hey guys, i bought my 03 cavalier about a month ago now and it came with an remote start. its a pro start, i think thats a cheap 1 from canadian tire but im not 100%. anyways... its been working ok since i got the car, it only works from about 25 feet away but that wasnt a big deal because i use it only in the morning to warm up my car right in front of the house. but today, it just didnt work at all. i tried checking the wiring etc and came across a little thing thats screwed to the side of the engine bay with a little thing that goes up and down. im guessing its to detect whether or not the hood is closed? so i was just wondering if thats the problem, or if that has anything to do with it. is that supposed to have a little spring on it to pop it up when u open the hood?
hopefully you guys understand what im saying, i tried searching but didnt find anything like this. thanks a lot guys!
Actually you may have found the problem yourself. You are describing a hood pin switch which most people do not install because they rust and corrode and then cause the remote start not to work one day....... Most hood pins work by sending a negative to the remote starter when the hood is closed as a safety feature to the system. If yours is broken/corroded too bad/rusted out it may not be sending a negative all the time thus not allowing the remote start to turn on. Check it and see what condition it is in and what the wire that connects to the underside of the switch looks like.
Other than that it could be many things. Do you have a valet switch somewhere under the dash or down in the kick panel that could have been turned off or bumped by your foot? How was this installed? When you look under the dash are all the wires connected using big bright colored plastic things? Are all the wiring harnesses plugged into the brain? Those are good places to start checking if the hood pin is not your problem.
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its dark out now so ill check for stuff under the dash in the morning asap. the hood pin thing, it touches the hood and then sends a current to the remote start thing to tell that the hood is closed so its ok to start?because it goes up and down really easy, and it doesnt look like its supposed to. thank you for that info, very valuable.cheers!
thats exactly what it does...what you could do is disconnect the wire from the pin switch and hit the r/s button. Or disconnect it and put it directly to ground and then r/s it. I usually dont install them unless i have a ball bearing switch or if its a pager alarm. Like he said before those things do nothing but cause problems after a while when they rust out. After that do what menn said check to see if you notice any thing unplugged or loose that has to do with the r/s system. Some installers install a toggle switch to turn the r/s on and off but installers like me dont give you that option =P so check to see if you got a toggle switch....GL
