Viper 791 on 98 Camry with Factory Alarm

Wow, I need some help.

I installed at what seemed like millions of R/S at my old highschool/college job (pre-most of the fancy factory immobilizer bypass gadgets). About 2 years ago I put a 791 in my 98 Camry with a 556U.

About 2 months ago, I started having problems. Sometimes, I would remote start and unsuccessfully. The unit would go through it's 3 R/S attempts before shutting down. Sometimes it would crank for less than a second on each attempt. No big deal, I thought, as it was very rare.

Then I started seeing real trouble. I would R/S, the unit would try 3 times only lighting the dash (no cranking), then shut down. I would get in my car, and turning the key turned on all lights on the dash, but wouldn't crank the starter. At all.

Sometimes, when R/S wouldn't work, I would get in the car and hold the key to the "Start" position and after a lag of somewhere between 5 and 20 seconds, the starter would engage.

I tested my battery, it was okay. Alternator is good. So the other day, after being unsuccessful starting the car and figuring it couldn't be a R/S problem as neither method (R/S and key) worked, I had a new starter/solenoid installed. I thought for sure this was the problem as the starter relay under the hood in the fuse box even clicked every time I tried to start the car in R/S mode or conventional key mode. What else could it be?

Well, that didn't fix the problem. I'm VERY confused here as I've never seen this problem.

Could a bad relay pack cause this? I didn't think so because as far as I can tell, there's only one relay for starter kill/starter power (I do have starter kill installed, so my starter wire is cut). If there's only one relay, then R/S would work if the relay was energized, and the key would work if it wasn't... right?

My only other thought is that my keysense wire in my car is somehow not reading a key when it's in, and not reading the 556U/brain when I'm R/Sing. This seems rather improbable, but hey, I'm confused. I'm reaching for anything.

I'm older than I used to be, so hopping under the dash isn't as easy as it once was. So before I do jump in there, any words of wisdom would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.
-EJ

-------------
EJ

A toyota will crank even if it doesn't see the right key, so i doubt that the 556u is the problem. I have had a few relay packs go bad, doing a variety of different things. I guess you could wire up a temporary relay to crank the car, using the thin purple to energize it, just to see if it cures the problem...

-------------
Mike M2
Tech Manager
CS Dealer Services

Mike M2:

I think I found the problem - special thanks for your help.

On the 791 satellite relay pack there is a disconnect on the 12V, IGN, STRTR, and ACC wires. The pin that is on my purple starter wire was half in/half out of the connector on the relay pack side.

I've pushed it back in as far as I could and I'll tape the wires to ensure that wire doesn't come out again.

Hopefully this will solve my problem.

Thanks again for taking time to post.

-EJ

-------------
EJ