OT: Not my Non-American Toyota

[Guest ekvh]

Nothing to do with the Pat Buchanan link. I, not a professing republican or democratic mechanic, installed a remote starter in my wife's ToY ota. I could not get it to work. As a final desperation attempt, I reset it which involves holding the receiver's key in for a length of time. (It's an UltraStart) During that time a few wafts of smoke rolled up from the turn signal area of the dash. I took a few whiffs but it didn't do anything for me. I'm sorry i shouldn't have written that. From then on I had no dash lights or parking lights. The fuse is good. When you touch the wires with a ground, the lights come on. I went through my wiring of the remote and changed one wire, the source for heater fan etc. I then reprogrammed the remote: nothing. I reprogrammed the sender and voila: it works!!! It now locks, unlocks and starts, each time signaling with the parking light and the dash lights. The parking lights and dash lights stay on until I turn on the key and hit the brake. Then I lose the dash and parking lights. I have installed a small toggle in the kickpad to turn on the lights by completing the ground. I am not sure how to check the park light/dash switch, which is on the end of the turn signal. The headlights come on, but not the parking or dash. It appears I have to remove the steering wheel to get the panels off the side of the column, Suggestions, oh Electrical Wizards of the Reatta site? BTW, she lives and bought the car in Canada. Any thoughts are appreciated, American or outsourced.

[Guest WEB 38]

Have you checked the floor mat? Sorry I couldnt pass that up. Bill WEB 38

[Guest ekvh]

Understandable.

[padgett]

Now ex-wife wanted a Scion (Toyota's Saturn) so bought her one. Wires are teensy. No current capacity at all and all are white. Installing the RKE was a nightmare & had a service CD. Managed not to let any smoke out. Reminded me of a FIAT.

[Vincent Vega]

When did Lucas start wiring Toyota's?

[padgett]

Lucas always used big wires and put the fuses on the ground side so they would be protected when the device shorted.

Think you could thread some of the Scions wires in a needle, insulation and all.

[Guest ekvh]

Anyone know how the lights are lit. When I touch a ground to the wires anywhere up the line from the fuse box all the way to the switch, the parking lights come on. I am assuming that the switch completes the ground to light the lights. I didn't have a multimeter with me to check it and I didn't dare pry to much on the signal assembly to get up into the actual switch mechanism. They are small wires.

[Guest kennyw]

Glad I did:> in 2008 I bought the new Saturn Vue. In the manual it [said] that probably a factory remote could be added by the dealer. I only had a day left to get the large incentive. The car had every other option so I purchased it. After 3 weeks of going to the Saturn web page, dealer, Saturn support etc. I took the car back for their, [you can return it for any reason] in the first 30 days. The dealer could not believe I would not let his have an aftermarket system installed. Even for free as they didn't want the car back. I told them no, find me one just like this with the factory REMOTE START. The only one on the east coast was in New Jersey. I went up to personally view the car as I know MONDAYand FRIDAY cars are still made. That dealer said I could have the car only if my dealer called him. I told me dealer all of the above and actually asked him to call right then as I could drive the car back. I was trying to save him sending two people all the way up to N. J. He said no so I drove back to MD. My dealer called for 3 days straight. The Dealer would not return his calls. The dealer had no intention of letting me have the car. He did not have to as it was out of my area. I was now driving a loaner car as my dealer didn't want any more mileage on my Original car. He did not know what to do?????????? I typed all of the above, copied and pasted on the Saturn site and next morning my dealer called and said he didn't know what had happened but the N.J. dealer was on the phone the first thing next morning and begging him to come and get the car.....I guess sometime the squeaky wheel does get noticed.

Note:> three weeks into the new Vue my Wife wiped out the front end to the tune of $7,500 in repairs. $15.000 + for the side of the truck she ran into. It took 6-+ weeks for the repair. Mostly because parts were hard to get. Then three weeks after getting the car back just as new she ran through a hail storm to the tune of $10,500. They even had to replace the roof along with [the] brand newly installed front fender and hood. The whole car except for the rear plastic bumper had to be repainted. Then the steering rack went bad and had to be replaced. Saturn went out of business and I am waiting for the 3nd steering rack to come in as the one installed is worse than the original.

A German Opel design, U.S. Saturnized and built in Mexico.......Oh, the remote start feature works just great......Ken

Edited February 25, 2010 by kennyw
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