Thread: 2011 Venza Touring with Start Button - Aftermarket 2 way starter problem

We got our Venza a couple of months ago and have been pretty happy with it. We got a Viper 2 Way starter/alarm about a month ago, and it has been working fine until last week. Last we we had out first -30 degrees celcius day. On Monday I started the car with the remote, and after the designated time it shut off. After that when my wife went to leave the car would turn over pushing the button, but not actually start. She tried this quite a few times and nothing. I was driving on my way to work, and decided to try the Iphone Viper App I have for starting the car remotely from distance and it seemed to work. I figured it was something wierd and I hadn't plugged the car in the night before, so maybe that had nothing to do with it. That night I plugged in the car and the next morning there wasn't any issues. The next day we had issues again, and same thing happened. We couldn't get it to start that time, and left the car there. Once we got home I pushed the remote button and it fired up. The exhaust smelled a bit stronger maybe, but not sure if that was a concern or not.

We bought the starter for cold days like this. Toyota figures it has something to do with the immobilizer and the starter, as the starter is basically fooling the system into starting, but wondering if anyone has any comments. The car is in with the Starter installer today to look at, but we haven't had the problem since so I am unsure if he will find anything, or know what needs to be fixed/changed so it isn't an issue.

Anyone else run into this sort of issue before?

One of the reasons I put the factory remote start in my 2010 push button start V6 AWD Venza. Coming from the aftermarket world, I know about the "glitches" using aftermarket remote starts/by-passes on these new data driven cars. Your Viper dealer may or may not come up with an answer for this one. From the description, I'm not sure either. I know people grumble about the poor range on the Toyota remote start, but mine works every time. That is why I chose to use it. Good Luck!