hmmm, range on the compustar is longer, and i know (at least a little while ago) were illegal as they used unlicensed spread spectrum. viper is coming out with theirs later this year

as to the rx-8, it is perfectly safe to do a remote start because of the built in neutral safety switch. i have the viper 791xv on my car with remote start working with no issues. i dont have to do any special dance with buttons or anything like. i park the car, get out. thats it. if its in gear, it will not start. if its not in gear, it starts just fine

 

im getn the viper 771vx.. and from consumer reports reviews... it actually is in the top 3... soo viper is actually one of the better companies.... ofcourse I am gonna b in an auto 8... besides.... if u need an autostart for a stick... the viper works fine.. a bich to install... but works perfectly.

 

Lazi i want to get the viper one too, which one you have? and can you post a soundclip of how the beep sound when u look the doors?..... thanks

 

are their remote starters out there that work with the oem key fob...

my dad got one for his chevy avalanche where he pushes the lock button twice and the car starts...i want the same thing for my "8"

any suggestions

i have the at with smartshift and all the trimmings....thanks
keith

 

they are out there, but in my opinion are pretty much worthless. range is limited to that of the factory system. spend a couple extra bucks, get a better system, and be happier

 

I have something called AStrostart on mine. It's got an ugly remote, but I dont use it much anyway. Gas is already expensive, I dont need my car sitting for 5 min. burning gas.

 

ok, so if i get a viper or some other brand, and in the future i want to get an '05 fob; just because its cool...are they programmable to use that fob...

Tmak26b: if youre not using yours...do you want to sell it???

thanks
Keith

 

Keith, I wouldnt even know where to start removing it. I don't want to work on this car, could careless about little things like that until it starts breaking.

 

i totally understand...thanks

 

hey lurch, where is the neutral safety switch at....i was going off of dei's techsoft and they did not have one listed on the page. i have been installing for a few years now and i was curious if it is possible to get a regular key for the 8 from mazda without all of the keyless **** on it so i can avoid disassembling it and shoving it into a 556 mod. and by the way....on any type of convenience systems (rs, keyless, alarm) any directed electronics system is the way to go. in the 5 years that i have been installing, every other system that i have put in has run into issues somewhere down the line. and as far as the compustar system goes, i have put them in before and i have experienced first hand that they DO fail. installed one on a new mustang when i worked at galpin auto sports and another employee went to pull the car in at the end of the night and remote started the car straight into the gm's truck. had a compustar tech come out and look at the install and he sat there right in front of me and told me that it was a malfunction in the cpu. so if you do not have a neutral safety wire in the vehicle, there are a couple of things that you can do to make installing these systems much safer: install tilt switches on the shifter going both directions (having the car in gear will set them off...only downfall is if you are parked on a hill); a little more in depth but you can use stop switches; and a cool trick that i learned from working with mad mike is to strap a shock sensor to the shifter....it works suprisingly well. but yeah, get back with me on the neutral safety wire loc and the key thing.

 

next, your remote start system should have a neutral safety wire, if it is a DEI system this should be black with a white stripe. the system needs to see a ground on this wire for the system to activate. route this wire down into the center console, down through the shifter boot to underneath the car (i forget which side the switch is on) but on one side a little back from the shifter will be a switch on the side of the transmission. its a little tough to get to, but it can be done. ive done 3 myself. both wires will be grey (if i remember correctly) one wire will always read ground, the other will read ground only when the shifter is in the neutral position. if it is in gear, you will not have ground, this will insure that the remote start try to start the car if its in gear, which could be very bad to disastrous depending on the situation (one of the guys i used to work with had one on his nissan and had to chase his truck across the parking lot of the local mall)

as to the key, you should be able to program a standard pats style key to the car, as long as you have 2 keys already programmed. though dei now has an 1100f module which works the same as the new audiovox asxk04 module, just more expensive. i work for a shop which carries dei, as well as the audiovox prestige line, and of course dei is great, but we have very few problems with the audiovox either.

the part about the neutral safety is copied from something i sent to someone else.

 

does anyone installing the remote starter (any brand) have keyless start also?

 

Does anyone know if the COMPUSTAR remotestart/alarm or any other system works with the 06 advanced keyless entry and start system and a manual transmission?

 

I installed a remote starter on a 2004 Xterra of mine once... It was a remote start thingy only made by Omega... I'm gonna call them up and see if they can hook us up with wiring diagrams... Most specifically for the 2004...

 

there is a post in the electronics forum with all the info you need keef

 

I could see that happening to me too. "Hey Mike, watch this bro," *starts it up, car takes off*. OH ****!!!

 

on most manual transmission vehicles, this is the case. on the rx-8, it is possible to safely install remote start on the car, without any safety issues. there is a neutral safety switch on the transmission, which if hooked up to the remote start correctly, will not allow the remote starter to engage if the car is left in gear. i have remote start on mine, with absolutely no issues, problems, and have never had the car take off on me, even though i have left it in gear a time or two.

 

All the RX-8s have the neutral safety switch which paired with a remote starter that uses this as a safety switch is almost fool proof.

If the installer does a good job hooking up the wire to this feature and securing it.

The downside is if they do not and the wire for this feature is ground out on the body of the car it could be started regardless of being in gear or not.

I believe this is why some installers worry about installing a remote start on a manual transmission... in addition to not all vehicles have this from other automakers.


I will be installing mine within the next week or so. Compustar with a optimal range of 6,000 feet 2 way remote. If the car starts it lets the person know as well as alerts if the alarm goes off.

There are Viper and Audiovox units that are similar.

 

I have been trying to find someone to install a Viper alarm on a Manual transmission 2004 RX8 in the Sacramento area, but they all say "no". Is there a way to have them install a system without the remote start function setup and then just hook that part up myself at a later time? Has anyone done this?

Thanks, Rob

 

i have a viper installed w. rs on a manual... theres a bypass switch on our cars... and if you hook it up correctly, when in first gear and press the rs it would not turn the car on.. i got it done in DE by chuck aka lurch512 (i believe thats his sn) you might wanna ask him...

 

i recommend compustar. unlike d.e.i. (i.e. Viper, Python, Clifford....etc), all compustar remote start systems require you to perform a sequence which puts the vehicle into "reservation" mode. as long as the car has properly been put into reservation mode (the vehicle is in neautral and the parking brake has been set) the vehicle will start . as far as i know it is not illegal in any state for a manual transmission to be equipped with a remote starter. though it is illegal to start your car manually and leave the keys in the vehicle. any questions, message me. i am an authorized dealer and would be happy to help

 

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but most of these systems come with a remote _stop_ as well? If you are really concerned about it you can hook in a window switch to disable the system if the car gets moving.

 

Yes they have the stop feature and can be enabled if a person sees that it is moving...

The best way is to ensure that the neutral switch is used that way if the car is in gear it will not attempt to start.

 

Where are you located....do you do the installs yourself? Thanks!