mathiasb

Hi all,

I've been searching the net trying to find out what I need to enable remote start on a 2.0 petrol 2012 Audi Q5. It's got the keyfob slot next to the wheel, you push the key in to start the car. In searching around I believe this is a compatible harness: ADS-THR-VW1.In addition to the harness, I need an actual remote start system / remote fob? Would anyone be able to suggest something that works well? If there's a system that has a SIM slot with an Android app to turn on the car via the phone that'd be a huge plus.

Thanks

1Jeffersonc

Hello, I am a Professional installer with 30 years of working for car audio companies and owning my own shop and I would recommend Idatastart Vwx series with the THR-AU2 harness. It may or may not need to use an extra key depending on the build of your vehicle but there is a plug that comes with it to test and see if you lose a key or not. I will always say get it professionally installed, not only because of what I do but because the product needs to be live flashed to the Idatalink server. It will do 3 press of the lock to start as well as I recommend a telematics device like MyCar Directed Smartstart as it use your smartphone and is really super cool to start my SQ5 from my apple watch.Hope this helps and I would be happy to answer anymore questions.

Bob Petruska

Question - all these remote starters are most likely Chinese products. I'm an electrical engineer by trade and dealt with the Chinese electronics quality issues for over 30 years.

My question to you. Do you know that if the current remote starter control boxes fail will the vehicle still start normally with the key?

1Jeffersonc

Hello sorry for delayed reply, With holidays and CES, it has been a mess the past few weeks.
Yes it is made in china, but then again so is about 50% of the modules in an Audi, mercedes, Bmw, Kia and so on. My iPhone, TV and 90% of the electronics were made in china and they work everyday for me. We are not talking something that is available on DealExtreme, the product is engineered in Quebec and used world wide.
Yes the harness has a failsafe relay for the immo cut, could it fail, of course, but so could the CECM, the ABS module,door ECU's, the main ECU and a million other parts.
I stopped worrying about failure rates a long time ago as in the past 5 years of idatastarts I have never had a bad brain, and maybe a couple bad antennas on the windshield which could be overzealous glass cleaner application.Since there is no alternative to china with a made in USA solution as US production costs are too high and honestly the products are no better built, engineered awesome in the US-YES, but if you want aftermarket electronics, you get china.

Bob Petruska

Agree a lot of quality stuff is made in China and used by great companies. Those top companies have high quality standards enforced upon their China suppliers. I'm just cautious about cheap china remote starts as they are probably near the low end of quality control. You never seen an idatastarts failure in 5 years is good testimony for its quality. I just may do the install.

1Jeffersonc

If you want to see terrifying off shore made electronics, at SEMA and CES there is an entire section dedicated to places like Deal Extreme and it is just amazing looking at 90% of the stuff that this should never ever ever be produced, but alas there is always a Walmart ready to sell garbage.
To put this into perspective, A friend runs a large retailers install bay here in Edmonton ( visions.ca) and they will do about 18000 Idatastarts and he has had 5 bad brains that were bad out of the box, would not take programming so they never made it into a car. They did have a few that wiped the rom when they were boosted backwards but there were now many many other problems with those cars after, the starter being the least of them.

Matt S

I bought my remote starter which is plug an play for the most part from crutchfield the unit is called fortin. /You do not lose a key or need a seperate RF module. hoping to install myself this weekend.

Bob Petruska

Keep us posted...….

1Jeffersonc

If it is a 15 or newer you will lose a key, if it is older and had not had a keyport update done you should be good. most older audi's will work but somewhere in there is probably a note and an alternate wiring diagram that shows using a key. Hope it works, my success with 08-14 has been about 70% good.

Matt S

Mine is a 14 SQ5 and the boys at crutchfield along with a fellow Audi owner on FB have had great success so im super excited im im about half way done