TCS light on/ check engine light blinking

[orbusrex]

yikes... it's been 3 days and here's my first HELP post.

my wife brought the car in to a car stereo shop to install an alarm... they disconnected the battery and installed the alarm WITH the remote engine start via the instructions graciusly provided by D'Ecosse in the stereo forum. they had a little trouble getting it together but it worked.

When she left the shop the check engine light would blink and then remain lit and the TCS light is on. They also told her that it needs a serious tune up and the battery needs replacing as it is the original battery?!?! The car just had the 60k service done and seemed in pretty good shape and Greg at Arrowwod didn't come up with anything during a PPI.

Any ideas what may cause all of this? Could the "shock" of all the work do it? Maybe the remote start setup?? I guess I'll try and call Mark Basch this week to take a look... (glad to be in PHX!!)

any help is appreciated, because i don't need an ulcer at this point in my life!!!

 

[Hugh]

You need to pull the code and see why the engine light came on. Your car is OBDII so it should be a simple task.

 

[orbusrex]

think i should go to autozone or just go straight to mark basch?

 

[Hugh]

No harm going to Autozone and pulling the code to see what the problem is. Then hopefully one of the 10,000 gurus here can help you.

Autozone sells a $149.00 code reader.

 

[D'Ecosse]

Very strange Rob - glad they appeared to have the alarm remote start worked out OK - Did you test it? Be in the car in a safe location with room for car to move with the parking brake up tight & if it even threatens to crank jam the clutch & foot brake & hit the starter button again real fast! It should not even crank the motor, let alone start, if you have it in gear, if they did correctly per my mod - If it does attempt to start with car in gear, they may have done something wrong re wiring connections & that might contribute to the current problem.

Strange co-incidence that the problems now only appear after the install if all was good previously?
I wouldn't necessarily dismiss the battery being ready for replacement however if it is indeed the original - although not neccessarily the root of this new issue & surprising you would not have seen symptom of bad battery previously, even in your only couple of days experience. Treat that piece of info as it's own concern, maybe an issue, maybe not & not related to the CEL or TCS lights, but have it vaildated one way or other in its own right. A simple battery test at an Autozone (or similar) will tell you whether battery is tired or not.

Yes, you really need to get code analysis before doing anything else & see what root cause is, then go from there.

 

[orbusrex]

Update:
Got home, it's been parked for a few hours. Started it up and the TCS light is off but the CEL is on steady. Also tried the remote start out of gear and it worked fine. Will try the remote start in gear tomorrow before I head out to Autozone for a battery check and CEL check... incidentally, is the computer hookup the same blue plug they talk about under the glove box in the FAQ?

If the battery is bad I'll head to a batteris plus for a new one (Optima??) and if the CEL remains on I'm going to call Marc.

Ken, thanks for the PM. So far it looks like everything is good with the alarm... we'll see tomorrow. The company that installed it are clients of my wifes (she's a lawyer) so if they messed it up I'm sure we can get it fixed!!!

 

[orbusrex]

Problem Solved, Thanks MB!!

So I called Mark Basch and he was GREAT!! Got the codes... P1300, 04, 05, 06. He thought it was weird cuz the car was running well. So he got me looking at the spark modulator in the engine bay. Turns out the guys that wired the alarm tapped into one of the wires on the modulator. Mark says that's a big no-no so I drove to the stereo shop, they pulled the wire, I reset the computer and voila... all is good and I can cancel my prescription of heartburn medicine.

Thanks Mark for taking 10 minutes to help a novice out over the phone. I'll be over soon for you to take a once-over on the car to see if it needs anything!!

 

[D'Ecosse]

Re: Problem Solved, Thanks MB!!

.... Turns out the guys that wired the alarm tapped into one of the wires on the modulator....

Can you find out from your alarm guys what they were trying to do? They may have been trying to find something for the remote start so alarm knows when it is running for anti-grind of the starter ..... were they trying to get a tach signal or ????
There are several alternatives on how to set it up to do do that. You can set option 3-2 so the system detects the voltage as opposed to tach so it doesn;t even need tach connected if in this mode. You can also vary the crank time setting in option 3-5.

3-2 CHECKING TYPE TACH/VOLTAGE: Selects the method of engine monitoring. If set to TACHOMETER the unit will reference the learned tach signal to disengage the starter. In addition it will monitor the RPM and shut down if the engine RPM is too high or too low. When set to VOLTAGE, the unit will crank the starter for the programmed time and then attempt to sense that the engine is running by detecting an increase in voltage. The threshold for the voltage check is selectable in feature 3-6.

3-5 CRANK TIME 0.6/0.8/1.0/1.2/1.4/1.6/1.8/2.0/4.0 SECONDS: If the unit is programmed for no engine checking or voltage sense, the crank time must be set to the appropriate duration. The default setting is 0.6 second. If a different crank time is desired, select feature 3-5 and select either 0.6 second by using the one-chirp setting or toggle through the higher settings by using the two-chirp settings. ​

3-6 VOLTAGE CHECK HI/LOW: This feature only functions when programmed for voltage sense. Some vehicles have many accessories, which are turned on when remote started. In these vehicles, the variation of voltage between the engine off and the car running is very small and the remote start unit may "think" the vehicle has not started. This can cause the remote start to shut-down after the car has been started. If this happens program this feature to the LOW position.

By the way, did you test to see if the remote start is disabled when in gear? The one thing I hadn't realized is that you have a late-model OBDII car which has the ignition key chip I believe - they may have had to do some extra things to get around that, adding a transponder bypass.

 

[orbusrex]

Ken... that's exactly it, they were trying to get a tach signal. All he did was unclip the wire. He said it didn't really need to be attached. I checked the car on remote start and it won't start in gear. (good news).

Thanks for your help... and the guys at Chronic Car Audio really liked your instructions... I let them keep the copy if you don't mind.

 

[D'Ecosse]

... that's exactly it, they were trying to get a tach signal. All he did was unclip the wire. He said it didn't really need to be attached. I checked the car on remote start and it won't start in gear. (good news).

If you still want to have the tach signal connected, you can pick it up at the connector going to the instrument panel, green plug on left side, green wire on B-11 - it is also C4 on the ECM (one of the connectors next to where the neutral switch wire was picked up) - this is also a green wire.
Please note these are for early OBDI cars - it may be slightly different for OBDII and I don't have schematics for those, so have them verify!

... ... and the guys at Chronic Car Audio really liked your instructions... I let them keep the copy if you don't mind.

Absolutely no problem!
Actually, the Python also has a disable feature directly in the brain and the the neutral switch can be directly connected to it (My crimestopper doesn't have it in the brain) but they still may have used the other feature of my circuit which uses the neutral switch to activate a relay which bypasses the clutch pedal interlock. This would give you double protection ensuring it can't attempt to start in gear!

 

[jrehner]

Hah--I would have taken it to Mark from the get go--he won't recommend any alarm or stereo shops but he corrects the screwups of the shops...that's one reason I still have stock alarm and stereo... Need D'Ecosse or Malibu Rapper to move to Phoenix...

 

[orbusrex]

Hah--I would have taken it to Mark from the get go--he won't recommend any alarm or stereo shops but he corrects the screwups of the shops...that's one reason I still have stock alarm and stereo... Need D'Ecosse or Malibu Rapper to move to Phoenix...

HAHAHAHA, that'd be nice.... so spolied here!

The reason I called Mark in the first place was to ask him if the car was going to blow up between Chandler and Tempe, on the way to the shop, and we got talking and he figured it out over the phone...

And Mark, if you're monitoring this thread, I owe you lunch anywhere in town