Yesterday I was changing the plugs on my 2011 Big Horn 5.7 and had an unpleasant surprise. I had the passengers side done and had all the coil packs off the drivers side. I was leaning over the battery & power distribution box in the process of removing the plugs near the firewall when I heard the truck give out a couple of quick beeps and then the starter began turning the engine over - I pulled back real quick, just as the engine started on 4 cylinders. The key fob was in my pocket. I'm assuming there's some sort of remote start feature in the area of the battery & power box - does anyone know what this is so I can avoid it next time I'm stuffed into the engine bay?

 

Do you have remote start on your keyfob?

 

No, just Open, Lock, and Panic. I had a close look around the power box area for anything I might have pressed to cause the start - I recall that there used to be some jumper blocks on some vehicles that used to allow a remote start from under the hood by a mechanic, but saw nothing resembling this on the RAM. I figure I either shorted out something to cause this signal or there's a button combination on the fob that would do this when the fob is in close proximity to the truck - the buttons could have been pressed with the fob in my pocket & me draped over the fender.

 

Pretty sure common practice would be next time unhook the battery before doing anything engine/electrical.. I know it sucks being told something so simple but would have saved you this whole head ache..

 

I have an 11' Big horn as well and i do have the factory remote start. If the hood is open the remote start will not work to avoid the exact situation you just described. Which also would seem to discount what my next thought is....

Did you happen to buy your truck used? If so is their a possibility maybe the truck had the remote start installed but whoever you bought it from was not aware it was installed and in turn never told you?

Seems incredibly bizarre that you found the perfect storm so to speak of things to lean on that your truck started. Let us know what you find out.

 

I usually do that but didn't see much reason to do that this time only to be proved wrong.

 

I did buy it used - from a dealership, so I assumed (again wrongly) that they would have laid out what the truck had or didn't have. I took a quick look under the dash and see there's a small grouping of wires that aren't OEM. I'll check that out next week when I'm back home again.

 

Some aftermarket remote start systems are set up to use the factory fob by pressing the lock button 3 times. I think the DBALL is one of them.

 

That is correct. And if the evic is set up to not honk the horn when locking you can start the truck almost silently..

 

Even if it has an aftermarket remote start it should have a prevent start switch that would disable it from working when the hood is open , check around the and see if there is a spring switch that is stuck in the down position.