Hello,
I have had a 2013 F-150 for a little over a year. It had a remote start on it when I bought it, but it wasn't working and I just got around to getting it fixed. It is an AstroStart RSS-5525 two way starter. Anyway, If I unlock the doors with the Remote start FOB (not the keys) and open the doors, the alarm starts going off. I am thinking that If I lock the doors with the keys or (keypad on the truck) the alarm gets set. Then when I unlock from the remote, the the truck alarm does not get disabled causing the alarm when the doors are opened. I should test this by locking the door with the Remote starter FOB to see if the alarm still happens, but haven't yet.

Either way, I would like to somehow disable this. If I am out of range of the OEM keys, I would like to be able to unlock the truck with the remote starter fob (regardless of how it was locked) so somebody can open the doors without having the alarm go off.

Any ideas on what is wrong or how I can disable this? I wouldn't be totally opposed to just disabling the factory alarm.

good luck -jim

BTW, This truck has the (basic?) factory alarm- No extra buttons or anything. In the 1.5 years I have owned it, the only time the alarm has gone off is when I did something wrong with my remote starter fob.

 

 

Here's what is going on....

Your truck has factory perimeter alarm (most new Ford's have this). Perimeter alarm works off the remote door lock feature using the factory keys, or via the keypad. When you lock the doors by pushing lock on the factory key, or the keypad on the door, the perimeter alarm will be armed. When you unlock by pushing the unlock button on the factory key, or key in the code to the keypad, the perimeter alarm is disabled. Easy stuff.

What it means is that if you don't use the factory key unlock button to unlock the doors (or the keypad on the side of the truck), the perimeter alarm will not be deactivated and will trigger with a door opening and dome light turning on. This is known as an unauthorized entry.

You can test this by locking the truck with the factory key lock button, waiting 30 seconds or more, and then inserting the key and manually unlocking the door via the keyhole. When you open that door without pressing any unlock button on the key or keypad, the perimeter alarm will trigger.

Follow so far?


Now for how this interacts with your aftermarket remote start kit....

Your aftermarket remote start is hardwired into your truck, and apparently one of the circuits it's tapped into is the door lock circuit.

This gives your remote start FOB access to the door lock circuit to lock and unlock the doors. However, since the signal is going through the remote start module and not through the Ford remote door lock feature, it doesn't disable the perimeter alarm. It's exactly the same as manually unlocking the door with the key and not pressing any buttons.


In short, the perimeter alarm does not disable with aftermarket FOBs and systems tied into the door lock circuit. The perimeter alarm is only disabled via an unlock command from the factory key and/or the correct code entered into the keypad.