Do remote starters work on manual tranmissions?

OF course they would work, But the risk of injury and damage is great! You would have to be positve that the truck was in neutral and the E brake was set.. Remote starters are notmade for vehicles with manula trannys, and they say so on the packaging. But thats not to say it won't work. Searcher

No. How would the stater know the vehicle is not in gear?

Hey, I never thought about a clutch cut off switch. Used to be that you could engage the starter and get "unstuck" if the engine dies.

Searcher

They are illegal to put on a manual transmission car in most states. And no installer or mechanic in his right mind would hook one up for you - he would share in the legal liability, and they could clean him out down to his skivvies and toothbrush, too. You could do it all by yourself, but the legal ramifications would stop any sane person.

If anything went wrong and the car started in gear, and became a runaway and caused a bunch of property damage or injured or killed people, you would be 100% on the hook for the responsibility. Your car, homeowners, and even blanket liability insurance policies would deny the claims - they don't cover Gross Negligence.

And the companies that make the auto start systems say in no uncertain terms they are not to be used on a manual transmission car, so you can't pawn any of the responsibility off on them.

It would work IF you could come up with a proper method to make sure the transmission was in neutral and the parking brake securely set. It would be even better if you had a sure-fire way to physically lock the transmission in Neutral, like a restriction plate inside the cab that goes over the shifter arm to physically lock it in Neutral and only completes the safety circuit when it's in place.

(It could be done, but it would also look like hell inside the truck. They put shifter restriction plates on tow-behind forklifts so there's no way they can go into gear when being towed on the street.)

And manual transmissions don't have a park pawl - to make sure that the brakes are set, you'd have to install a Mico-Lock system like used in medium trucks with hydraulic brakes, where it puts a check valve to hold the service foot brakes on as a backup to the parking brake system.

With the simple lever-lock valves you close the dashboard check valve then stomp on the brake pedal hard to set the service brakes. They have a pressure switch that is activated only when the service brakes are properly applied.

And if the hydraulic pressure leaks down overnight - or more likely the cold overnight temperatures will drop the brake pressure below the threshold, the safety switch will open and the car won't start. You would need to buy a system from the Model 691 family that has a built in motor and pump to keep the pressure up overnight, and if you thought the plain valve system was expensive...

By the time you get through putting enough fail-safes on the car to safely install an auto-start system, it would be far cheaper easier and simpler to sell your truck and buy another one with an automatic transmission.

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You can buy a ring with micro switchs built round it that mounts at the bottom of your gear stick. It is disable for auto start. They are a bastard to set up correctly though.

Or buy an auto!

Newer stick shift TRD Tacomas have a factory clutch switch bypass.

It's really handy when starting it to clean off the snow, too!

Reach in, check the parking brake is on and it's not in gear, turn the key, hit the switch, voila! No need to get all kinds of snow in the cab.

Then, you too can come out of a store and have no idea why your vehicle is running when you didn't push the button. My brother's Taurus is constantly doing this

You too can destroy your fuel mileage by allowing the car to idle for

30 minutes at a time before a 15 minute ride, as my neighbors do on a regular basis.

I'd never buy a vehicle with a remote start installed, as I have no idea how much wear is really on the engine. Install a Hobbs meter with the remote start, and I'd think about it.

I use an older idea, it's called a garage...

I guy I used to work for bought a used Lexus LS400 which would start on it's own at random times. After a few times of it doing this he took it to his mechanic, who found an aftermarket remote start unit the previous owner hadn't told him about. It was obviously going south so he had it removed. davidj92

Gee, I just said that... Did you actually read first? ;-P

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Cars and trucks have had clutch interlocks for a long time. 10yrs anyway. So if your remote starter device were wired through the ignition switch, you'd be okay ... which it should be with an automatic too. Automatic cars have had an interlock with the brake pedal for at least 10 years.

There is no reason for it not to work, the danger is that you could start it in gear with catastrophic results if you could rig a neutral switch some how no problem. One solution is you could master switch it through the park brake and ensure you leave it in neutral, a bit risky to starter if left in gear, we dont have cold here can you leave the park brake on when freezing?

Joe

I have one on my truck. Truck starters are ment to have torque so that you can start them in gear for many differnt reasons... I do NOT suggest you install one, I always leave my truck in neautral, but I made a mistake once and left it in gear, it ran over my friends foot and headed strait for his 500,000.00 race car, luckly I was able to get in and stop it before anything happened to the car and my friend was wearing steel toes. so no matter. None the less, it could have been really messy

But the interlock switches on a manual and an atuomatic serve entirely different purposes. The manual trans has the interlock mounted on the clutch pedal, and requires the clutch to be depressed in order to engage the starter, the automatic's interlock is mounted on the brake pedal, and requires the brake to be applied before one can shift from Park into a gear that results in the car going somewhere.

In the manual, the car can not be started unless the clutch is depressed, in the automatic car, has to be in park or neutral (but as a practical matter, how many people leave a car in N?). The vast majority of drivers leave a manual tranmission in gear, either 1st or R, and it would be senseless to have Remote Start in this case -- the status of the Clutch Safety Switch notwithstanding. The interlock on the automatic prevents the car from moving inadvertanlty after it is already started, the interlock on the manual transmission prevents the car from even starting. Two completely different uses ...

The purpose is the same ... to minimize the possibility of unanticipated vehicle movement.

SNIP

You don't know that at all. Just a guess on your part. For those most likely buy a remote starter device, (very cold climate), one does NOT set the Parking Brake rather ... leave it in gear. Water tends to freeze brake shoes to the drum over night. So ... this fact makes a remote start device on a manual transmission too problematic. Liability ya know.

PRECISELY what I just said, the vast majority of drivers leave a manual transmission in gear. Sheesh, Phil. I have said that a remote starter for a manual transmission isn't gonna happen. Sure, maybe somebody has invented enough crap to bypass the safety stuff to make it possible to do, but this requires one to set the parking brake every time they leave a car, and I seriously doubt that anybody anywhere can assure that this will happen, therefore the chance of Remote Starting a car that is gonna go someplace is very high.

Those of us who drive manuals in cold climates have done this ONCE after a rain or slush storm in the winter.

I don't even live in a cold climate, and I can't remember the last time I parked my car in N and set the Parking Brake. Crap, I can't remember the last time I set the Parking Brake. I never use it as a matter of course. I suppose I give it a good yank on a hill, but I seldom have to park on a hill that the transmission can't hold my car on.

Kan't have no fun at your expense today.