The starter relay may be in the engine compartment with a bunch of large fuses and a few other relays in a plastic covered compartment. Not sure though.

Well I figured it out...

Can you believe this, the connection between the negative terminal and the chassis was bad. Everything looked fine. I took my jumber cables and jumped the negative terminal to the engine block and it started right up. Amazing!

Time to do the "big 3"

Wow that sucks, you must have been pissed after having spent all that time thinking the recent security system install was the cause. I hate it when that stuff happens. Well' Im glad you figured it out. Is the sytem remote starting fine now?

Yea, it really does suck since I pulled everything apart tring to find the problem. The dash is in pieces from trying to get to the starter relay....wires everwhere....it looks like it did when I first began the install.... but oh well, at least I found the problem.

I have not tried the remote start function yet. I just finished one of the 'big 3' by making a new negative to chassis cable out of 2 guage. I just need to prepare a new mounting point and then I can re-test everything.