Hello all, new to this forum and I'm impressed with the amount of information and helpful people. That being said, does anyone have experience with adding a remote starter (such as Astrostart) to a Mini? I have a 2004 Cooper with Auto. I live in South Dakota and my MC sits outdoors, so 4-6 months a year its very nice to have. I have it on my other vehicles and it's great but the warning stickers about tampering with the electrical systems have me concerned!

Thanks in advance!

Mat

 

only problem I'd be worried about is the immobilizer (that little chip doo-hickey thing-a-ma-bob jobbie in the key)

I want one too (remote starter), trouble is, I got the S, manual tranny gonna be fun bypassing the no-start-unless-clutch-depressed thingee.

Technical terms were never my strong-suit.

 

I have a voice activated starter. It is sometimes a bit tempermental. As the temps get colder, I seem to be having some communication errors. Lately, the error codes have been reading "F--- you, you bastard!" and "You get your lazy **** out there and do it!" and sometimes just a "...yeah, right!". Oddly, the system does respond well to bribes involving shopping money.

 

Trouble is, that model costs way more than I'm willing to pay

 

Well I bit the bullet and installed an AstroStart and it works great, no problems. They said installing on a manual tranny Mini woukd be no problem for what its worth. They did need my plastic valet key for the install. Does it have a chip in it as well?

Mat

 

I asked my mechanics electrical genius about remote starters and he said that the way to bypass the chip in the key is to pop it off of the key and glue it in place; effectively removing a layer of security from the security system. He said to install an alarm to work with the remote starter so that when the car is started, the shock-sensor is inactive, but a radar sensor is still active (so if there is movement in the car, the alarm goes off, and so that the doors will still be locked even when the car is idling. I haven't looked into remote starters yet but is there any prevention from driving the car away when it is started via remote?

 

I had a remote start in my last car - it was great. Was able to start my car from inside the building at work to defrost / cool down the interior. The only thing I miss about my old car. It was an automatic, and the ignition cut off when the brake was
applied (which was necessary to put the car into "drive&quot if the ignition key wasn't
turned on. That way, even if someone broke out your window while the car was running with the remote start, they could not drive off with it. Mine was also programmable to run for up to seven minutes after the key was removed so you could run into the store, etc and leave the car running. I don't know how this security feature would work on a manual transmission - maybe it is programmed to the clutch?

 

i just have the wife start it for me.

 

I am looking into putting an AstroStart in my 05 MCS manual, but only have one key (with the chip/remote on top)....so does that work then? Can I take off the top and put it in the car and just use the bottom part? This is way harder than my old Stratus! haha

 

I think a company called Periphrial sp? makes kits for certain vehicles that allows you to not cough up a key in order for the system to work. I am not sure if one is made for MINIs or not though. The bypass that makes you use an extra key simply takes the key, you insert it in a black box and hide it inside the dash so that the electronic signal is always connected to the car and allows the remote start to function. I used to work at Best Buy and we sold both types of bypasses. the bypass that doesnt require you to use an extra key is worth the extra money since those chipped keys are so expensive. You will probably have to find a specialty install shop to do the installation. Larger companies refuse to do MTX cars due to liability issues that ATXs dont have.(such as leaving your e-brake disengaged and it rolling away on startup)