An anti-theft system is one of the most popular accessories for a vehicle and provides a psychological sense of security. Such systems vary in terms of features. Some of them are quite sophisticated and include GPS tracking, remote start functions and more while others are just a basic alarm system, no more and no less.
Photo courtesy of jprice!
Yet another addition for the S2000 and more particular to owners that have tuned their ride by using the forced induction route is a turbo timer which keeps your engine running by cooling the engine parts and turbo once you park it. This gizmo can also be setup to feature a remote start function that will preheat your S2000 and warm up or cool down your interior before you pop in.
At this point, the common feature between both gizmos is the engine autostart feature and I’m aware of some people who have installed one of the above for the remote start feature. I’m sure there are other features as well, but this is what comes to mind for what is about to follow. It is not something new that when an electronic aftermarket product is installed, you may have to change a few bits around in your electrical circuits. An improper installation may cause to lose some of the safety features of the product itself.
I have friends who have actually installed such electronic gadgets to make their lives much easier and prepare their ride for the way to work or for a trip. However, not everything in life is so simple and ideal if you consider the news I got from one friend of mine who owns one of those.
I will try and describe it the only way I can imagine it as he quickly shared this with me. He woke up in the morning, got in the shower and dressed up to go to work. As he fixed himself a cup of coffee, he grabbed the keys and pushed that little button on the remote to start the car. Suddenly, he heard a loud sound that sickened him to his core and he ran out to the garage.
He found his S2000 not in the spot where he left it and did not remember putting a box of tools on its hood the previous night. As he stood around wondering what went wrong, his eyes eventually settled on the cause. He’d forgotten to put the transmission in neutral the night before when he engaged the e-brake and was facing the cost of a new set of headlights, hood and body panel repair.
As my friend and previous S2000 owner described the above, he added that he must be the only person in the world who went through such an experience. We wonder as well if there is anyone out there who has had similar bad luck.
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on Apr 18th, 2011 at 10:14 am
Ahh shit… that freakin sucks for your friend…
But how would you remote start the car in first gear??
on Apr 18th, 2011 at 10:18 am
It happens, ppl keep their car in first gear when they park
I have this remote start but I always make sure my car is not in gear
on Apr 18th, 2011 at 10:33 am
Ouch. When looking for alarm systems, I considered the auto start function, and had this very thought. I don’t trust myself, after a hectic day, to consistently override my habit of leaving the car in reverse. I thought “surely there’s an override for such things”. Guess not in this case. Ouch, again.
on Apr 18th, 2011 at 10:41 am
Auto start systems disable the clutch sensor so that the clutch doesn’t need to be depressed to start the vehicle. This results in bad juju if the car is left in gear, one of the things that most remote start systems warn of in the manual and most installers remind their customers to be careful.
No offense meant, but that’s not bad luck, that is user error. Sucks, but he has no one to blame but himself.
on Apr 18th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
Bob (AKA Modifry) came up with a pretty ingenious solution a while back and has information posted here. There’s even a video clip showing the sensor in action. Being as scatterbrained as I am sometimes, I definitely wouldn’t install a remote start system without including one of these sensors!
http://www.modifry.com/freebies/old/remotestart/index.htm
on Apr 18th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
I did this to a friends WRX. My friend had been drinking and asked if I would drive his car from our location to another party. Being the good sober friend I was at the time, I kindly obliged and hit the road. When I parked it, having driven manual cars my entire life, the first instinctual thing I did before leaving the car was make sure it was in first. Two hours later my friend who wishes to remain anonymous was walking our to his car with a girl and pulled out his keys and pressed the button. What he most likely thought was going to be impressing the lady turned out to be quite the opposite, crash bang boom.
What I am surprised about is that nobody has posted up the answer to this problem yet. Mercury switches. Position a mercury switch or two in line with the remote start, in a way that they will not close the circuit unless the gear shifter is in the upright position. If the shifter is in any gear the mercury will be shifted, open circuit, idiot proof remote start on a manual. Sure this would ineffective parked on a steep hill in San Francisco, but at that point I would sure hope you would be smart enough to park with your car in gear and go without being mr cool with the remote start that night anyways. I would only have remote start if I ever move where it actually gets below 40.
on Apr 18th, 2011 at 12:15 pm
or switches like aphex4000 mentioned….
on Apr 18th, 2011 at 1:29 pm
Thats why I only have security.
On a side note, does anyone know what rims are on the s2k in the pic? I’d like to put them on my brilliant black
on Apr 18th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Same thing happened to a friend of mine back in 97. About 20 minutes after installing one on his Mazda B2200 truck, he pulled it out into the parking lot of
the shop he worked in to show us how it worked. Well being the DA he is, he also left it in gear and no e-brake, pushed the button, and about 5 seconds later, his truck was driving into the cross traffic just in time to get T-boned by a much more expensive car.
At first we were in shock, then after about 2 minutes of the “ooos and ahhhs” we busted out LOL’ing because he thougt he was sooo smart.
on Apr 18th, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Unless it has changed, most responsible shops will not install remote starters on manual cars because of this very reason.
on Apr 18th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Dumb to install a setup like that. It only takes one time of not thinking to plow through a garage wall, or run over a kid, or end up parked inside a convenience store. Why risk it?
There are remote starter/security system setups out there that require you to leave the car running in neutral, set the e-brake, hit a button and then remove the key, which leaves the car running. Then you get out and lock the vehicle and kill the engine with the remote….only then is the remote starter “armed” and ready to work, since the system knows for sure that the car is in neutral. If you open the door before you use the remote starter, it won’t start the engine. This keeps someone from putting the car in gear.
Any setup that requires you to remember to leave the car in neutral is just asking for trouble. Luckily, insurance covers dumb mistakes.
on Apr 18th, 2011 at 4:02 pm
My friend had a ’94 Civic coupe that he had a remote start on. He and another friend spent the day getting it up to par with new motor mounts, a tune up, etc, then he pushed his remote start button. To his chagrin, his coupe rammed into a parked excursion and then shut off; to all our surprise, the civic cranked back up and went for round II. Needless to say his front end was demolished… and the excursion ended up with a scratch.
on Apr 18th, 2011 at 5:56 pm
As bad as that story sounds it is common unfortunately after I had my alarm system with remote start installed and the guy warned me of someone having it installed parked there car then went back to start it up and went right through the bicycle store front window. So its all definitely user error if something like that happens. But its a good idea for a turbo timer. Does anyone here have a turbo timer on there S? If so my friend has some questions about it.
on Apr 19th, 2011 at 10:27 am
I have a tuuuuurbo timer :3
on Apr 19th, 2011 at 11:36 am
My friend had a manual car with a remote starter. It would NOT start if it was in a gear, and it was installed this way. I thought it was the only way to have it installed on a standard car, I guess not…
on Apr 19th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
As FluKy15 said, I thought most places don’t install remote starters on MT cars without a safety? I doubt your friend is the first person to ever do this, though.
on Apr 20th, 2011 at 5:18 am
Bad installation , thats it .
on Apr 20th, 2011 at 11:11 am
I’ve got a Viper system on MY00. Full alarm system with Remote Start. Because of the neutral safety switch in the car, it can only start while in neutral. The way the system recognizes this is by the following these simple steps.
When you’re parking the car keep your foot on the brake while the having the car in neutral. Once you let off the brake pedal you remote start the vehicle. The key fob will chirp letting you know the sequence has started. After you exit the car, the vehicle will remain running. Once you close your door and lock the vehicle with the key fob, the car will shut off and lock.
You cannot make the mistake of leaving the car in any gear because as we all know the car will stall once you let off the clutch pedal. The process seems annoying in writing but if you think about it you’re not doing anything different than pressing a button at the end of your run. Plus its a small price to pay to make sure nothing happens to your S like in this post.
on Oct 12th, 2011 at 8:06 am
that s2k is nice anyone know what hardtop it is?