I would suggest hooking up the tach if you're getting the start errors.

On the 4.2L it is dk. blue/lt. green at the coil pack on top of the motor. On the 4.6L go to any of the ignition coils and use the wire that is NOT red/green. On the 5.4L it is lt. green/white at the coil on the passenger side of the motor between the fuel injectors.

 

I hooked up the tach wire. Unit works fine after truck has been run (tach or tachless). Problem is in the morning. It doesn't seem to have enough power to turn engine over . The starter engages but the engine won't turn over. With the key in the ignition, it starts right up. I'm going to put it back in "Tachless" mode. I'm afraid it will ruin my starter. Any suggestions/ideas? I'm thinking about hooking up power directly to battery instead of constant 12V wires under dash.

 

When you have hooked up your 12 volt constant wiring on your unit to your ignition you may want to hook each of them to a seperate 12 volt constant. Hook to the yellows first. On some vehicles it seems that the Yellow has more current. You can also use Green with Violet Stripe for contants as well. But I suggest connecting to the yellow.

You may also want to consider a few things. A remote start is only as good as the vehicle is maintained. Run a good fuel injector cleaner through it. Make sure you have good gas. Make sure you batter is good. When you are manually starting your engine you know when the thing is started and how long to crank it, when to release the key. The remote start can only guess at this. Maybe that little fraction of a second is what it needs to start and it just isn't making it there so give it a little help.

When you say you're runing it in tach mode. Have you programmed the tach or have you just set it to tach mode? You have to have the system learn the tach signal. If you have done so and the vehicle is seeing the tach then you might try the vehicle tips I suggested.

My wife has a 2000 Expedition with the 5.4 I run hers tachless cause I hate running to the engine and we were having an issue with the starter missing a few times when trying to start. I ran a good cleaner through it and it seemed to solve it. Also replaced the battery. Hers was getting kind of old and I figured a new battery wouldn't hurt.

ATTENTION!!! I did find out something interresting. After swapping the battery the truck ran like SH*T for a few days. I thought something was seriously wrong with the truck. I didn't even think that it had anything to do with the battery swap. Well I took it to our Ford dealer and they ran a $90.00 diagnostic on it and they called me and said it was running fine. Turns out the vehicle has to learn itself after a new battery. They could have told me this but the bitches still took my money. And I'm a Vendor for them. Truck is fine... just took a few drives to get it back on track. Just a tip to those of you that change your battery on a F150 or Expedition.

 

I do have the 12V constants wired into both the yellow and the green/purple. There are two 12V constants (fused) on this unit. I wired one to the yellow and the other to the green/purple like the bulldog wiring diagram showed and like you are saying. Why does it need two 12V constants? I also programmed the unit to learn the tach signal. The programming is easy with the Bulldog units. All done with the remote/brake pedal. In tach mode, the unit tries for up to 6 seconds to crank the engine. It still doesn't work in the morning. Tach or tachless, it works fine during the day. I just used it about four times today. I will try an injector cleaner. I thought about a new battery too. I just can see how it starts fine with the key in the ignition if the battery is bad. Interesting how it works fine during the day once the truck was run for a while. Truck is 2003. So battery is little over 3 years old.

 

The need for the dual constant wires is that the unit has internal relays in it to energize the Heater and Ignition wires. Alot of current goes through these. Your truck has at least a 30 amp current going through the heater and crank wires so this much input is needed. Your Bulldog unit is giving a simlar issue that I come across with alot of thier units. I get at least 5 or more calls a week from people that have purchased the bulldog units from Target, Wallmart, K-Mart and other places as well. I think they were running a sale for $39.99 for them. Last week I bet it was like 20 calls due to them being Christmas gifts.Usually I get them to take them back and go with my Code Alarm units. By the time they pay me my $125 labor to put thier unit in they find it is best to go with my QUALITY units and with that I give them a lifetime warranty on my Code Alarm and installation. My Code Alarm CA-530 installed with a key bypass runs $210 installed. It gives you a car finder, trunk release, rear defrost turn-on, lock, unlock, panic, domelight, headlights and all the relays are included into the unit on-board. The bulldog seems to require relays for everything.

I don't know what else can be done then to try the tips I suggested. If the unit is confirming that it is reading your tach signal then that's about all you can do. I guess bulldog does have a tech line to call. You can also email them at techsupport@jbstech.com. You might try them.

 

The Bulldog unit I bought is a higher scale unit. Not the one that is carried at retail stores. It also has all onboard relays (except for domelight which I didn't hook up anyway). I didn't need any other external relays. I did some hunting around before I bought it and reviews were OK. I guess it's like anything else. Some good reviews some bad. I saw some bad reviews for other manufacturers' units as well. I have a call into tech service. I'll see what they say. If push comes to shove, I'll demand my money back and move on to another unit. At this point though I put alot of work into wiring this thing in and would hate to undo it and reqire another unit if I don't have to. It works great all day long. Just in the morning it sucks. My next move may be a new battery.

 

Sorry I think I had talked to you on the phone. You have the 500 model I believe. It looks like a nicer unit.

Consult the techs before anything. But don't tell them about the battery or suggest anything. They might use that to just get away from fixing the problem. If they can't come up with anything then use that as a last resort.

 

We did talk on the phone. I have the 1200E. No alarm, just remote start and keyless entry. I'll see what Bulldog says. If I'm not happy I'll be looking for another unit. I'll let you know.

 

You got my number... just hit me up.

 

I have the same issue...I will call tech support and see what they ahve to say...Mine was a gift to me, so it will be a little more of a hassle if I have to return it.

KC, I sent you an email prior to finding all of this info out.

Thanks!!