Compuster and Ford F350

I bought a 2006 Ford F350 in January 2006. They had a compustar remote starter installed on it prior to me leaving the dealer. It is the Compustr R1600 Remote Starter. The Ford Dealer is 1000 miles from me and I live in isolation so getting near a dealer to get this looked at is a major trip for me. When I picked the truck up and left the area it seemed to work fine. It would start up fine. A few days latter when we were north and in a colder climate it did not want to start as easy. It seemed for a few days it would start okay if -10 C or higher but when colder it would try the 3 times and seemed to start each time but then shut down. The last few times trying to start it, It will only turn it over the 3 times and start up each time and then shut down. I found a yellow wire that came from the alternator through the firewall that was not attached to anything. Any idea where that wire may go? They dealer did not give me any wiring diagrams or installation information. Also if the battery has been disconnected, does a person have to reset the Tach sensing? It seems like the remote is not sensing the tach when cold. Any ideas would be appreciated. I should add that the truck is a 2006 F350 Lariat with 6 Liter Diesel 4X4 Automatic.

Here's a few questions for you :

1. When the truck is cold and the RS starts the truck, how much time is there between when you press the button and when it actually starts ? Sit in the truck when you try this and also note wether or not if the RS cranks when the wait to start light goes out exactly when the truck cranks or if it waits longer before it cranks.

2. If the wire that you found was a YELLOW/BLACK then that is your tach/alternator signal wire. Make sure that it's connected to the CN3 harness on the Compustar unit. https://staub.ca/tech/Manuals/Firstech/cm4200_install_guide.pdf

Chances are the tach requires reporgramming, but also the wait to start ( if installer used a programmer to adjust timer ) needs to be reset as well.

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

It waits longer about 25 seconds in all. We found from your instructions that it appears that the wire that came from the alternator was the one that should have been hooked up. The dip switch was set for the Tach and we are uncertain what wire the yellow black was hooked to but it appears to be starting all right now except for the long period of time before trying to start. Thank you for your help. Not sure how to shorten the start length though.

I don't know if you'll get the start time down because on that truck, the remote starter must wait for a preset time, rather than monitoring the wait to start light.

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Keith

Seems odd but a few times when I press the remote start now it does a brief turn over on the first try and stops. Does not even start but on the 2nd try it seems to start up okay. Any thoughts why that would happen? Should I change my wire to a tach connection instead of the alternator connection? Is there a big difference? What is the preference?

For some reason I thought I remembered hearing something about how on the newer ford diesel trucks there could be intermident problems where the vehicle would not start on the first try but would fire right up on the second try and that there was no solution for this. I cant remember the reasoning though. Mabye someone else on here can chime in on that, or mabye I am thinking of a completly different truck too, its been a long day. Where in Canada are you at?

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double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer

I'm in Watson Lake, Yukon. It is in the lower south east corner of the Yukon. Five hours east of Whitehorse. Whitehorse is the only city in the Yukon so getting help sometimes is hard. Thank god for the internet. I also ride a 2001 Harley Road King and the newer models with the electronics can be fun if you do not have all the computer tools to trouble shoot them. Miss the old simple days of just a motor and a few lights. LOL

For the tach signal there is a tach signal wire inside the cab on the driver's side in open harness behind fuse panel wrapped in white tape. The target wire is GREEN / WHITE and is not connected to anything, just ends in a loom of wires.

The unit is probably programmed to start at 25+ seconds. Normal default for these systems are 18 seconds if the wait to start wire is not hooked up to a delay timer ( these trucks do not have a wait to start wire).

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

Which ever works best for you and the system. Sometimes trying to find a tach signal is not an option, so having the alternator sensing option is good to have. Both are good, just the tach signal pickup method is a more common method amongst installer's. As long as the truck isn't starting before the wait to start light goes out, you shouldn't have any problems with the RS.

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