Ford remote start problem

[Gary Waugh]

I am only guessing at the minute, but usually the door switch grounds the wire to the dome bulbs to make them light up. That means that when the door is closed that wire is floating, the dome bulb is connected between the floating wire and VDD, which if was an incandescent bulb would mean the floating wire is actually pulled high to 12 Volts by the resistance of the bulb, so the remote start might be looking to see the floating wire being somewhere close to 12 volts to confirm all doors are shut. Now the LED's will not pull the floating wire up to 12 volts it will leave the wire floating and it will probably stay somewhere close to ground (0 volts) and maybe the remote start is sensing that and considering that a door must be open.
My goal is to check if the door switch is grounding the dome bulb wire (or connecting it to 12 volts) and then put a 1K resistor between the floating dome wire and either ground or positive and see if that causes the remote starter to be okay.. Basically I am putting a 1K resistor in parallel with the LED bulb. If that solves the problem then I will be good!!
It used to be that all door switches where connected in parallel so any door open caused the dome light to come on, but nowadays the drivers console tells you which door is open, so I suspect there are multiple circuits (one for each door) so I will probably have to add the parallel resistor to every dome light!. I will use a 1K resistor as this will only sink 12mA when the lights are on so power waste is minimal, the resistor is a 1/2 watt and will be dissipating ~144mW so should be fine!! I bought all the interior LED bulbs as a specific package from an eBay seller so no idea of the quality, but they put out a very nice white light.

Gary

 

[gixer2000]

Leds can ruin your day sometimes.. This guy had some issue for no apparent reason. They really can be weird depending on how they are designed

 

[gixer2000]

I am only guessing at the minute, but usually the door switch grounds the wire to the dome bulbs to make them light up. That means that when the door is closed that wire is floating, the dome bulb is connected between the floating wire and VDD, which if was an incandescent bulb would mean the floating wire is actually pulled high to 12 Volts by the resistance of the bulb, so the remote start might be looking to see the floating wire being somewhere close to 12 volts to confirm all doors are shut. Now the LED's will not pull the floating wire up to 12 volts it will leave it the wire floating and it will probably stay somewhere close to ground (0 volts) and maybe the remote start is sensing that and considering that a door must be open.
My goal is to check if the door switch is grounding the dome bulb wire (or connecting it to 12 volts) and then put a 1K resistor between the floating dome wire and either ground or positive and see if that causes the remote starter to be okay.. Basically I am putting a 1K resistor in parallel with the LED bulb. If that solves the problem then I will be good!! a 1K resistor will only sink 12mA when the lights are on so power waste is minimal, the resistor is a 1/2 watt and will be dissipating ~144mW so should be fine!!

Gary

I was going to suggest a resister but I would typically try to avoid it if possible. Some of the better quality Leds have stuff built in so you don't have this issue

 

[Gary Waugh]

Leds can ruin your day sometimes.. This guy had some issue for no apparent reason. They really can be weird depending on how they are designed

That problem is usually due to the dash board indicator lights!! If you car has an individual indicator light on the dash panel for left and right indicators everything works great, but if your dashboard has a single incandescent bulb to show the indicators are on, then when you turn on either indicator the bulb in the dash board acts as a small resistor and supplies current to the opposite side to the one that is supposed to flash. This causes LED's to light up (LEDs need much less current to light than an incandescent bulb) where as an incandescent bulb would not be getting enough current to light up, its basically a limitation when using a single bulb in the dash board to show when either left or right indicators are operating.

Gary

 

[gixer2000]

That problem is usually due to the dash board indicator lights!! If you car has an individual indicator light on the dash panel for left and right indicators everything works great, but if your dashboard has a single incandescent bulb to show the indicators are on, then when you turn on either indicator the bulb in the dash board acts as a small resistor and supplies current to the opposite side to the one that is supposed to flash. This causes LED's to light up (LEDs need much less current to light than an incandescent bulb) where as an incandescent bulb would not be getting enough current to light up, its basically a limitation when using a single bulb in the dash board to show when either left or right indicators are operating.

Gary

Yeah I understand why it happens but I was more showing how each led manufacturer is different from the next. You obviously know enough about them to get this worked out!

 

[Muddy Bean]

Andy, yes I have a CEL. I’ve been getting them since I bought the truck when I give it full throttle it stumbles and hates me and then throws a code. I need to get my laptop in the truck and check it...


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[ExpeditionAndy]

Andy, yes I have a CEL. I’ve been getting them since I bought the truck when I give it full throttle it stumbles and hates me and then throws a code. I need to get my laptop in the truck and check it...


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Can't they fix it before it's out of warranty? Either that or you have to stop making it mad at you.

 

[Muddy Bean]

My warranty is good until 120,000 miles...and it’s only for mechanical problems. Anything that physically moves. If the CEL is from a coil pack or something electronic (sensor etc) then I’ll have to pay for It myself. I don’t want to pay a dealer to just run the code. I’ll hook up my laptop and read the code and report back. Until then, I don’t have remote start lol


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[Gary Waugh]

Okay just completing this in case anyone else has a similar issue. I replaced all the interior light bulbs with LED lights and when trying to use the remote start, the horn would beep 3 times, indicating a door was open. replacing all LED bulbs with regular bulbs and the remote start worked fine. I replaced the bulbs one by one and tried starting the car with the remote. It seems that the bulbs in the front dome light (2 bulbs) are what are causing my issue, LED lights in the rear passenger lights and the tail light all allow the remote start to function, but as soon as one of the front lights are replaced with LED's the remote gives the open door message. I soldered a 1K ohm resistor in parallel with each of the front bulbs and everything now works great!! Took 5 minutes and normal service is resumed..

Thanks for all the suggestions and advise.

Gary

 

[Brent54]

I found out first hand that installing LED bulbs in a garage door opener can interfere with the remote operation of the opener.
http://m.geniecompany.com/garage-door-openers/accessories/led-light-bulb.aspx
I suspect there is a similar interference in your situation.