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Adding Factory Remote start to your 2017 Ram 1500

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Since I just went through most of this "nightmare" and I'm sure others will too, I thought I'd post what I found here.

This is a huge pet peeve for me especially after finding out most 2017 Ram's are 99.9% ready for remote start... For crying out loud FCA (Fiat Chrysler America) just charge me the $50 on the invoice at the factory and enable the darn thing. What a waste of time, parts, inventory, manuals, dealer headaches, etc.

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In 2017 the new Rams (with remote keyless entry) are pretty much already setup for the factory remote start... all you need to is:

1. Add the hood latch with switch. This prevents the remote start from working if the hood is open.
2. Ensure hood switch harness is good to the BCM. If not, run a new one included in kit.
3. Swap overlays with your old remotes or just get the two new ones programmed.
4. Have dealer activate the newly installed hood switch and rest of programming.

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Of course as luck would have it, it turns out there is a cutoff on when the vehicle was made that determines if you have the "easy" method or the "hard" one. Unfortunately I don't know the date but mine is a March 2017 and it turned out to be the hard one.

What makes things worse is if the dealer looks up your VIN, they could sell you the WRONG kit. It took my dealer a good 20 minutes digging through to somehow find my build date required the older kit.

There are two Remote Start part number kits available:

82215050 - The normal kit for the 2017
82214877AB - The normal kit for the 2016 ... and it turns out early 2017's too.

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The first kit is simple just a hood latch with switch, two wire harness and a pair of new remotes that have the 2x button on them. However you will likely find your truck already has the harness from the factory and it is just taped off in front of the rad (you have to remove the plastic cover first to see it). They tell you in the instructions NOT to use it as there was "too many variations" and even some ones don't have pins at the BCM (Body Control Module). I toned my cable out and found it was perfect and went to the right pins so I didn't need the extra harness. Best to tone out yours as well before making a hole in your firewall that you don't need (the hole is already there, its just a rubber nipple you need to cut open to feed the cables in).

In that case all you need to order is the hood latch with switch and a pair of remote overlays. It turns out if you open up your remote you will see it's the same PCB in all remotes... they already have the contacts for the remote start. This saves you paying the dealer to program new remotes (assuming they would charge for this).

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The second kit includes a new RF Hub, antenna and antenna cable. It also includes all the parts of the previous mentioned kit. The issue is knowing if your 2017 requires the old kit or the new one.

Save yourself the headache and just order the 2016 kit (82214877AB). The price difference varies but in some cases it's $10 and in other it's even cheaper!! That way you have all the parts and if god forbid you need to do the full RF Hub/Antenna you have the parts on hand and don't need to return the wrong kit. If it turns out you don't need it, sell them on ebay etc.

Installation instructions for the full kit are here: https://www.mopar.com/moparsvc/pim/m...=9012442595358

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So here is hoping this saves someone else the headache I am currently going through. Especially when I found out the place I bought the parts from only wanted $11 CAD more for the full kit. It's going to cost me way more than that in return shipping and restocking fees... *sigh*.

Cheers
Tim
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