North Shore 911

I just brought home a new-to-me, CPO'd 2012 Cayenne S as my winter DD. The only way I got my wife comfortable with me buying what is now my 3rd Porsche was by promising that her '14 Audi Q7 would always be parked inside in Winter next to my '10 Carerra 4S Cab (while my '68 911L will spend the Winter offsite in a heated garage).

So the Cayenne will spend all winter parked outside in the snow here in the Chicago suburbs, meaning that I need to find a remote starter solution so that I don't freeze my nuts off every morning from November-March when I head to work. I've just begun to look at my options, but as a Cayenne newbie I'd love to ask you guys for your experience. All I want to do is to be able to point the remote out the window to fire it up 5 min before I leave to warm it up (interior and engine) before I head out in the snow.

Have you guys got any thoughts on best options to consider? Thanks in advance for any help on this

North Shore 911

I'm still poking around for some feedback from anyone who may have installed one of these systems. Having done some legwork around here, I have been encouraged to look at Viper's "SmartStart" system using the GPS-based cell phone app. All I really need it to do is allow me to start up my car from my bedroom 5 min before I walk outside into the horrible Chicago winter so I can jump into a nice warm car for my daily commute on the really nasty days (I'll roll out in the C4S Cab on the nice ones ).

Does anyone have any experience with Viper in their Cayenne (or any other car)? Thanks for any help on this ...

jhbrennan

I've used DEI (Viper, Clifford, etc.) remote start systems in other cars and have not had any issues. Your biggest concern will be to make sure you find a shop with lots of experiencing installing these.

gnat

Look into bore scoring and what tends to lead to it before you go down this road.

Porsche as well as reputable engine builders agree, start up and drive off conservatively until the oil is up to temp. Idling to warm the car up is a bad thing.

dpatel710

I had a Viper 2-way remote start on my last Audi. Had it installed at a "Viper Authorized Dealer" since the forums usually said not to attempt. They charged an arm and a leg but I never had any trouble with it. Bear in mind, the effective range is shorter than what is printed on the boxes due to wireless interference.

malahhaor

i was looking in to Porsche remote starts as well as i got spoiled by it on my Benzes and having to park outside all the time its a g-d sent in winter. I've only been able to locate one place and its in NY or NJ i think. search on you tube for Porsche remote start, you'll find them

North Shore 911

Malahhaor,

As a fellow Chicagoan, I totally agree with your point about the joys of jumping into a warm car after it's been sitting outside all night in January in Chicago! Having looked around locally, ABT Electronics in Glenview is an authorized Viper installer. I called them last week and they quoted me $600 for a basic remote start package (which includes 2 remote units) or $900 for the "SmartStart" GPS-based system which is smart phone based and allows you to access/start/lock/unlock the car from literally anywhere you have internet connectivity and is not dependent on a close-range radio signal (the quoted price includes a 3-year subscription to the wireless service).

Having read a bunch of reviews, Viper seems the best option, but I wish Porsche provided an OEM solution to make this all much easier

RAudi Driver

Been warming up my vehicles since I was in diapers. Just read that article and now I'm starting and driving off gently. Bummed that I warmed up for that many years and yes, my engines did suffer from it.

BIG smoke

My Suburban has a factory remote start. Love it.
Blah blah, scoring, better to drive blah blah.
I prefer the warm car and the safety of being able to see out the windows.
Guard rail into the firewall, usurps bore scoring.

7 Summits

Like others said I think there is a reason why Porsche does not give you the option of having a remote starter. I also noticed it said not to let it idle at start up in the manual when I bought mine. If I were you, and I have two siblings in Chicago, I would get a car cover and throw it in the garage. Then turn on the heated seats.

Fracture

I just had a Viper installed on my 14 RAM pickup,
hard to believe that well optioned truck wouldn't come with
a factory system, they're only good to about 300' regardless
the Viper kit is good to about 2,000' and was under $400

previously I had a Viper on 2002 F150 and it never failed to start
in 12 years
the range was good to over 1200'
the F150 had a blast furnace for a heater, (no heated seats or wheel)
so it was nice that the V8 'was on its way' to getting warm
never an issue with any additional oil consumption, valves or cats
despite the additional idling, but hey it a Ford truck engine

some of the difficulty lies in getting the defroster, heated seats and fan to
actuate in concert with the default on the newer computer choked vehicles

agree that January / February can be nearly intolerable at times
I go and clear off both parents cars and drives after storms and they're
20 miles apart
.....the result of a really bad deal I made in my teens when I wanted to get out lawn
and landscaping work

TheUnscented

Local remote start guy has a remote start that requires the sacrifice of one of the key fobs for the chip. I think he quoted me about $500. GPS remote start, add $200. I'll have to get the brand names.

I've read a few articles about warm up being bad---and I'm having trouble wrapping my head around why it would be any worse sitting for ten minutes idling at 1000 RPMs +/- vs driving. So I checked the internet machine. Here is their story:

Apparently idling your car to warm up, burns gas and creates more pollution. But it also heats up the inside and defrosts the windows. Hmmm. That's a wash in my mind. There's more: as there's less fuel atomization with the cold engine, today's fuel injected engines causes the fuel/air ratio to be rich so that there's plenty of vapor for combustion. The story is that the unatomized fuel does not burn off and the solvent properties remove much of the oil film on the cylinder walls causing premature wear. The unspent fuel causes earlier breakdown of the protective qualities of the crankcase oil. Makes sense.

Here's where it stops making sense: they're suggesting to go ahead and go, that the engine under a light load will heat up faster than the idling engine. Sure, a engine under load will have higher RPM but isn't it the higher RPM on the cold engine a bad thing? If you consider what it takes for an engine to heat up to normal operating temperature, let's say ten minutes at 1000 RPM idle, so roughly 10,000 revolutions to hit operating temperature? The reporters suggest let it warm up for 30 seconds (500 revolutions) then go on your way under light load(2500 RPM)? At four minutes under light load, you're at the 10,000 revolution mark of ten minutes of idling but you've also got a cold wind whistling past the external surfaces of the engine block and heads exacerbating the temperature differential between the internal and external surfaces. That can't be good. It seems that would delay the journey toward normal operating temperature. Furthermore, you're forcing cold air through the radiator (which, if your thermostat is doing it's job, will remain in the radiator until engine warm) which will likely delay the time the coolant can supply heat to the cabin and the defrost.

Unless I've missed something it appears that impact on the life of the engine is either invented or exaggerated and the real reason is fuel consumption and pollution.

Petza914

The reasons are the gas washing the oil from the cylinder walls during the enrichment initial start-up cycle where because of the emissions requirements, the car is dumping more fuel then necessary into the engine to warm up the catalytic converters sooner, which then lowers the emissions output. When driving during this phase of cold start-up, the increased load on the engine actually used this extra fuel in a normal way. Also,since both the oil pump and water pump are variable speed based on engine RPM they're spinning faster while you're driving, helping to distribute the heat the motor is generating from combustion throughout the cooling and lubrication systems.

In addition, specific to the Cayenne (and maybe other Porsches) but different from other makes, I believe the fuel system is primed when you open the door to build pressure in the lines, before attempting to start the car. With a remote start, you'd not open the door to initiate this process, which means the car will probably have to crank longer before it fires off.

Doesn't seem like the best plan to me, but I don't live where winters are a real factor, and only my 16 year old pickup sits outside year round.

Andy E.

There's also the security issue when installing remote car starters. The tech has to hack into numerous system wires to bypass the factory alarm. If the vehicle is still under factory warranty, I would avoid doing this at all cost.

North Shore 911

Yup, in the end I have opted to NOT go with a remote starter... The reason I was initially interested in this was because this was my first winter with my new-to-me 2012 Cayenne S as my winter DD, and I just wasn't sure what to expect as I have NEVER parked my cars outside. But as I'm now outta space in the garage, and for the sake of maintaining peace in my marriage I was NOT gonna kick my wife's Q7 outside this winter, I've had to sacrifice the PiG to the winter gods .

As it turns out, with the speed with which the heated seats and heated steering wheel warm up (especially the anthracite birch wheel which heats up WAY better than the leather wheel in my 911 4S), and the relative quickness of this beefy V8 engine to warm up the air for the defrosters, I've decided that I really don't need to buy a $600 remote starter AND sacrifice a $300 OEM key. So I've decided to man up and deal with the cold, although my more base reason is that I am sure that I can find OTHER ways to spend that 900 clams on mods that are actually fun