Wifes07LT

Just to clear a couple of things up.... As some people tend to assume in their responses on forums like this, I'm not some teenage idiot that doesn't know anything about cars. I professionally installed car audio/video accessories, alarms, and remote starts for about ten years, and was an ASE certified master technician for 5 years. That being said, telling me things like "the check engine light tells you something is wrong" are unnecessary, and "that I will damage my car by allowing it to run with the check engine light on" will cause me to respond back by calling BS on what you are telling me.

No disrespect meant, just putting it out there! I am always willing to help others with advice or answers, if I have them to give

skyline26

Why not just take care of the car and fix the cause for the check engine light?
Also, I have never found an aftermarket remote start that ran longer than 5-10mins before shutting off..

Wifes07LT

AS I SAID BEFORE the car is taken care of. There is NO CHECK ENGINE LIGHT ON NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! My aggravation is with the UNNECESSARY INCONVENIENCE of the remote start not working IN THE EVENT OF THE LIGHT COMING ON. The light will inevitably come on at some time because components of the emission control system do not last forever! WHEN that light does come on, there is no good reason for the remote start not to work, and in the real world, sometimes you have to drive the car for a week or so before getting the chance to fix it (which, as I detailed before, in the MAJORITY of cases, causes ZERO HARM to the vehicle). You can't just plug in some non-existent miracle scanner, or snap your fingers, or wave a magic wand, or cross your arms and nod your head and POOF IT'S FIXED!

If you have not seen any aftermarket systems that run longer than 10 minutes, you need to open your eyes! ANY remote start manufactured by DEI, which includes some of the most popularly sold and installed brands, such as Viper, Clifford, Python, Avital is user-programmable for 3 different settings: 12 minutes, 24 minutes, or 60 minutes. These are also dealer programmable for any runtime from 1 to 60 minutes. Other brands which offer longer run times include Audiovox and Alpine. Any other brand, I would not even deal with. That being said, MOST aftermarket systems are actually capable of running the car for longer than 10 minutes!

Wifes07LT

I have never gotten rid of a car prior to 200,000 miles, so I think I may just know a thing or two about properly maintaining my vehicles. This car has 85K on it and runs like new.... the other two cars I currently own are both Ford Focuses with approx. 135K on each, are driven HARD, and both run flawlessly as well.

whopper

Wow - not sure what to say here. I think you have given enough info for some constructive suggestions to your issues.

Since you maintain your vehicle well, the engine check light should not come on at all frequent - so really you don't have a problem - you have an issue. The issue is you don't like the way the remote start works.

There isn't a problem as such with the daytime running lights, but you have an issue with them.

At this point I think you have three options - use your past experience with installing etc, to modify the headlights/disconnect the fuse and install a different remote start system - get rid of the HHR - or live with it, as it is.