Hello all.
I have a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT 5.7L Hemi quad cab with 8' bed.
It came with a dealer installed supposedly "Mopar" auto start. The Dealer was a lying, scamming POS that has since gone out of business. I would not be one bit surprised to find out it was a cheapo aftermarket piece of junk. It is with good reason that dealership closed...

But I Digress, anyway back to the autostart: I would hit the lock button on the key fob 3 times in rapid succession to auto start the truck. All accessories, radio & and AC or Heat would come on and the fog lamps would blink once or twice a minute until the key was put into the ignition. It has stopped working correctly. When I attempt to auto start, everything works EXCEPT the truck does not start.

I suspect a bad Relay or a loose connection. But I dont know where to look for the Auto start module or "Brain" so to speak. Anyone know if the dealers had a specific protocol for location of mounting these things? would it be under the dash somewhere? in the engine compartment? I'm not even sure what it looks like. I suspect its a Metallic box of some kind with either Screw terminals on it or with a wiring harness coming out of it thats spliced in somewhere.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

~Dave White Eagle@aol.com

 

I would have to disagree, I worked on selling and installing remote start systems for awhile.

If they DID in fact install an aftermarket system into the truck then they would have needed something called an "Ignition Immobilizer Bypass".

There are many out there on the market, and the most common ones are the ones that you have to program via computer with the car's VIN # in order to work.

The easy way to tell if that is the case is if you are not using a "Dodge Key Fob" to unlock your doors and remote start the car.

So if you do in fact have an aftermarket R/S system then your problem area is likely that bypass module. They fail most of the time if you have replaced the battery or if the battery went dead, and you had to jump start the car to get it running. That happens because they don't have a very long life internal battery to back-up the stored VIN # on there, which will prevent the car from starting via R/S.

If you are using the Dodge Key Fob to R/S the truck, then you have a factory system, in which case I am not sure where they would install the "brain" module for it, but my guess would be that it would be VERY close to the Keyless entry module.

The factory service manual should have the answer to your question though.

 

I've got the factory remote start on my 2004. The brain runs inline with the huge harness going to the steering wheel (wheel harness goes to it, it goes to wheel), so it's got to be under the kick panel directly below the wheel, there wasn't enough slack to go anywhere else with it. Also, the fob is small, rectangle, and has the dodge logo on it, and a single button with a white key on it and one red light. It's separate from the hourglass shaped remote keyless entry fob. To start, it's two clicks on the remote start fob, hold it down and it shuts it off. It wasn't until the newer (2006+) where the fob and key were 1 unit that remote start was on the fob, as far as I know.

 

to the OP: Post up a picture of the Key FOB you have... then we can go from there.

Codiac is probably right about the location, that is where most companies put the keyless entry and R/S modules.

If it is indeed a "cheapo aftermarket" unit then it will probably be under the dash, above the pedal assemblies.