A Remote Starter for an SMT Spyder
By: pinmagic 

Introduction

Well, while others are installing turbos and nitrous in their Spyders to blow the doors of S2000s, I decided to go another route.  Being old and lazy, I just want a little luxury to go with my sport.  So I recently had seat heaters installed.  Following the install, the shop owner mentioned how nice it would be if I could turn those heaters before I got to the car.  He suggested a remote starter.

Now, I used to live in a high rise with a garage, but for the past 7 years, my living arrangements dictate that I park on the street.  And boy am I tired of defrosting my windshield on cold days, so a remote starter sure sounded nice.  At $300 installed, it didn’t seem bad either.  Sold!

I got the Avitel Avistart 3200.  (Check it out at their website: www.directed.com or at the manufacturer’s website at http://www.avital.com/products/ap_as32.htm).

They don’t usually install remote starts in cars with a manual tranny, because of the possibility of starting the car in gear (with potential for pedestrian injury or damage to the car).  But mine’s an SMT, so there’s no chance of it starting in gear.  I just have to leave it in “neutral”.  The only downside is, the SMT WILL roll if left in neutral, so you’re relying on just the handbrake.  And that could freeze in winter.  Keeping my fingers crossed that that doesn’t happen.

First impression: this thing is sweet.  In addition to starting the car, it has nice little features like:

Downside: when you get out of the car, you need to think about what it is you want running next time you get in the car, and set the controls appropriately.  Want the windshield defrosted?  Better remember to set the heater controls accordingly.  But having to think ahead is a small price to pay for a toasty warm car on a ice cold morning!

The system is designed to make the car pretty much theft-proof during the remote start.  Even if the engine is running, if someone tries to drive off without the key, the ignition dies the minute they step on the gas.

And, for added safety, there’s an ignition kill – 30 seconds after you turn it off, the ignition kill kicks in.  Then, if someone tries to start it without the remote key fob, it won’t start, even if they have the key.  (There's a valet button mounted in the car to turn that off, so you can give the car to a parking attendant, etc.)

There’s also a system-kill switch to turn the whole thing off.  In addition, your installer might mount the optional engine-cover pinswitch, so if the engine cover is open, the car won’t start.  (My installer didn’t put that in.)

Though the shop told me the remote would transmit a quarter mile, that's under ideal conditions.  Real world is MUCH less.  You’ll find that you have to have some kind of line-of-sight to your car, and even then you’ll probably have to stand near a window to have it work.   The installer mounted the antenna horizontally, on the windshield, behind the rear-view mirror, but reception there was poor. For maximum reception, antennas should ALWAYS be mounted vertically, and never horizontally. In this car, it's tough to find a good place to do that. I moved mine, so it's mounted at the top edge of the windshield (behind the rear-view mirror), pointing down. Thoough it's not fully vertical (it follows the angle of the windshield), reception is pretty good. If you think of a better place, let me know!

The installer tells me it took the usual 3 hours to do the installation, but when he was finished, the car kept throwing a CEL!  After 2 nearly-full days of working on it, he solved the problem.  He had told me from the start he'd need to install a bypass relay on the brake pedal (since you have to depress the brake to start the car).  Seems the problem was that the brake pedal actually has 2 switches attached -- 1 controls the bypass and, and the other controls the brake lights.  It was throwing a CEL because he'd only bypassed 1 switch, not both.  The system was confused cause it thought the brake lights should be on, and they weren't.

The installer had to consult with both the manufacturer of the remote system and Toyota to figure it out.  But Avital now has the info in their database, based on this install, so the info should be available to future installers.  According to Avital, this is the first Spyder in the country to have their system installed!

To use this system, the installer has to mount a key under the dash to fool the immobilizer into thinking there’s a key in the ignition.  (But it ONLY fools it during the actual remote start – it does NOT defeat the immobilizer at other times.)  This is no small factor, because I’m told these keys cost about $90 to replace! [Editor's Note: $30 at my local dealer]  But I never use the valet key, so that’s what I sacrificed.

 If you decide to spring for a new key to sacrifice, you’re your Toyota dealer program the key’s chip, but don’t have them cut the key.  That way, if someone finds it under your dash (unlikely), they won’t be able to start the car with it.  (In the alternative, just cut the metal part off your key, and have the installer mount the plastic head – the part with the immobilizer chip in it.)

 Final note: get your current remote lock module (if you have one) back from the installer.  There may be a market for it on eBay, for Spyders that don’t have remote locks (2000's).  My installer said “it’s easy to install”, but this sucker has about a thousand wires, and 127 plugs, so I’m not so sure!