Diesel Remote Start Issues

[KHNewman]

I thought this might be good information regarding the new DEI remote start systems for Diesel Engines.

I recently had a brand new Alarrm / Remote Start installed in my 2004 6.0L Diesel Excursion. The system is a top of the line Viper Model 5901 manufactured by DEI who makes a whole list of remote brands that use similar technology. This is a top of the line fully loaded system with a delay cycle for the glow plugs, timer mode, turbo timer mode, defroster control, temperature controlled start cycles etc.

Essentailly the newest remote starters from DEI use something called "Virtual Tach" to check if the engine has actually started and stayed running after the remote start cranks the starter and starts the engine. When I took the truck home and used the remote start there were times when the truck would start fine and run for the programed time. Other times it would start, run for a few miuntes, shut off and then restart 3 times, running for a short time and then shut down the remote start cycle completely. After taking it back to the installer twice they did not have a solution which says something about their knowledge and experience but that is a different issue. The other issue was that it would never perform incorrectly when I had it at the installers shop (typical).

Frustrated I did some research on the internet and armed with the right questions I called DEI directly. DEI confirmed what my reserch lead me to believe...there are three monitoring modes in the newest DEI systems that tell the remote start if the car is still running.

Virtual Tach
Voltage Sensing
Tach Sensing

"Virtual Tach" is the newest technology and is also the default setting for the system. Installers are encourged to use this setting because it is more reliable than the other two settings and much esier to wire. This is apparently absoultely true unless you have a diesel.

If you have a diesel you need to use "Tach Sensing" but there is even a catch in this mode since most diesels throw a lousy Tach signal for some reason. The soultion to the lousy tach signal is you need to order a special part (in my case Viper part # 454T) which connects to your outgoing alternator cable and then to the tach sensing wire and sends a false tach signal to the system to tell it if the engine is running after a start cycle.

According to DEI this is the only way a remote start will reliably work on a diesel engine.

I hope this saves someone some time and frustration if they get a new remote start in their Diesel truck and it does not perform as expected.

[KHNewman]

sorry I double posted this thread...my browser wasn't refreshing to show the thread was there so I thought I might not have hit the POST button. Maybe a moderator can delete one...

[Tig]

Good info Kevin, thanks.
My son and I just installed a remote starter in his truck. It had a virtual tach setting, and two different tach sensing settings. One was for weak signals. There wasn't much detail on the virtual tach operation but at a glance it sounded like there would be no sensing and the starter would just assume the engine had started. There was no wire required for virtual tach. We ran the wire and used tach sensing.

[Diamondpilot]

The Ford 6.0 has a High Idle function built in to all engines. All you need is toggle switch and 15 minutes to hook up. I was told this was done because Ford is so widely used in service vehicles like small fire trucks, tow trucks, ambulances, ect.

Find the bundle of wires by the parking brake. There will be some orange wires with stripes and a purple/green and green/purple wire. That is the SEIC bundle.
Now find the OBD plug and follow the wires back 6 inches from the plug. There you will see a white wire with a blue stripe that is cut and taped off. That is hot with the ignition on and is good for 10 amps. Hook into that wire go thru a switch and hook to the purple wire with the green stripe in the SEIC bundle. That will give you the battery charge high idle. It is a small current load so a small switch, like a push button, will do.

Here is a link to hook it up. Maybe this will solve some problems.



http://www.dfuser.com/Install%20...20Switches.pdf

Chris