1999 Pontiac Bonneville SE Automatic Starter

[aceischatname3]

Hi there,

I'm new to this club, and I am crazy about my car. I'm 19, and have had my baby (car) for almost two years now and have driven around 30 thousand miles in it. All the mechanics have told me that my car is in great shape, and I'd pay so much more getting a new one, and keeping up with those maintenances then if I just keep mine. I've had the blower replaced, the switch that turns on the head/inside lights, along with other repairs here and there. I'm young and have the mind set of keeping my car forever!! Well.... at least for four more years or so (hopefully). I was pointed out that I needed new tires about a month or so ago, and after just getting the brakes & rotors ect fixed (cost being between 4 to 5 hundred), it was either new tires, or college tuition. I somehow managed to get the front one flat and while pulling off the road - hit the curb, causing my back one to get messed up also (I was luckily able to get home with the spare, but needless to say haven't driven it since). I have boughten the new tires, however with so many expenses at once, I still have to wait one more pay period before I buy new rims (yes, they are cheap, but with insurance, college tuition, including books ect. is not).

Point to the story - I have been using my parents transportation and have become spoiled by using their wonderful automatic starter in this VERY cold weather. My friend who is a mechanic told me that I can just buy this starter kit for about $100 or so, and just have it installed. It sounds too good to be true. Have any of you done this on your older cars? Is it really that easy? Or is this $100 going to turn into another $500 by getting other parts upgraded & ect.? I'm not the most technical person when it comes to cars and would definitely have someone else install it, but I would love to hear others opinions on it.

Have you had an automatic starter installed on your car?
Did you personally install it, or where did you have it done?
What was the name of the satrter, and would you recommended it?
Lastly but not least, about how much was it (both the starter & or the installation cost)?

Thank you

[94SilverSSEi]

I can't be of much help on the price. But I have a remote starter and I absolutely love it. In thinking it was a more expensive one as it works from VERY far away. It came with my car.

From what I have seen you can get them for around $100. The one on my car seems very simple as it is just spliced in with a couple wires.

Idk that I would let someone install it on my car though as there is a chance they could hack up the wiring

[97seagain]

I had an Audiovox APS920 (2 way, 1/4 mile range) installed in my 1997 Bonneville about 2 years ago. It included keyless entry, since my SE didn't have it. It cost $382 installed out the door, which at the time I thought was a bit pricey, but my wife took it in to surprise me for my birthday.

Unless you know what you are doing, I highly recommend having it professionally installed. There are a number of wires under the dash that you will need to tap into, and your car also has Pass Key II, which will need to be properly bypassed in order for the remote start system to function properly.

[dpnewfie]

I agree.....if you have never done it before, have it done by someone who has. The system itself is pretty simple. However, the VATS must be bypassed in order for the system to work. This in itself is simple but could cause some damage if you've never done it.

You could probably have a remote start installed for less than $200.

[92BonnevilleSE]

I had purchased the Viper 5901 alarm/keyless entry/ and rmeote start combo.. It worked great. It claimed a 1 mile starting range, I don't believe that to much but I can tell you from the back of my local walmart, I started my car and it was parked about another 200ft from the store. Incredible range. The key fob showed you the internal temp of your car. I would def. recommend that brand. I'll be buying another for my GP.

[Shae]

I can probably shed some light on whats needed. I'm a professional Installer, we deal with primarily viper and compustar products, so I will recommend either one of these brands to you.

I am going to go ahead and assume you have the resistor style key, same as mine.



As you can see on the left, if your key is this style, you can easily bypass the factory immobolizer without purchasing a overpriced bypass module, which is what most retailers are going to try and sell you, (best buy for example)

Also, there are a few other things to consider, if your car has factory keyless entry, chances are it is also equipped with the factory alarm system, which is going to need to be disarmed before your car starts remotely, or else you are giong to end up with the horn honking everytime you try and remote start. This is fairly easy, it just requires a negative pulse to the disarm wire, wich is located in your kick panel (according to my schematic). Almost EVERY remote start system available will have this output built in. Also its super easy to hook up the door locks to the aftermarket remote as well, again it just requires hooking up a couple wires in your kick panel.

Most newer systems have auto-tach, which means, the system intellgantly detects once the engine is started, so it can disengage the starter, if the system you get does not, you are going to have to run a wire to the tach signal at your coil packs, its not to difficult, and i recommend doing it this way even if your system does have auto-tach, or tachless (brand specific names). Its a much more reliable way of hooking it up.

You need a hood pin to! the last thing you want is to have your arm reached deep in your engine compartment and someone accidently hits the start button on your remote, you can say good bye to body parts pretty quick..

Make sure if you do it, or if someone else is doing it, that all connections are SOLDERED! Failure to solder connections, is going to most likely cause issues down the road, might not be right away, but almost guarenteed going to happen.

This is alot of information, so feel free to ask any questions

Remote start is amazing in winter, and can be nice in summer too, for A/C. And if you really want to get fancy, (Depending on brand/model/featuers of the unit you get) you can set up the ability to roll down your windows with a push of a button!

[Lombardi715]

I had a question for Shae, I already did the Vats bypass for my 99 SSEi by just splicing some wires and resistors together. Will this make installing a remote start a little easier for me? I really want to try this out and do it myself!