Aftermarket Remote Starter Problem - Help!

yukon_denali_05 · December 17, 2008

I had a 2-way alarm/remote starter combo installed on my '05 Yukon Denali XL a few weeks ago. It's an "AVITAL" system made by DEI. The story goes...

I had it installed at an aftermarket accessories shop that claim "professional installation". Not knowing too much about the technical details of how it's done on it's truck I go ahead with it. Any way, it took close to 4hrs to install. There were 2 guys working on it. It seemed that the 1st guy was struggling. 2nd guy jumped and seemed to finish the install. Anyway, not noticing right away, I left the shop all happy that my truck has a new toy installed. The next day, I start her up a few minutes before I get on the road on a long trip. I have a 20mth old child that sits in the back now hoping it will be nice and warm for her. Turns out the rear heat was only blowing cold.

After research after research, the consistent answer that I get is that the install caused a triggered a fault code to the rear hvac system. Now, why would it do this since nothing was installed in the rear?? Well, these trucks have 1 data bus wire harness. From what I hear from other aftermarket places, if you don't know what the hell you're doing on this truck, you can throw fault codes left and right and will require dealer reset in many cases. I called another well-known aftermarket shop that I know has installed several remote start systems on these vehicles without a problem and was told that if not done properly when feeding off the existing harness, that these issues will not cease and will contuously be a problem. So, what he offered to do is to charge me $75 to remove the existing system and re-install it. He is allowing me to take pictures while he is removing the system. Once that is done, is there anything that can be done to reset without going to the dealer to see if the fault code is off?

The only other option after that is to go to the dealer to run a diagnostic to trouble shoot and attempt a reset.

Any suggestions?

GRB · December 18, 2008

I had a 2-way alarm/remote starter combo installed on my '05 Yukon Denali XL a few weeks ago. It's an "AVITAL" system made by DEI. The story goes... I had it installed at an aftermarket accessories shop that claim "professional installation". Not knowing too much about the technical details of how it's done on it's truck I go ahead with it. Any way, it took close to 4hrs to install. There were 2 guys working on it. It seemed that the 1st guy was struggling. 2nd guy jumped and seemed to finish the install. Anyway, not noticing right away, I left the shop all happy that my truck has a new toy installed. The next day, I start her up a few minutes before I get on the road on a long trip. I have a 20mth old child that sits in the back now hoping it will be nice and warm for her. Turns out the rear heat was only blowing cold. After research after research, the consistent answer that I get is that the install caused a triggered a fault code to the rear hvac system. Now, why would it do this since nothing was installed in the rear?? Well, these trucks have 1 data bus wire harness. From what I hear from other aftermarket places, if you don't know what the hell you're doing on this truck, you can throw fault codes left and right and will require dealer reset in many cases. I called another well-known aftermarket shop that I know has installed several remote start systems on these vehicles without a problem and was told that if not done properly when feeding off the existing harness, that these issues will not cease and will contuously be a problem. So, what he offered to do is to charge me $75 to remove the existing system and re-install it. He is allowing me to take pictures while he is removing the system. Once that is done, is there anything that can be done to reset without going to the dealer to see if the fault code is off? The only other option after that is to go to the dealer to run a diagnostic to trouble shoot and attempt a reset. Any suggestions?

I used to do that type of work (a long time ago) when I was college but haven't really kept up with things. They probably did not power up all the various modules when the remote start is active and this will cause trouble codes to appear. Four hours is average for an install with this level of difficulty. If someone is willing to remove an re-install the unit correctly for $75, I would do it!