Printer Friendly Forum Posts - Cold Weather = Alarm/wiring problems

Wanted to know if anyone has any problems with their Alarm or various electronic problems with their car when it gets freezing outside?

Examples:
1. I remote start my car, it starts... auto kills it self, restarts... auto kills again, restarts... kills the last time.
(this must be a common problem because i've talked to a few people with Remote starts and they have the same problem)

2. Interior Dome light does not turn on or delays.

3. Alarm LED not acting the way it should and siren slightly sounds diffrent.

4. Aftermarket Tach (which is wired directly to the Distributor) is at 0rpm until the cabin temp is warmed.

Note the systems always work prefectly fine in normal weather conditions... but when winter comes, these problems always come back. All connections are soldered and perfect...

Thoughts? Ideas? Experiences?
What could be the problems?
Thanks all!
J

never seen it myself. see a few posts with similar problems though

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Why oh Why didn't i take the blue pill
Darren Power

gotcha, i was just searching and reading some of the common problems with the cold starts, however they do not apply to this situation... here is what I have so far:

::I have the Tach wire hooked up (not just a voltage sence like most)

::The car cranks and DOES start, but kills itself then restarts... kills... and so on.

::There is no Stock Theft devise i had to pass or anything, so thats not interfering.

Note, This is an older "Black Widow" 2-way FM alarm which I installed 3 years ago. This problem happens a few times every Winter, however this winter it happens almost all the time (i assume because it's so much more colder out then normal?).

Thoughts?
Thanks again all!

What type of vehicle is this???

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Craig

Sounds like a bypass issue. what car is it in? I had a bad batch of boards in some scytek units. The maufacturing plant put in a cheap resonating crystle which would cause the remote start brain to not work or act like it was dead when it got cold out. Might also be something to check out. But the starting and dying of the car sounds more like a bypass issue to me, like it is loosing its programming.

TheRapture wrote:

4. Aftermarket Tach (which is wired directly to the Distributor) is at 0rpm until the cabin temp is warmed.

Can you give any more details on this? Is that something you expect to happen?

Seems like that would be a cause for the shutdown right there, if it doesn't see the tach pulses when it's cold.

Craig3708, isus, this is a '97 Acura Integra
What kind of by-pass issues are you reffering to?

dualsport, when he gets cold in the cabin the aftermarket Tach does not see a signal (0 rpm) once I have the heater on and the tach starts to warm up, it will just back to normal operation.
Note, the Stock Tach has no problems at all and runs perfectly fine no matter what the weather is.

Any other info needed guys?
Thanks again!
J

For the tach signal, tie into the blue wire at the dist. As for all the other problems it sounds like you have a bad connection at the remote start unit. If the siren and leds are acting differently than maybe the unit is not receiving enough power. Check the +12volt constant and maybe add another ground. If either of these wires weren't getting good contact this will cause a problem.

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Craig

Craig3708 wrote:

For the tach signal, tie into the blue wire at the dist. As for all the other problems it sounds like you have a bad connection at the remote start unit. If the siren and leds are acting differently than maybe the unit is not receiving enough power. Check the +12volt constant and maybe add another ground. If either of these wires weren't getting good contact this will cause a problem.

For the aftermarket tach, i have a wire running directly to the distributor for the signal, so i do know it's getting a good signal, but i think the tach itself is whats screwing up.

The alarm is connected to the Tach wire going to the insterment cluster (which is the tach that always works). I've tried diffrent + and - and there is no diffrence.

Thoughts?

To me it sounds like a voltage issue. I know you are using tach sense but with some rs i have seen when the voltage gets to low they act wierd. That also could be why the siren sounds differant and it happens worse the colder it gets.

Yeah, voltage at the alarm input sounds like a good place to start, like Chris and Craig said- monitor it during the remote start conditions and see if it holds up as expected.

My appologies. I should have read the whole post. I thought you had a GM for some reason.

How did you make your connections ? Solder & tape ?

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

dualsport, I did have a bad battery that i changed out with a Yellow Top Optima about a 1.5 months ago...

Velocity Motors, I solder every connection i make since I got my EET degree 5 years ago, but this still has my stumped.

chris354 wrote:

To me it sounds like a voltage issue. I know you are using tach sense but with some rs i have seen when the voltage gets to low they act wierd. That also could be why the siren sounds differant and it happens worse the colder it gets.

What do you suggust to raise the V? The batt. is new and it is always about 13.2V in the morning after sitting all night and about 13.8 after being ran for about an hour straight.
Of course today is 44F so it's working fine and it is 13.2V again so i have no clue.

Thanks again!
J

Try to ground your battery to the car with some larger wire. I have one 0 gauge and one 4 gauge wire coming off of my neg terminal to the body chassis and I have no issue with starting in the most extreme cold.

isus] wrote:

Try to ground your battery to the car with some larger wire. I have one 0 gauge and one 4 gauge wire coming off of my neg terminal to the body chassis and I have no issue with starting in the most extreme cold.

I actualy do have the batt. grounded directly to the body with 0awg. And Starting is not a problem, it starts right up no problem. It just dosent register with the alarm brain that it IS started.???

Just a thought- did you make sure your charging system is coming up during the remote start?
May just want to monitor the voltage, and right at the module, during the remote start to make sure- if it's running solely off the battery during the remote start, it could drop out in cold weather. Depending on your particular setup, the power to the alternator circuit might be separate from the ignition, though it comes on together during a normal key start.

dualsport wrote:

Just a thought- did you make sure your charging system is coming up during the remote start?
May just want to monitor the voltage, and right at the module, during the remote start to make sure- if it's running solely off the battery during the remote start, it could drop out in cold weather. Depending on your particular setup, the power to the alternator circuit might be separate from the ignition, though it comes on together during a normal key start.

all i have are digital DMMs not analog so i'm not sure if it will read it quick enough, but i will try.
Also, is there any way to boost the Tach signal going to the brain so it reads it better?
Thanks again!

If it shows up as a slow and steady drop, the DMM should do-
May as well try the easy stuff first before going into more elaborate things.

Ok, I got to test the voltage out today. Today it's about 38F.

V reads 12.14V The car starts and stays on today (because it is warm).

After starting the V is 14.18V (so i know the Alt. is working fine.

Should the V be that low? It's sat for 3 days without running. I assume if it was colder out the V would be 11V something?

Thanks again all!

12.14 seems a bit on the low side, but as long as it doesn't drop too far during the actual cranking, it should be okay. Have you measured power off drain on the battery? Probably not an issue since you said it works fine off a key start though-
I guess you want to try it in the conditions that it fails, just for comparison, though it's a pain to hook up all the meters before doing a remote start; kinda defeats the purpose.

it's suppose to cool back down to the 20's over the next couple of days. I will test the V's again then when the remote start fails to work correctly and report back.

I just got this battery like a month and a 1/2 ago, it's a Yellow Top Optima brand new, i never would have thought there would be a problem with it. If she drops into the 11V range when it gets cooler out i'm taking it back and getting it replaced. We will see.