Hey Guys,

For the past month I've been battling a supposed bad battery, and so I bought a brand new Duralast Gold battery last week. Everything was fine until this morning when my car just wouldn't start. I checked the voltage on the battery and it read 11.67V, which isn't the usual ~12.1V, but should still be able to start. I put the key in the "ON" position and everything was working fine (AC, radio, etc.), but after I tried to start the car I just get crank. Another weird thing is that at one time I tried to start the car and got only crank, I took the key out and the car actually started cranking again on it's own. My background on driving habits is that my car is just a weekend car, and I let it sit in my garage for days at a time. My car is a 6MT with remote start alarm (Viper 791XV) and I actually got it installed from Sound Advice from Rudy (on this board). I happen to believe that something is wrong with the bypass module for the remote start which may have messed with my ECU or something. And also that my alarm is just sucking out way too much current then it should be and draining my battery. Please help, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

it sounds like u may be right and that it may be the alarm. have u taken it back to the guy who installed it in the first place?? that would have been my first move. i don't know much about alarms... but i wouldn't want the car cranking on it's own without any interaction from me! could u imagine what would happen if it just started cranking again while the engine was already running. spooky.

 

I'm going to take it back to them tomorrow. The thing is though, is that I've had the alarm on my car for ~2 months now and never had a problem with it. I don't know, I'm just frustrated now.

 

if the car is starting without the key in it, then it may very well be your remote start.

When you start it does it keep cranking or does it start to die out? If it starts to die out you're battery or alternator is messed up.

Hooman

 

Actually, now that I think about it, it wasn't actual starter crank. It was kind of like relay chatter. So I still don't know what that means...

 

was the engine actually turning over or did u hear a clicking noise when turning the key? if it's just clicking then it's your battery that is drained. in any case... u definitely have a problem somewhere as u mentioned that u've already replaced the battery once. keeping the car stored for a week will not effect the battery to the extent of problems u seem to be having.

 

it may be your battery or alternator.

Start your car, then take the pos and neg terminals off. If the car turns off then your alternator is bad and is not charging your battery.

Also...just want to make sure...we have a timing chain right?

Hooman

 

I heard clicking noise when turning the ignition. I doubt it's the battery because I checked the voltage on the battery with a multimeter and it had enough juice to start. I'm guessing it might be the connection from the battery to the alarm itself.

 

clicking indicated dead battery. Do you have a jump pack you can put on your battery to make sure its not the battery and somthing eles?

 

2nd the jump pack or jumper cables idea.

Can you honk your horn for prolonged period of time? a couple seconds

Hooman

 

Thanks guys (especially Hooman) for all the suggestions. I'm at work right now, so I can't try any of the things you guys told me to do. I just hope that I can start the car when I get home.

 

The Viper alarms have an undesired side effect... when you cycle power to them they automatically remote start. If the car DID crank by itself then I would say when you tried to crank the car it dropped the battery voltage low enough that the alarm restarted.

Have them check the starter kill wiring. DEI starter kills should ONLY work when the ignition is on. If they are engerziging the relay at all times it will put a load on the battery. Not a big enough load that it will kill the battery quickly, but enough of a load that the battery will slowly drain over time. If you can, drop the lower panel and try and find the alarm. You should be able to find the starter kill relay, its a small square black relay with an orange, yellow, green and black wire coming from it. If you arm the alarm this relay should NOT click. With the alarm armed you should be able to pull this relay out and insert it back in with no clicking at all.

That is about the only thing I've ever seen a DEI alarm do. Oh, also, if your transponder did latch in and is constantly seeing your hidden key at the ignition I wouldn't try to start the car many times. If the Immobilizer sees 2 keys at the same time sometimes they will cancel out both keys from memory!

 

Thanks Kevin! This definitely makes sense to me now. I'll be sure to have my installer check the starter kill wiring. I'm just surprised that this problem has only happened recently but I've had the alarm on for a couple months now.

 

Hey Kevin,

I just checked the starter kill relay right now and I hear it "click" when I arm the alarm. You're saying that it shouldn't? I guess it is putting a load on the battery and drawing out a significant amount of current. I'm going back to my installer tomorrow so they can take care of it. Thanks again Kevin.

 

No, the starter kill should NOT click when you arm the alarm.

A relay will draw about 60-80ma of current at 12VDC. Like I said, it won't kill the battery in a few hours, but over a few days it will wear the battery down. Its a simple fix, sounds like one wire needs to be changed from a 12vdc to an IGN wire.

The thought behind this is that the Ignition HAS to be turned on before the car will start, so if you hook the starter kill relay up to the ignition wire as soon as the ignition circuit is engergized the starter kill will engage. Its not the most effective way to do it, but it works well and is basically the 'standard.'

Good luck!