# Adding remote start?



## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Does anyone know if it's possible to add remote start to a manual transmission car?

My thinking is that the remote start on modern push-button start cars is almost all software based. For whatever reason, GM isn't offering remote start on manual transmission cars. Reading through the instruction manual I can see that the transmission has sensors that detect being in gear or neutral, because the cruise control disengages if you shift to neutral for too long between gears.

I'm wondering if it's something as simple as a couple software tweaks to add remote start. Purchase a couple OEM remotes, add them to the car, make some software changes, and it works?


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## johnmo (Mar 2, 2017)

I suspect the neutral detection is a timeout rather than an explicit sensor input. My car doesn't know it's in neutral when I let the clutch out because it juices the throttle as the clutch is released both when it's in gear and when it's in neutral. Try it sitting in traffic some time. Let the clutch out slowly in neutral and watch the tach climb. I call it "easy mode" for manual transmissions. Handy when maneuvering. Not so good when letting out the clutch in neutral at a long stop. On a side note, the clutch must be pretty well instrumented...

I've been told that remote start can be installed aftermarket on manual transmission vehicles. I believe the vehicle has to be left in neutral.

The Gen2 diesel warms up pretty quickly while driving. Diesels in general don't heat up much at idle. Other than maybe preheating the heated seats, I'm not sure we'd gain much from remote start. Might be nice to get the A/C going in the summer though.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

johnmo said:


> Let the clutch out slowly in neutral and watch the tach climb.


That's a function of the engine being entirely drive-by-wire. The when the idle speed drops below the minimum, the ECU adds fuel injected to bring engine speed up. Even in neutral, letting the clutch out engages the clutch to the engine flywheel. The minor drag causes a drop in idle speed and the ECU immediately speeds up the engine.


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## Blasirl (Mar 31, 2015)

Look at a Python or Viper system


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## Patman (May 7, 2011)

I have wondered about this myself as I have always owned manuals. but As I am sure someone else has mentioned, there are safety concerns with having that on a manual. 1) and the most crucial: trying to start the car remotely and the car is in gear!!! where will it go which is why pressing the clutch in is required for starting the car even if it is in neutral. Despite how certain you are the car is safe to start remotely because you are certain the car is in neutral, there will be that one time it happens and did or will someone get injured at the expense of inconveniencing you with having to turn a key!!! If it is possible to do this, I know I would not want to be the insurance underwriter for the company that supplies it. As I mentioned, there could always be that first time and the crafty lawyers will come out of the woodwork looking for money.


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## johnmo (Mar 2, 2017)

Barry Allen said:


> That's a function of the engine being entirely drive-by-wire. The when the idle speed drops below the minimum, the ECU adds fuel injected to bring engine speed up. Even in neutral, letting the clutch out engages the clutch to the engine flywheel. The minor drag causes a drop in idle speed and the ECU immediately speeds up the engine.


Is that why it revs up to 1,500 RPM? I don't think so. That's way more than nulling out a drop in idle speed from engaging the flywheel.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Patman said:


> I have wondered about this myself as I have always owned manuals. but As I am sure someone else has mentioned, there are safety concerns with having that on a manual. 1) and the most crucial: trying to start the car remotely and the car is in gear!!! where will it go which is why pressing the clutch in is required for starting the car even if it is in neutral. Despite how certain you are the car is safe to start remotely because you are certain the car is in neutral, there will be that one time it happens and did or will someone get injured at the expense of inconveniencing you with having to turn a key!!! If it is possible to do this, I know I would not want to be the insurance underwriter for the company that supplies it. As I mentioned, there could always be that first time and the crafty lawyers will come out of the woodwork looking for money.


I am aware of the risks. Many years ago I worked at a Wal-Mart auto service department. One young guy came in with a Chevy S-10 eXtreme pickup (basic S-10 with a fancy looking ground effects kit) that had a manual transmission. Our shop policy on manual transmission cars was to never touch the parking brake because you never know when someone has one that is screwed up, and they'll blame us even if it's already broken. We'd park the cars and leave them in gear. So this kid comes walking out to his car and he whips out a remote start and hits the button to start the truck that I parked and left in 1st gear. The truck bounces twice and takes off idling across the parking lot. The kid goes sprinting after the truck and just as he's about to jump into the driver seat it smashes head on into a 40-foot container unit, smashing the front of the truck.

Aside from this, these cars have sensors in the transmission to tell what gear they are in and when they are in neutral. If Chevy wanted, they could have remote start on these cars but for reasons they appear not to do that.

Lastly, I don't have a key to turn. It's push button start. And it's about convenience for me on cold winter mornings. I'd like to start my car from inside the house.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

johnmo said:


> Is that why it revs up to 1,500 RPM? I don't think so. That's way more than nulling out a drop in idle speed from engaging the flywheel.


Every VW TDI I have ever seen has something similar. They are the easiest cars to learn to drive a manual transmission because the ECU automatically keeps the engine idle speed from dropping. They're much harder to stall than a gasser.


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## johnmo (Mar 2, 2017)

Barry Allen said:


> Aside from this, these cars have sensors in the transmission to tell what gear they are in and when they are in neutral.


I'll believe it when I see it on a wiring diagram.


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## Blasirl (Mar 31, 2015)

When you add one, just ensure the neutral sensor and the parking brake are part of the permissive system.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

johnmo said:


> I'll believe it when I see it on a wiring diagram.


Two things point to this:

1. The instruction manual contains the following information about cruise control: "If equipped with a manual transmission, the cruise control will remain active when the gears are shifted. The cruise is deactivated if the clutch is pressed for several seconds."

I've tested this. You can resume a cruise control speed and shift gears, and the car will pick up to the set speed without the cruise control deactivating. Somehow the ECU knows when the transmission is in gear and when it is in neutral.

2. The dashboard display tells you when to upshift for fuel economy.

It tells you to shift up to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th gear. Somehow the ECU knows what gear you are in to display what gear to shift up to.


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## johnmo (Mar 2, 2017)

Barry Allen said:


> Two things point to this:
> 
> 1. The instruction manual contains the following information about cruise control: "If equipped with a manual transmission, the cruise control will remain active when the gears are shifted. The cruise is deactivated if the clutch is pressed for several seconds."
> 
> ...


Neither of these prove there are sensors on the gearshift position because all of the data points needed to make them happen can be inferred from vehicle speed, engine speed, and a switch or sensor on the clutch.

I'll believe it when I see it on a wiring diagram.


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## Blasirl (Mar 31, 2015)

I'm a little out of date on a few things, so... does the Cruze have a neutral safety switch?


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## Toolman (Mar 5, 2012)

I had a Viper remote start on my 2012 eco manual. I had a sequence I had to go through to set the remote start when I got out of the car. I would have to set the parking brake within so many seconds of letting the clutch out in neutral. Sometimes it took a couple times to get it set. But then you would get out with it running and when you hit the lock button on the remote start it would shut the motor off and lock the doors When you wanted to start it just hit the button twice and it was going. It worked great. If you forgot you had it set and unlocked the doors or got in the car for some reason it would disarm it system.


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## firehawk618 (Feb 24, 2013)

Barry Allen said:


> Does anyone know if it's possible to add remote start to a manual transmission car?
> 
> My thinking is that the remote start on modern push-button start cars is almost all software based. For whatever reason, GM isn't offering remote start on manual transmission cars. Reading through the instruction manual I can see that the transmission has sensors that detect being in gear or neutral, because the cruise control disengages if you shift to neutral for too long between gears.
> 
> I'm wondering if it's something as simple as a couple software tweaks to add remote start. Purchase a couple OEM remotes, add them to the car, make some software changes, and it works?



After retrofitting express up on my car I can confidently say NO to what you're asking.

If it wasn't sold as a package you can buy over the counter at a dealer then you will not be able to code your BCM to work with above the board methods.

Now, if the day comes where someone disassembles the BCM code and learns to customize it, then YES.


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## firehawk618 (Feb 24, 2013)

Barry Allen said:


> Two things point to this:
> 
> 1. The instruction manual contains the following information about cruise control: "If equipped with a manual transmission, the cruise control will remain active when the gears are shifted. The cruise is deactivated if the clutch is pressed for several seconds."
> 
> ...



Without digging out a schematic I can say with 95% confidence the method they use is RPM vs speed. Very simple.


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## BobSacamano443 (Jan 28, 2017)

I actually just had a remote start installed in my manual transmission, push-to-start 2017 Cruze through Chevy/GM’s installer. 

They initially sold me the car back in Jan 2017 and the caveat for me was that remote start was a must-have and most dealers wouldn’t install one in a manual. Well, Chevy said they would but months after the purchase they said they were wrong and it couldn’t be done “because programming”...fast forward to a couple weeks ago and my ongoing dispute with them about compensation for not following through on the terms of sale, they called up their installer again who this time says “yeah, no problem. 

Initially they said I would have to go through one of the aforementioned safety checks when exiting and locking the vehicle but as far as I can tell, as long as the ebrake is on and the car is in neutral, I just hit the button (third party remote) and away it goes. You don’t get the benefit of the automated climate controls and heated seats on start, but as long as I remember to set it for the conditions before I get out, it’s no big deal. I’m not 100% sure if the system won’t activate if the car was left in gear, but maybe I’ll sit in the driver seat in a parking lot tomorrow and test it out to be safe. I’d like to have the peace of mind that if it ever did get left in gear, it wouldn’t cause a problem. 

TL;DR - Yes, they can and (in my case) did install a remote starter in a manual transmission, after purchase.


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## firehawk618 (Feb 24, 2013)

Barry Allen said:


> That's a function of the engine being entirely drive-by-wire. The when the idle speed drops below the minimum, the ECU adds fuel injected to bring engine speed up. Even in neutral, letting the clutch out engages the clutch to the engine flywheel. The minor drag causes a drop in idle speed and the ECU immediately speeds up the engine.


Um yeah.....it's definitely not a by product of drive by wire.

It's a feature to make it harder to stall the manual when taking off.

The PCM is more than capable of keeping the engine at it's idle speed without over shooting it's target by hundreds of rpms.


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## Jacque8080 (Oct 31, 2017)

BobSacamano443 said:


> I actually just had a remote start installed in my manual transmission, push-to-start 2017 Cruze through Chevy/GM’s installer.
> 
> They initially sold me the car back in Jan 2017 and the caveat for me was that remote start was a must-have and most dealers wouldn’t install one in a manual. Well, Chevy said they would but months after the purchase they said they were wrong and it couldn’t be done “because programming”...fast forward to a couple weeks ago and my ongoing dispute with them about compensation for not following through on the terms of sale, they called up their installer again who this time says “yeah, no problem.
> 
> ...


What 3rd party remote?

I have two cars and a one car garage. Right now the Cruze is outside. And I am spoiled. I'd like to use remote start for the upcoming winter. I would pay a few hundred bucks to have the coolant and oil warm up a little before I get in.


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## BobSacamano443 (Jan 28, 2017)

Jacque8080 said:


> What 3rd party remote?
> 
> I have two cars and a one car garage. Right now the Cruze is outside. And I am spoiled. I'd like to use remote start for the upcoming winter. I would pay a few hundred bucks to have the coolant and oil warm up a little before I get in.


The one they installed in mine is an Automate 4616A. It’s a very basic model but it’s what they had their go-to installers put in. I didn’t complain since it was included in the price of the car but there’s definitely better options out there. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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