2000 grand caravan remote starter

Newbie to this forum and I need your expert opinions.

I've never installed a remote starter before but I have installed car stereos for years and have over 20 years hobby experience in cars and electronics.

Add to that, I'm a cheap mustard. I want to add an inexpensive (<$100?) remote starter to a 2000 Grand Caravan for interior cooling and heating. Has no security system, factory or otherwise; does have remote unlock. Would like to have both work under a single remote and need 2 remotes.

What are your opinions?

Twelvoltz wrote:

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Are you looking for a suggestion on make and model of a system? .

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Yes.

Twelvoltz wrote:

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My preference is DEI products, the Avital 4100 comes with 2 remotes and is bullet proof. It should be easily obtainable for under the $100 price point you mention.

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I was looking at the 4300 on eBay but this sounds like a good choice. I really don't need an alarm. Honestly, who steals a minivan?

Twelvoltz wrote:

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Keep in mind that DEI as well as most of the better manufacturers does not warranty a self installed unit and as such they offer no installation support, but with this forum you should have no problems at all obtaining support for any questions you may have.

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Didn't realize they don't honor the warranty for a self installed system.

Twelvoltz wrote:

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You could also use a Valet 561T from DEI. This system does not include remotes and is activated by a negative or positive pulse. You can tie it into the door lock actuator's lock leg, press lock on the factory remote 2 or 3 times (this is a user selectable option). This would save a little on the cost of the unit.

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That's interesting! So you're saying that i can just hit the door lock switch 3 times and the car will start?

Looking into this further I realize that the Caravan AC system requires that the cold button (a snowflake? "*") has to be pressed to turn on the AC. Guessing that would need a relay and a trigger out from the starter unit?

That's interesting! So you're saying that i can just hit the door lock switch 3 times and the car will start?

yeap, some units will allow a activation wire, and with a certain ammount of pulses, it will start the car as if u had some1 there starting it.

Looking into this further I realize that the Caravan AC system requires that the cold button (a snowflake? "*") has to be pressed to turn on the AC. Guessing that would need a relay and a trigger out from the starter unit?

well, the car uses a latch output to trigger AC if im correct. Right now, i would want the heat to be turned on no the AC (depending where you live) but a wire from the unit should be able to trigger the AC. each unit has a ground out when running, that wire will be used to sent power to a relay that will trigger you AC button. Its best to run that through a switch so during winter, AC doesnt come on and summer, flip the switch to ON, and turn the heat down. simple, when u get ur system just ask and install should be a breeze.

I'm gonna go with the Avital, seems the best bet. Good price sources? Or should I stick with eBay?

Yeah the AC has to be latched, but the heat just has to be set ahead of time. I live in NY, so yeah, it's cold.

Good idea with the on/off switch.  

I'll touch back here once I get it in.

OK. I ended up getting the Avital 4100 and am in the process of identifying the wiring according to the wiring
information from this site. So far so good but I have a question.

Stop me if this sounds wrong to anybody.

The parking lights listing says to look for a light GREEN / WHITE wire and has a negative sign next to it (-).
Checking with the meter, it shows +12v while off, 0v while on. So far it makes sense.

Looking in the installation guide, it’s looking for it the other way around. So I have a negative (-) parking
circuit.

Right below that it says the following:

Note: Vehicles that use a (-) signal from the switch to the factory relay may be interfaced directly. (See H1/5 WHITE wire of Primary Harness (H1) Wire Connection Guide section.)

Looking a few pages later, the H1/5 is referred to as: "H1/5 Gray/Black (-) diesel wait to start bulb input", so
I'm guessing there is a typo here in the manual. Further checking seems to indicate they mean the "H1/9
WHITE (+/-) light flash output". So far so good, yes?

So....

I have to switch the light flash (+/-) jumper to (-) light flash output.

According to the wiring diagram, I can directly attach the white (-) light flash output to the light GREEN / WHITE
wire.

Now, whether or not it draws 10 amps or more I don't know yet. Does anyone know this vehicle well enough to tell me? (2000 Dodge Grand Caravan)

I'm going to go test it in the meantime.

Looking forward to your responses.

Addendum:

I tested the current. If I'm reading it correctly it is way below the 10A threshold. Meter only reads mA, and it hardly moved. Guess that it's feeding the factory relay.

Next:

Where is the darn PCM??  It's getting dark here so I'm gonna leave it til tommorow morning.

Step forward a bit.

Parking light wiring is working fine. I hooked up everything I was able to find and was able to get the remote starter working.

I picked up the tach wire directly from the distributor. I bypassed the neutral safety switch by going straight to ground because I couldn't find the right wire for it. (I know it's not right and I want to correct that when I can. Got to find out where the PCM is.)

Also couldn't find the door lock trigger either, so I picked it up directly from the driver's side door switch. Currently it is hooked up direct to the wire and it does unlock. I know it calls for a 250ohm resistor (or a 100ohm perhaps?), and the unlock needs a 1.5K. Do both of those wires get connected to the same point?

Thanks.

every1 grounds the NSS or ebrake wire oon autos. newer cars cant start in gear anyways. as for the PCM, it is located to the right of the glovebox.

Door Trigger: BROWN / Green (-) ** monitors all doors ** located @ the top of the fusebox.

the locks and unlock work on a single wire negative system. so yes both wires will be run to one wire, you might want to use 2 relays and isolate them.

BROWN / Green ? That differs from the chart offered here:

https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/alarmdetail/678.html

Either way, I'm off to get those resistors and then find the PCM. I'm glad there was a place to sound off otherwise I would have given up a while ago. It's good to be this close to the end.

J

Yep I did that.

So now its all done. Beleive it or not I still never found the PCM! I tied into the door locks through the driver's door using a 100 and a 1.5k resistor. I had to shorten the pulse length for the lock sequence, because it was too long and putting a strain on the battery. I don't like the fact that the avistart's remote only uses 1 button for the lock/unlock. The factory one had them seperate and also acted differently. I considered wiring relays to the old key fob (hence leaving it in the car somewhere) to get those features back!

On lock, the horn would honk and on unlock the interior lights would turn on. I miss both of those features. I know that there is probably a way to do it but i had a hard enough 3 day experience with this. I'm sure that if i ever do it again it would go quicker.

I guess if I tapped the lock wire prior to the resistor and ran it through a relay hooked up to the horn it would get back the honk on lock. For the lights, unlock before resistor with a timed latch through a relay? Not a major factor tho.

Would love to have dimming interrior lights upon closing door too. Sounds like that could be accomplished simply with a capacitor across the feed? Simple discharging RC circuit.

Anyway, thanks to all who helped. I think I found someplace I'll call home for a while.

BTW, there was a second accessoy wire that I had to hook up to allow the blower to run. If I remember correctly, it was a black brown wire in the ignition harness. Hooked it up to 2nd acc, and works fine. The AC button remains latched from last use, so I didn't have to use any relay or toggle to turn it on, just had to have been on previously.