Printer Friendly Forum Posts - turbo timer, astro start 3106

First off, I have an Astro Start Remote Starter/Security System (3106) that was installed by the dealer when I purchased the vehicle.

Today I installed an Apexi Turbo Timer and for whatever reason my door locks do not open or close via the remote. The alarm activates and deactivates when I press the lock or unlock button, but it does not trigger the door locks themselves.

It's weird because even when the turbo timer is off and I shut my doors and hit the lock button on the remote, the alarm activates but it does not trigger the door locks to close.

I installed the Turbo Timer by following a How To on a local forum for my specific vehicle...

Apexi Turbo Timer to Vehicle

Red wire (12v)............Red wire in steering column
Black wire (Ground)..........Chassis ground
Blue wire (IGN Out 1)............Black w/ white stripe in steering column
Green wire (IGN out 2)..........Sky Blue wire in steering column
Grey wire (Brake Switch)...........White w/ black stripe wire connected to hand brake

Any ideas as to why my door locks don't trigger anymore?

Your astro unit can serve as a turbo timer. The idea behind this timer is to let things "cool down" correct? On the astro unit you can set the run time for as little as 2 min. or as long as 18 min. When you get to where your going simply push the starter button on the transmitter get out, lock the doors and walk away. When it times out it will shut down and be locked armed and safe.

What kind of vehicle?

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KarTuneMan wrote:

Your astro unit can serve as a turbo timer. The idea behind this timer is to let things "cool down" correct? On the astro unit you can set the run time for as little as 2 min. or as long as 18 min. When you get to where your going simply push the starter button on the transmitter get out, lock the doors and walk away. When it times out it will shut down and be locked armed and safe.

What kind of vehicle?

You are correct. The only thing is that I have a manual transmission, so to do it via the astro start it's a long process and gets annoying after a while. I have to leave the car in neautral, hit the brake, pull the hand brake up once, down, and back up again, and then I have to hit the start button on the remote, and then I can take the key out and leave.

With the turbo timer, I just leave it as is (set at 2 min), pull the key out and I'm done.

The car is a 2004 Dodge Neon SRT-4.

But do you know why my door trigger via the remote might not work anymore? And troubleshooting ideas? Thank you.

did ya tap into ANY of the astro wires? esp. the ground? here is a 6 pin harness blu/brown wires. see if the input side is still grounded, and the output side is going through a copuple of resistors. when you hit lock and unlock you should hear the relays clicking in the astro unit. If they don't hmmm guess I never had that happen... Lock and unlock are dedicated to only that function, so it cant really be a programing error. Unless the keysense wire may be seing something and not allowoing the doors to lick because it thinks the key is in the ign without having powr to the rest of the unit. [feature so you don't lock the keys in the car...]

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Tire Proz Stillwater Mn
High End Restyling and Comlete Repair

Hymer] wrote:

did ya tap into ANY of the astro wires? esp. the ground? here is a 6 pin harness blu/brown wires. see if the input side is still grounded, and the output side is going through a copuple of resistors. when you hit lock and unlock you should hear the relays clicking in the astro unit. If they don't hmmm guess I never had that happen... Lock and unlock are dedicated to only that function, so it cant really be a programing error. Unless the keysense wire may be seing something and not allowoing the doors to lick because it thinks the key is in the ign without having powr to the rest of the unit. [feature so you don't lock the keys in the car...]

That's what I was thinking. That the Astro unit may be thinking that the key is still in the ignition and it won't let me lock the doors. Would you know if I could disable that feature on the Astro unit myself, or does it need to be done at a service shop?

Nothing in he programing that I know of, Kar Tune might chime in with something. The manual sates this " this input prevents locking of the doors during automatic rearming of the alarm if the key is in the ign. Oly required if semipassive or passive arming is selected at stage 1 levle14 or ehn rearming OEM security is enabled in stage 1 lvl4" You can try this dip switches 234 up hit the brake, flip switches back down hit the brake. that will set it to active arming so he keysense won't matter. Or disconnect the keysense wire. The keysense wire at the car is lite blue [ign harness] when the key is in the ign it should show a ground. Small Yellow on the astro unit is keysense. I would double check where ya tapped the turbo timer in though, if it worked before ya put it in, then something is spliced into something it shouldn't be.

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Tire Proz Stillwater Mn
High End Restyling and Comlete Repair

I tried my remote that came standard with the car and that one does trigger the unlock and unlock.

Ok, I tried the 2,3,4 dip switch procedure and nothing. I removed the key sense wire and nothing.

So I completely removed the turbo timer, I took off every single wire that was connected to the car from the turbo timer and I tried to lock the car and the doors did not trigger!

The alarm still activates and deactivates via the remote but it does not trigger the door locks to open or close? Any idea what may have happened?

check the wires that are connected to the locks....sometimes its loose...it shouldn't of gotten loose if it was solder but hey doesnt hurt looking for those wires.

enice] wrote:

check the wires that are connected to the locks....sometimes its loose...it shouldn't of gotten loose if it was solder but hey doesnt hurt looking for those wires.

No idea as to what color those may be?

Its actually one wire. You should see two wires connected to a light green wire at the kick panel. It may be that the resistors connected to those wires got loose. if you find it to be loose then SOLDER your connections in order to avoid this kind of problem. eithe way, if it wasnt that you should still solder all your connections when it comes to alarms/rs. Makes for a super strong and reliable connection.

enice] wrote:

Its actually one wire. You should see two wires connected to a light green wire at the kick panel. It may be that the resistors connected to those wires got loose. if you find it to be loose then SOLDER your connections in order to avoid this kind of problem. eithe way, if it wasnt that you should still solder all your connections when it comes to alarms/rs. Makes for a super strong and reliable connection.

Thank you so much! I checked that light green wire with the two wires and the resistors that are connected to it, and the connection must have been loose. After checking those wires and getting them tight, the door lock/unlock trigger now works!

I will reinstall the turbo timer and see if all is well.

Thats why soldering is so important. Reconnect those wires and it should be fine....

I reinstalled the turbo timer and now the door trigger works like it's supposed to.

My only problem now is that when I take the key out the ignition and the engine is still running while the turbo timer counts down, and I exit the vehicle and close the door, and then hit the lock button on my remote to activate the alarm, the doors lock but the alarm will not activate while it is running.

Only after the turbo timer shuts the engine off and I press the lock button on the remote the alarm arms.

Is there anything I can do so that when I remove the key and the turbo timer counts down and I press the lock button the alarm will also arm and lock the doors?

Or is it just not possible to arm the vehicle while its still running?

Have you actually tested this. Exit the vehicle, let that silly turbo unit do it's thing. Lock the doors, let the turbo timer "time out" (do this with the window down) Then reach in and open the door without disarming.......does the alarm trigger?

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I have not tried that. I will give that a try, but when the turbo timer is going and I hit lock I don't get the usual sound from the astro unit letting me know it's armed and the LED inside the car that blinks when the unit is armed is not on as well.

But I will try what you said and I will let you know.

KarTuneMan wrote:

Have you actually tested this. Exit the vehicle, let that silly turbo unit do it's thing. Lock the doors, let the turbo timer "time out" (do this with the window down) Then reach in and open the door without disarming.......does the alarm trigger?

I did what you said, and the alarm does not trigger.

Next try this. DO NOT use the turbo dealybob. Get out without reservation mode. shut the door (with the window down) lock and arm. Then test it. Shock sensor, door trigger etc. If you get nothing after this.....we can check to see if the alarm features have been programmed out. The 3106 can be used as both alarm, and remote start, or just remote start. Is there an LED? Also. on the conector labeled P1 there are 2 door trigger wires 1 purple, and 1 white. The one that you car uses is the white. This is for negative door trigger. The other one of the 2 is the purple....this wire needs to be connected to 12volts constant.

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KarTuneMan wrote:

Next try this. DO NOT use the turbo dealybob. Get out without reservation mode. shut the door (with the window down) lock and arm. Then test it. Shock sensor, door trigger etc. If you get nothing after this.....we can check to see if the alarm features have been programmed out. The 3106 can be used as both alarm, and remote start, or just remote start. Is there an LED?

What do you mean get out without reservation mode?

If I shut the engine off, turbo timer off, get out of the car and hit the lock button then the car arms. It's only when I lock it with the turbo timer on and the car running that it does not arm.

The AstroStart I have is both an alarm and remote starter, and yes there is an LED.

Any ideas as to what I can do so that the alarm enables when I lock the car and leave it running via the turbo timer?

Just shut the rig off, as to NOT remote start it....arm it, then see if it triggers.

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Yes, with the turbo timer off and the car off, I can arm it.

Also, when I leave the car running via the Astro Start and I hit the lock button it arms.

It's only when I have the car running via the turbo timer that it will only lock but not arm.

And I just want to find out if I can do it so I can use the turbo timer and still be able to arm it. Thanks again.

I can't tell you what you want to hear...... I'm sorry. I don't know WHY it doesn't work with the turbo timer. Your turbo timer is redundant. Without it, you roll to a stop, put your car in neutral, foot on the brake, set the parking brake. push the start button before your open the door. This is called 'continuous mode" Get out and lock and arm....It stays running for the pre programmed time, shuts off, and is ready for remote start. I don't understand how this is a hassle. And again....I'm sorry I can't tell you how come your 2 products don't play well together.

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KarTuneMan wrote:

I can't tell you what you want to hear...... I'm sorry. I don't know WHY it doesn't work with the turbo timer. Your turbo timer is redundant. Without it, you roll to a stop, put your car in neutral, foot on the brake, set the parking brake. push the start button before your open the door. This is called 'continuous mode" Get out and lock and arm....It stays running for the pre programmed time, shuts off, and is ready for remote start. I don't understand how this is a hassle. And again....I'm sorry I can't tell you how come your 2 products don't play well together.

Turbo Timer is simple. There are no steps, no safety procedures. I remove the key and get out, it's that simple.

So if someone can help me, give me some troubleshooting tips, I would appreciate it. Thanks.